Tag: carey price

On Canadiens: Early season success owes to a deep forward corps

We have certainly been here before.

As fans of the Montreal Canadiens, we are not unfamiliar to our beloved club starting the season off with a searing pace. We are collectively turned into chest thumping optimists, replete with incidental facts that somehow tie this current iteration to the teams that lived through the unexpected glories of 1986 or 1993. The day dreaming of a long coveted Stanley Cup parade down Rue Ste-Catherine, makes us glance ahead into our calendars to June, to ensure that we will have the free time to attend.

We went through this in 2015, when after a Hart and Vezina Trophy winning campaign from Carey Price, the Canadiens won their first nine games of the season. The following year, the Habs were 9-0-1 before losing their first game in regulation (which history will also remember, as it arrived in the form of a 10-0 loss to the perpetual cannon-fodder that are the Columbus Blue Jackets).

In each of those years, the team’s sheen and place in the standings eventually faded, the Canadiens were besieged by some misfortune (an injury to Carey Price, or a complete level of underperformance which led to the firing of a coach midseason) and the season ended as it always does (for the last 26 years at least)… in disappointment.

Yet somehow, this year feels different. A cynic would be absolutely right in noting that we say this every year, but somehow this season actually does feel different.

The Canadiens have surged to 10 points after six games, and are tied for first place atop the North Division with the heavily favoured Toronto Maple Leafs. They have yet to lose a game in regulation time, have yet to be outshot in regulation time, and currently sit first in the league in ‘goals for’ in the entire NHL (18). They are 4th in the league for team CF% (54.7), an area that they have remained strong since the start of the 2018-19 season. All of this has been accomplished without the team playing a single game in Montreal.

In previous years, one could point to the towering bulwark that is Carey Price, and pin the team’s success solely on the work of their star netminder. Yet, thus far this season, Price has not been at his quintessential best. Price and his backup Jake Allen (who has featured in two games) have a combined 5 v 5 save percentage of .913, which sits firmly around league average. In truth, both netminders could have made saves on some of the goals that they have conceded so far, but uncharacteristically, the Canadiens’ impressive offensive numbers have made this less essential.

Also uncharacteristic is that the team has been mired with a streak of indiscipline, having been penalized 28 times, which is 3rd most in the league. The Canadiens took nine penalties on 21 January in Vancouver, a day after the team took six against the Canucks. That evening, coach Claude Julien spent much of the post game conference espousing how the team had to be much more disciplined. For a team that plays much of the game on the front foot, and dictates the pace of play, this fact is somewhat astonishing. One could reasonably expect, that this issue can be improved upon as the season progresses.

Ultimately, what has given the Canadiens the ability to open the season with such verve has been the balanced contributions of the Canadiens’ four forward lines, in terms of point production and distribution of work load.

The steady trio of Phillip Danault, Tomas Tatar and Brendan Gallagher has been well documented as being the lynchpin for the Canadiens’ attack in the two previous seasons, but this year, the growth of Nick Suzuki as a legitimate playmaking, and reliable two way centreman (flanked by Jonathan Drouin and Josh Anderson), and the emergence of Jesperi Kotkaniemi (who plays alongside Joel Armia and Tyler Toffoli) as a solid NHL player has given the Canadiens’ offense a level of depth that they have not had in decades.

All three of these lines have proven that they can play in all situations, and are in the the positive ledger of puck possession at 5 v 5, with Danault demonstrating a CF% 55.5, Suzuki 53.2 and Kotkaniemi 61.1% (stats via Natural Stat Trick). On a nightly basis, the Canadiens have also had different offensive stars emerge and carry the burden.

Against Toronto on opening night, it was the speed baron Josh Anderson (two goals) and nifty playmaker Jonathan Drouin (3 assists) who provided the offensive thrust. In two games in Edmonton against the Oilers, Jeff Petry and Tomas Tatar each scored twice, the Canadiens’ scored two short handed goals (from Artturi Lehkonen and Jake Evans) and saw the first goal of Alexander Romanov’s burgeoning career. In three games in Vancouver against the Canucks, the team was led by the offensive explosion of Tyler Toffoli who notched five goals in the first two of those games, against his former club.

Not yet mentioned has been the emergence of the Canadiens’ fourth line as a reliable and high energy trio. Jake Evans, in his second NHL season, has become a revelation and has been trusted by Claude Julien to provide key minutes on the penalty kill, and take defensive zone faceoffs. His linemates, of Artturi Lehkonen and Paul Byron, flank him with veteran presence, that gives coach Julien the confidence to not only play, but to control, regular shifts.

The Canadiens’ balance through their forward ranks is evidenced by the fact that Nick Suzuki leads in ice time with 17:33. Paul Byron is the least played forward at 11:53 (this also comes after he took a Shea Weber slap shot to his foot on 21 January, and missed the final half of the third period). Compared to North Division rivals Edmonton and Vancouver (who the Canadiens have faced in five of six games), the Canadiens forward corps usage is far more spread out. The Oilers have three forwards that play on average over 21 minutes each game (McDavid, Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins), while the Canucks have four forwards (Horvat, Boeser, Miller and Pettersson) that play more than 18 minutes.

For the time being, Julien has been able to exploit this advantage, as he has rolled four lines at regular intervals, ensuring that the Canadiens play with consistent pace and intensity. Over the last two seasons, the Habs have been at their best when they have been able to play with this aggressive forecheck/reload system, which allows the team to persistently harangue opposition defense with unyielding pressure, create turnovers, and pin their opponent in the defensive zone for several minutes at a time. Over the first six games, the Canadiens were able to suffocate their opponents in this manner, and particularly against the Oilers and Canucks, it completely demoralized them for subsequent game (s).

At the best of times, lacking discipline is a recipe for disaster. Not only is the opposition afforded a powerplay and an improved opportunity to score, but it also impedes with the flow of the game, and displaces many skilled forwards that do not contribute to the penalty killing efforts, away from a regular shift. When penalties stack up, teams can see their offensive stars out of the rhythm of the action for several minutes, and it threatens to throw all the line combinations out of sync. Although the Canadiens have had moments of penalties stacked upon one another this season, they have a full complement of forwards that can effectively kill penalties. Julien has used seven forwards on the penalty kill so far, using pairings of Danault/Lehkonen, Evans/Byron, Suzuki/Armia, with Toffoli as an extra. This has allowed the team to return to 5 v 5 play without a loss in vim.

The depth in the forward ranks has also ensured appropriate coverage for injury, which the Canadiens have unfortunately had to deal with in the past week. Joel Armia scored four points against the Canucks on 21 January, and had his best game of the season, but suffered a concussion in the closing moments from an egregious and unnecessary hit from the Canucks’ woeful defender Tyler Myers. In previous years, an injury of this magnitude to an important player that provides terrific effort on the forecheck, and work on the penalty kill, would have been a sizeable blow. However, the Canadiens replaced him with a decorated veteran in Corey Perry, who fit into the lineup admirably, generated a few scoring chances and scored in his first game. The Canadiens’ also have the peripatetic utilityman Michel Frolik and 2017 1st round pick, Ryan Poehling, in their reserves. These players continue to train with the team on a daily basis, as part of the travelling taxi squad.

Having played three of the six opponents that they will face over the course of this regular season, the Canadiens have proven to themselves that not only can they compete in the North Division, but that they have a decided advantage through the depth that they possess. This advantage manifests fully when the Canadiens play an opposition in back to back, or three in a row situations, as they physically and mentally overwhelm through their speed and intensity. Provided that they can remain healthy, the Canadiens should be able to use this advantage to its full extent as the attrition of this season mounts.

So in the end, while Canadiens fans have been here plenty of times before, standing atop the mountain after a handful of games, boasting that Lord Stanley will once again return to its eternal resting place, only to have those delusions end abruptly, this time surely feels different. For the first time in a long time, the Canadiens appear to be well built, and capable of coping with the duress of a long season.

Jaideep Kanungo

On Canadiens: Some excitement on the horizon amidst the darkness of the pandemic

This winter has undoubtedly been one of the most difficult periods in our lifetimes. As many of us attempt to trudge through the post-Holiday dreariness that comes in January, with a distant hope of mass inoculation for the coronavirus, many Canadians can seek more immediate solace with the return of the familiar sights and sounds of NHL hockey, starting on 13 January.

For the Montreal Canadiens, the return of hockey brings with it an unbridled sense of optimism, a genuine glow that has not been seen at the club in over half a decade (it can be argued as to when expectations were genuinely this high for Les Glorieux. Perhaps in 2014, after the Canadiens were felled in the Stanley Cup semi-final by the New York Rangers after losing their stalwart netminder, Carey Price, at the height of his powers? Perhaps it goes back to 2008, when the Canadiens were preparing for a memorable Stanley Cup run in their Centennial season, and bolstered their lineup in the offseason with offensive stars in Alex Tanguay and Robert Lang, to complement the likes of Kovalev and Koivu, who had brought a sense of style, flair and production in the previous season).

The Canadiens and their fans are positively sanguine about their prospects for this upcoming season. Although they entered the NHL “play-in” rounds last summer as the 24th (of 24) ranked team, they managed to upset the heavily favoured Pittsburgh Penguins, winning the best of five series, three games to one.

In the following round, they played the Philadelphia Flyers tight over six hard fought games. The Canadiens ultimately lost, and saw their 9th overall pick (had they lost to the Penguins) tumble and turn into the 16th overall pick, the team found several benefits that GM Marc Bergevin used to build his off season plan.

Bergevin, who has drawn the ire of the fanbase at multiple points over his eight year tenure as General Manager, has earned goodwill for his management over the last two years, as he has accrued draft picks, made a series of savvy trades and has committed to the long term future of the club. Although the future remains the priority, Bergevin has crafted a situation where there is genuine hope for the present, based on the following:

Breakout of the team’s two young centremen

The most notable positive development to emerge from this past summer’s playoffs was the emergence of the club’s two young centremen, Nick Suzuki and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Suzuki had an impressive rookie season last year, recording 41 points in 71 games, and gradually saw an increase in his usage and responsibilities over time.

Just prior to the interruption of the season due to the coronavirus pandemic, Suzuki’s overall production and impact took a slight dip, prompting coach Claude Julien to openly question whether Suzuki had hit the proverbial “rookie wall.” Yet, Suzuki was the creative pulse for the Canadiens in the series against both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. He notched 7 points in 10 games, and by the end of the Canadiens’ run, had arguably usurped Phillip Danault as the club’s number one centre.

Suzuki is a crafty and cerebral player, who has sublime vision and the requisite puck skills to be a first rate playmaker. He appears to drift in and out of crowds without drawing a commotion, and has a strong innate positional awareness. He also has an impressive defensive acumen, and for a player of only 20 years old, it was remarkable to see the normally conservative coaching staff of Julien and Muller, trust Suzuki with assignments against top centres (Malkin and Crosby), and take crucial defensive faceoffs against the Flyers. Comparisons were made between Suzuki and another Julien young protégé, the highly rated, much lauded Patrice Bergeron, who is considered one of the finest defensive forwards of his era.

After the season, Phillip Danault, who was starting to establish a reputation as one of the best 5 v 5 players in the game, who is entering the final year of his contract, questioned whether he still had a place in the team, prompting a slew of unnecessary and obtrusive trade rumours. It was a testament to how far Suzuki had come in a matter of months.

While Suzuki had a remarkable ascent over the summer months, similarly, the playoffs saw the resurgence of Jesperi Kotkaniemi as a legitimate NHL player, and one that gives the Canadiens an ever spritely duo up the middle of the ice. Kotkaniemi had put together a solid first half of his rookie season, in 2018-19, and finished the season with 34 points in 79 games. Although the numbers may not be eye-catching, Kotkaniemi showed tremendous poise, skill and potential, in a year in which he was the youngest player in the NHL.

Until the playoff rounds however, Kotkaniemi’s sophomore season resembled more a nightmare than a fairy tale. He had arrived to training camp, slightly behind the pace, having had knee surgery in the summer. He never fully settled physically, eventually suffered a pair of injuries, and saw a complete erosion of his own personal confidence and the trust of his coach. Kotkaniemi posted a mere 8 points in 36 games, before being ignominiously sent down to Laval in early February. His season was thought to have ended a few weeks later, when he suffered a ruptured spleen in a game against Cleveland.

The layoff with the pandemic offered Kotkaniemi a chance to heal, focus on his training, and rediscover his joy for the game. He returned to the Canadiens for their camp in July, looking noticeably more muscular and refreshed.

His solid playoff performance, where he scored 4 points in 10 games, managed heightened responsibilities and became more of a physical force (including taking a game misconduct), was well noticed by everyone with the Canadiens. The young Finnish kid had grown from a naïve stick figure to a hulking behemoth, who could cope with the physical demands of being a centreman in the NHL.

Much of the success for the Canadiens this year will depend on how Suzuki and Kotkaniemi develop and take the next step in their professional careers. This certainly will saddle them with significant pressure, which risks overwhelming youngsters aged 21 and 20 respectively, but given their pedigree, proven skillset and the opportunities that they will be trusted with, they should be reliable bets to flourish this season.

Having a rested Carey Price

Over the last two seasons, it is fair to say that Julien lost complete faith in the backup netminders that Bergevin had enlisted to give Carey Price an occasional breather, in both Anti Niemi and Keith Kinkaid. As a result, in 2018-19, Price was forced to start 66 games, and in 2019-20, he started 58 (of 71 games). While Price had been brilliant at times to the most ardent, rose-coloured glass wearing Canadiens fan, his overall save percentages demonstrated that he was no better than an average netminder (.918 in 2018-19, .908 in 2019-20).

Indeed, over the last three seasons, when Price had more than three days off between starts, he posted a .919 save percentage. If he had less rest than that, his save percentage dropped to .907. Although Price prefers to play every game if possible, his performances clearly dropped, and has been one of the reasons for why the Canadiens have not been higher up the standings, in spite of their elite 5 v 5 play.

The value of rest was demonstrated in the play-in/playoff of last season, where after nearly four months off, in the 10 games that Price played, he posted a .936 save percentage, and his cool and calm play was reminiscent of the halcyon days of 2014 when he captured a Gold Medal at the Olympics and in 2015, when he captured the Hart Trophy as league’s most valuable player.

The acquisition of Jake Allen finally gives Price a quality backup, that Julien will actually feel comfortable in playing. The former St. Louis Blues’ netminder was fourth in the league last season in save percentage, for goalies that played more than 20 games, at .927. Over the last two seasons, as the Blues handed over starting duties to Jordan Binnington, Allen adapted well to the daily expectations of being a backup goalie and performed admirably.

Critics will point to the Canadiens spending $15 million of their cap space on goaltending for this season. Yet, by trying to limit the number of starts for their number one netminder with a competent backup will ensure that they get the best out of both players.

The arrival of Alexander Romanov

Since being drafted in the second round, 38th overall, by the Canadiens in the 2018 draft, Russian defenseman Alexander Romanov has seen his stock soar. He played his way onto the famed CSKA Moscow senior team as an 18 year old and helped the club win the 2019 Gagarin Cup. Romanov also dazzled on defense for the Russians at the 2019 and 2020 World U20 tournaments, being named the best defenseman at the 2019 tournament, and being named to the all-star team at the 2020 tournament.

Upon arriving to the Canadiens in 2016, Shea Weber has never had a solid or consistent partner on his left hand side, and the left side on defense has long been an area of weakness for the Canadiens. Romanov’s performance over the World Junior tournaments and two seasons in the KHL provided fans a glint of excitement, in that he is exactly the type of player that the Canadiens have long coveted.

How Romanov integrates into the Canadiens’ lineup will be one of the questions to watch during the course of training camp. He will likely find himself on the third pairing to start, as Julien will pair Ben Chiarot with Shea Weber, and possibly newcomer Joel Edmundson with Jeff Petry. In spite of this, the Canadiens remain bullish on the young Russian, and I expect that he will work his way up the lineup as the season progresses.

The reality is that though young, Romanov has the tools that the Canadiens are in desperate search of. At the World Junior level, Romanov demonstrated strong skating, a courageous streak when attacking from the point, and an offensive knack. Over two tournaments, he posted 14 points in 14 games.

In a review of Romanov’s shifts in CSKA, Arpon Basu highlighted that Romanov was far more conservative, defensively sound, less risk averse playing the professional game, compared to his exploits at the junior level. I envision that initially, Romanov will be sheltered and asked to play in this conservative manner as he adjusts to the NHL pace and intensity. The question will be how soon do we see the unleashed version? Furthermore, how long will it be until he is paired on the first pairing with Shea Weber?

The Canadiens finally have offensive depth

Over the last two seasons, the Canadiens have been one of the league’s best teams at 5 v 5 play, led by the line of Tomas Tatar, Danault and Brendan Gallagher. However, despite that 5 v 5 dominance, the Canadiens were only 19th in the league in goals scored last season. The relatively disappointing production numbers have largely resulted from a mediocre power play, that ranked 22nd in the league last season (and 30th the season before).

Marc Bergevin bolstered the Canadiens’ attack this off-season, bringing in sniper Tyler Toffoli, who scored 24 goals last season (playing with Los Angeles and Vancouver). Additionally, Bergevin traded Max Domi for a bullish forward, in Josh Anderson, who scored 27 goals in 2018-19 (unfortunately, Anderson was injured for much of 2019-20 with a shoulder injury, which limited him to only 26 games). Bergevin further reinforced his forward corps, by signing wingers Michael Frolik and Corey Perry to bargain basement deals, providing the Canadiens with some veteran depth, grit and playoff experience.

Unfortunately, the Canadiens still lack a five star alpha general in their forward ranks to play the big minutes. Instead, they possess a wealth of options along the wings, and this ensures that Julien is armed with four lines that can evenly distribute minutes, and play every shift with an elevated intensity. Over the last two seasons (and last season in the playoffs), the Canadiens were at their best when they played an ultra aggressive forecheck/reload system.

Last year, the Canadiens started the season strong, were able to establish their desired style of play and were 11-5-3 and near the top of the Atlantic Division standings on 15 November. That night both Jonathan Drouin and Paul Byron suffered significant injuries, and in their absence, the Canadiens experienced the first of two 8-game losing streaks which derailed their season.

Having a deep complement of forwards ensures that Julien can play his high intensity pressing style for far longer, and allow the Canadiens to play the bulk of their games on the front foot.

The excitement of the “All Canadian Division“

Like many Canadians who have had the chance to live in different parts of the country, I have made numerous friends that support different teams, and can count many friends that support each Canadian team.

In a compressed 56 game schedule, where all Canadian teams play each other nine or ten times, where every game will have the weight of a proverbial “four-pointer,” this season will prove to be particularly intense, and will give the impression that every game matters. Not having an outright “favourite” will only enhance that feeling that everything is up for grabs. Even more so, having friends and colleagues that provide daily (online) banter and chirps will make the experience ever more colourful and immersive. I can already foresee the daily ritualistic glance at the standings, checking over opposition schedules, and feeling the angst of where the Canadiens fall in the mix. I yearn for that palpable tension in sports, where everyone in my circle is also invested.

So while the pandemic continues to cast a pall over much of Canadian society and daily discourse, the prospects of a winter and spring filled with the intense cauldron of NHL hockey will surely help distract us as we huddle in our homes, limit our physical excursions and patiently await our turn in line for the much coveted vaccine. There are far worse ways to spend an otherwise gloomy winter, and a successful, glory filled hockey season will help to make that time feel even better.

Here’s hoping it is the Canadiens’ year!

Jaideep Kanungo