Habs lucky to still be in hunt considering shortage of goals
Canadiens’ player and team statistics through first 36 games paint ugly picture
RALEIGH, N.C. Heading into Wednesday night’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes, Phillip Danault was leading the Canadiens in scoring with seven goals and 14 assists for 21 points.
On the overall NHL scoring list, Danault was tied for 134th — 30 points behind league-leader Nikita Kucherov, who has 24 goals and 51 points with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Canadiens headed into Wednesday with a 16-16-4 record and it’s surprising it isn’t worse. In their first 36 games, the Canadiens scored two goals or less 20 times. They were shut out five times, scored one goal six times and two goals nine times. They won four of the games in which they only scored twice thanks to stellar goaltending performances from Charlie Lindgren and Carey Price.
Basically, if a Canadiens goaltender doesn’t stand on his head, their chances of winning most nights are slim. And Price has even struggled this season with an 11-10-2 record, a 3.04 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage heading into Wednesday’s game. He ranked 36th in the NHL in both goalsagainst average and save percentage.
The Canadiens — once again — will go only as far as Price can carry them and it appears that will continue to be the case for some time since the 30-year-old goalie’s new eight-year, US$84million contract doesn’t kick in until next season.
Unfortunately, Price can’t score.
The Canadiens ranked 25th in the NHL in offence heading into Wednesday, scoring an average of 2.69 goals per game. Add in the fact they haven’t been much better on defence — ranking 22nd, allowing 3.14 goals per game — and you have a team that’s lucky to be 16-16-4. Their special teams haven’t been good, either, with the Canadiens ranking 19th on the power play (18.9 per cent) and 28th in penalty-killing (77.1 per cent).
Heading into Wednesday’s action, sportsclubstats.com had the Canadiens’ chances of making the playoffs at 8.7 per cent.
Brendan Gallagher was leading the Canadiens with 14 goals, tying him for 30th in the NHL in that department. Paul Byron was second on the Canadiens with 10 goals, tying him for 79th in the NHL.
The three biggest disappointments offensively heading into Wednesday’s game were captain Max Pacioretty (eight goals, 20 points), Alex Galchenyuk (eight goals, 20 points) and Jonathan Drouin (five goals, 18 points). Combined they scored 21 goals — three less than Kucherov has scored alone with the Lightning.
Fourth-liner Nicolas Deslauriers’ four goals in 17 games since getting called up from the AHL’s Laval Rocket is only one less than Drouin had in 31 games and the same amount as Tomas Plekanec in 36 games. Deslauriers’ plus-10 was also the best on the Canadiens, while Drouin and Galchenyuk were both minus-14.
When Marc Bergevin acquired Drouin from the Tampa Bay Lightning for 19-year-old defenceman Mikhail Sergachev — who has more points this season than any Canadiens player with eight goals and 15 assists — the Canadiens GM was hoping he had found the legitimate No. 1 centre his team has been missing for so long. But the 22-year-old Drouin has struggled adjusting to the position after playing mostly on the wing with the Lightning, winning only 41.3 per cent of his faceoffs.
Drouin’s new job would have been a lot easier if Bergevin had re-signed winger Alexander Radulov, who has 12 goals and 29 points in his first 37 games with the Dallas Stars.
The chemistry Drouin and Pacioretty worked on developing while training together during the summer simply hasn’t been there and the captain has talked about how he has had to change his game without Radulov around. After scoring 30 or more goals in each of the last four seasons, Pacioretty headed into Wednesday’s game on pace to score 18 this season. The captain had gone nine games without a goal and had only one in the last 18 games.
Pacioretty has led the Canadiens in scoring in each of the last six seasons, but has never made it into the Top 20 in NHL scoring. Pacioretty ranked 26th in the NHL the last two seasons and 21st in 2014-15. The last time the Canadiens had a player finish in the Top 20 in NHL scoring was 2007-08, when Alex Kovalev was 11th with 35 goals and 84 points.
To find a Canadiens player listed in the Top 10 in NHL scoring you have to go all the way back to 1985-86 when Mats Naslund finished eighth with 110 points (43 goals, 67 assists). The Canadiens also won the Stanley Cup that season with former GM Serge Savard giving much of the credit to No. 1 centre Bobby Smith, who he acquired two seasons earlier from the Minnesota North Stars in exchange for Mark Napier, Keith Acton and a third-round pick at the 1984 NHL Draft (Ken Hodge). Smith posted 31 goals and 55 assists during the 1985-86 season.
“I don’t think I would have won the Stanley Cup in ’86 without (Smith),” Savard once said. “He gave us a dimension we didn’t have ... he gave us size. I’m not saying he was the best player on the team, but he gave us what we needed.”
The Canadiens definitely need something now.