Improving Montreal’s special teams play ‘starts with attitude’

Head coach Claude Julien is cautiously optimistic when he discusses the Canadiens’ impressive start.

“Things can change quickly,” he said after Montreal defeated the St. Louis Blues 3-2 on a goal by Brendan Gallagher with 9.7 seconds remaining in regulation time.

Julien talked about bad breaks or injuries creating problems, but he also talked about things changing for the better when he said “there’s lots to accomplish and we have to keep plugging away.”

Special-teams play is one area where the Canadiens can be better. One measuring stick of the efficacy of special teams is to add the percentage of success on the power play and the penalty kill. If it adds up to 100, your team is doing OK.

The Canadiens rank 23rd in the NHL on the power play with a success rate of 15.4 per cent and the PK checked in at 24th with a success rate of 72.2 per cent. Add those numbers and you get 87.6, well short of the benchmark. They are also behind last season’s numbers when the power play was 13th (21.3 per cent success rate) and the PK was 30th (74.2).

Maybe it’s the 4-1-1 record heading into Saturday’s game against the Senators in Ottawa, but there’s no sense of panic about the special teams in the Canadiens’ lockerroom.

“I think the PK has been pretty good,” said defenceman Karl Alzner, who made his season debut Wednesday and was on the ice for one of the Blues’ two power-play goals.

“St. Louis has been firing on the power play and they’re going to score some goals, but the forecheck is better, the pressure is good and we’re blocking shots,” Alzner added. “But good players are going to make plays.”

Artturi Lehkonen added: “You look at the goals (Wednesday) and the first one was a shot from outside and there were a lot of bodies in the front. And the second, there was a little bounce in the corner and they got a quick 2-on-1 and they made a good play.

“On the PK, we just have to outwork the power play.”

Luke Richardson, in his first year as the Canadiens’ defensive coach, has been running the PK with input from Julien. The game plan is an extension of the team’s evenstrength defence, which starts with a strong forecheck.

“We want to make it hard for them to make a clean entry,” Lehkonen said.

Phillip Danault, who sees action on both special teams, said “Obviously, we have some work to do, but you can see that we’re getting better. It starts with attitude. We have everybody buying in and if everyone does the job, doesn’t try to do too much, we’ll be OK.”

The Canadiens used Thursday’s practice to work on playing in close quarters, playing 3-on-3 in the neutral zone. There were three absentees as Tomas Plekanec, Tomas Tatar and Paul Byron took therapy days, but they are expected to be available for the game in Ottawa.

Obviously, we have some work to do, but you can see that we’re getting better. It starts with attitude.