SPOTLIGHT ON GM BERGEVIN AS HABS’ STRUGGLES CONTINUE
One of the biggest cheers at the Bell Centre Thursday night came during the first intermission when a youngster playing in a Timbits game scored a goal.
It’s something none of the Canadiens could do as they lost 3-0 to the New York Islanders.
Tim Hortons is a great sponsor for the Canadiens right now with all the doughnut holes in their offence. Torrey Mitchell has no goals in 34 games; Brian Flynn no goals in 14 games; Phillip Danault and Artturi Lehkonen no goals in 13 games; Tomas Plekanec no goals in 12 games; Mike McCarron and Paul Byron no goals in 10 games; Brendan Gallagher no goals in seven games; Alex Galchenyuk and Alexander Radulov no goals in five games and captain Max Pacioretty no goals in four games.
Pacioretty leads the Canadiens with 28 goals, double the total of Radulov, Byron and defenceman Shea Weber, who are tied for second with 14. The Canadiens have been shut out four times in their last eight games, are 0-4-1 in their last five at the Bell Centre and 2-7-1 in February with only 13 goals in 10 games this month.
Winnipeg Jets rookie Patrik Laine has seven goals in his last five games, while the Canadiens as a team have scored five times in their last five games. Up next for the Canadiens is the Maple Leafs Saturday night in Toronto (7 p.m., CBC, CITY, TVA Sports) and their rookie sensation Auston Matthews, who has 28 goals, two less than Laine.
Unfortunately for the Canadiens, new coach Claude Julien can’t score and the team has only three goals in his first three games since taking over from Michel Therrien, along with a 1-2-0 record. Goalie Carey Price can’t score, either, and his season-ending knee injury was the team’s excuse for last year’s collapse, missing the playoffs after a franchise-record 9-0-0 start.
Who do you blame now when there are no players left on the injured list, P.K. Subban is in Nashville and Therrien is gone?
The spotlight has to be directly on GM Marc Bergevin with Wednesday’s NHL trade deadline approaching.
For the Canadiens, this season is starting to look like a repeat of last year, when it took 93 points to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. The Canadiens, who got off to a 9-0-1 start this season, would need 21 points in their final 21 games to reach 93 points and they have only 16 points in their last 21 games.
“It’s different,” Gallagher said after Friday’s practice in Brossard when asked if this was a case of déjà-vu. “Obviously, as much as you say you’re going to forget about last year you still remember the feelings and you still remember the lessons that you learned from that. But I think the important thing is it’s a different group, it’s a different team and it’s a different situation.
“We’re still in first place, we’re very much still in the mix.”
The Canadiens were still in first place in the Atlantic Division after Friday’s practice, but Ottawa had a chance to catch them with a win in Carolina Friday night and the Senators would still have two games in hand. The Leafs can move within two points of the Canadiens with a win Saturday and have one game in hand. After Thursday’s loss, the Canadiens were only four points ahead of the ninth-place Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference standings with eight teams making the playoffs. This could get very ugly — again.
“There’s obviously some issues,” Julien said after practice Friday. “There’s reasons why you’re not scoring. We addressed that today.”
The coach said part of the problem is the fact the Canadiens’ neutral-zone transition game hasn’t been very good. Confidence is another issue.
“We did some drills where they had outnumbered situations,” Julien said. “They were able to score some goals. Confidence is a big part of the game, so definitely those two areas today were priorities for us.”
Julien also juggled his lines with Lehkonen promoted to the second line with Galchenyuk and Gallagher, while David Desharnais and Sven Andrighetto — who have been healthy scratches since the new coach took over — were on the fourth line with Mitchell. The first line of Pacioretty-Danault-Radulov remained intact and Byron dropped down to the third line with Plekanec and Andrew Shaw.
Julien said he hadn’t decided yet if those lines would be in place Saturday in Toronto and he didn’t rule out the possibility of mixing up his defence pairings.
“I know Shea’s played with Marky (Andrei Markov) as a pair and stuff like that,” Julien said. “Certainly, something you could always go back to. Certainly an option here moving forward.”
Julien wouldn’t even confirm if Price would start in goal against the Leafs. The new coach obviously has his work cut out for him.
“It’s pretty simple,” Julien said. “We need to be better.”
Maybe his players should watch the Timbits kids play for inspiration.