Last night marked yet another one-goal victory for the Montreal Canadiens. Another nail-biter that, at times, had fans wondering if the team would ever score another goal again.
From their lofty perch near the summit of the Eastern Conference standings, the Canadiens can look down at a plethora of teams below them in points, but far ahead of them in goals. It is of course at this time that the axioms must ring out: Defence wins championships. The only stat that matters is wins. Both of these are of course true, but ironically, a team that allows 10 goals can theoretically still win the game, so long as it scores at least 11. A team that scores 0 goals though, has zero chance of winning a game.
Lack of offence has been a problem that has plagued the Habs for what seems like decades. The situation is certainly not as dire as it was in the days when Habs fans prayed that Oleg Petrov would be the next Mats Naslund, but they are certainly eons away from the days of past Canadiens powerhouses.
It has been stated on this blog that the 2014-15 Canadiens are more than just the sum of Carey Price's parts, but it is true that they rely on him too heavily. Last night, after Price allowed a terrible goal in the first minute, he was required to be perfect the rest of the way - including magnificent stops on uncontested attempts by Claude Giroux and Vladimir Tarasenko.
There will come times, especially in the playoffs, when the Canadiens will need to provide their goaltender with more than just a goal or two. Michel Therrien has a theory that "it takes three goals to win a hockey game". This is good logic. It essentially suggests that a goaltender who allows fewer than 3 goals cannot be blamed for a loss, but it also suggests that a team who scores more than 3 goals should be assured of a win.
The Canadiens are currently scoring at a clip of 2.6 goals per game. This is good for 21st in the NHL. This certainly doesn't mean the team should panic, but to ignore this deficiency would be terribly shortsighted.
So while Marc the Magician Bergevin works on a solution to these woes, what can be done with the current roster to improve the offensive production? Most fans would agree that the Canadiens need to shoot the puck more frequently. This is true. The team currently takes 28.3 shots per game, which is good for 25th in the NHL. In addition to shooting more frequently, it would behoove the team to work on getting shots ON goal. Blocked shots will happen, yes, but the Canadiens miss the net with far too much regularity - as evidenced in their recent loss against the Sabres, in which it almost looked as though the team was on the take and intentionally missing the net.
Another potential solution would be to use 'pure offence' players on the power play. Guys like Weise and Gallagher deserve their spots in the top 6, but when it comes to the power play (one that struggles more often than not) it might be a better idea to load those units with the most creative offensive players: Pacioretty, Desharnais, Galchenyuk, Sekac, Eller, Plekanec.
History will point to last season's loss to the New York Rangers being the result of the Canadiens losing their MVP, Carey Price. For those who actually watched the series though, it was clear that goaltending was not the issue - particularly in the final game, in which the Canadiens demonstrated beautifully the fact presented earlier - zero goals = a guaranteed loss. Many pundits are now using the word 'contender' when referring to the Canadiens, but until the team can show it can score with some sort of regularity, the jury will remain out.
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