Montreal Canadiens: Addressing Recent Struggles
By Ryan Ritchie
Montreal Canadiens: Fixing the NHL’s Current Worst Team
Montreal Canadiens continue to slide down the Eastern Conference standings, officially taking honors as NHL’s worst after two terrible months of hockey leading into the All-Star break. They put an exclamation mark on their status by dropping their last two games to Columbus, allowing the Blue Jackets to climb out of the basement of the NHL for the first time in a while – tying Toronto and Edmonton for a league-worst 43 points.
Going 3-11-0 in December, and 2-8-1 in January, the Montreal Canadiens are desperately hurting without their all-star goaltender Carey Price.
Rewind back to the beginning of 2015-16. Montreal was very defensive about the label they’d been given of being a decent team made better by the best goaltender in the world. Price was perhaps the most vocal in media showing support and confidence in his team. Through the first part of the year, the hockey world began to believe Montreal was more than a really good goaltender. How quickly things can change.
The Montreal Canadiens are who we thought they were. That doesn’t mean they can’t make some noise in the playoffs though. Obviously, a healthy well-rested Carey Price is the biggest and most important factor. Other tweaks are necessary to outplay the NHL’s best in April. This team isn’t talented enough (with Price) to get the 12 necessary wins it takes to make it to the Stanley Cup finals.
Give Montreal credit, they’ve got one of the more talented bottom six groups in the NHL. The same cannot be said for their top six, which likely ranks near the very bottom in overall talent. Brendan Gallagher is the closest player to a first liner, arguably a great second line player on a good team. His linemates, Max Pacioretty and Tomas Plekanec are second line forwards playing top line minutes. The only one in their proper role is Alex Galchenyuk, as linemates David Desharnais and Dale Weise are better suited as bottom six third liners. This may help explain the goal-scoring struggles. If you can convince yourself Dale Weise is a second line player because he’s shown good chemistry, it’s easy to believe you’re better than you really are.
Fixing the Montreal Canadiens: Two Potential Options
In-House
Believe it or not, the Montreal Canadiens have a few supremely talented prospects marinating in the AHL. We saw a bit of Jacob de la Rose last season, and again more recently. We’ve seen other guys such as Sven Andrighetto and Bud Holloway in 2015-16, but we’re yet to see Montreal’s top talent.
Perhaps best of all is the furthest away from making his NHL impact, Nikita Scherbak. With five points in 15 AHL games, Scherbak is getting his feet wet in 2015-16 in his first year of pro hockey. He’s another season or two away from full-time NHL duties. Closer to making an impact is Charles Hudon and Michael McCarron. Hudon is second in IceCaps scoring with 29 points in 39 games. McCarron is third in AHL team scoring with 28 points in 41 games, this in his first year of pro hockey. Both are underrated prospects who could have an NHL impact down the stretch, if given the opportunity.
Prospects that could have a bottom six impact over the last portion of 2015-16 are trade acquisitions Lucas Lessio and Max Friberg.
While it’s possible the Montreal Canadiens have the necessary pieces in-house to fix their issues, it’s more likely GM Marc Bergevin will need to look elsewhere to find that impact top six forward to help make them stronger contenders.
Next: Trade Market Options