Julien looks for scoring balance
Montreal Canadiens’ head coach demotes Galchenyuk to fourth line
Five years into his NHL career, Alex Galchenyuk was supposed to be the high-scoring centre on the Montreal Canadiens top line.
Instead, the 23-year-old is slated begin the NHL playoffs on the fourth unit alongside checkers Steve Ott and Andreas Martinsen. Montreal faces the New York Rangers in the opening game of the best-of-seven series Wednesday night at the Bell Centre.
“I won’t think about it,” Galchenyuk said Monday. “We’ve got Game 1 coming up and everybody’s got to contribute and bring something to the team.”
“Me, personally, I can’t wait to get it going. Not having a chance to play last year was difficult, so you’ve been waiting all year to have that opportunity to play in the playoffs and you’re just excited.”
The Canadiens, who rebounded from missing the playoffs last season to finishing first in the Atlantic Conference, are a mostly healthy squad with defencemen Shea Weber and Jordie Benn back on the ice after missing the end of the regular season with minor injuries. The only one absent was rearguard Alexei Emelin, who is to sit out the opener.
Up front, coach Claude Julien has a surplus of healthy players. With the Canadiens struggling on attack, he is looking for at least a scoring threat from each of his four lines. That led to the controversial decision to put Galchenyuk on the fourth unit.
Julien likened it to 2014 when he was coaching Boston and the Bruins were upset in the second round by Montreal, who had former scoring star Danny Briere on the fourth line. Briere had a goal and an assist in the Canadiens 3-1 win in Game 7.
“In my estimation, it’s not who you play with, it’s how you play,” said Julien. “I think we need some scoring from all the lines.
“He can provide that from that line. I think I’ve got better balance and depth as far as scoring is concerned. Right now, we’re not worried about ourselves individually. We’re worried about how we can help the team. That’s what you’ve got to do in the playoffs. Hopefully, he can give us the same kind of game he gave us in Detroit, where he was an offensive threat.”
Galchenyuk skated with his new linemates in the final regular-season game and not only had some good chances. He also scored his fifth overtime goal of the season to win the game.