The Canadiens are off to a great start this year, there’s no doubt about it. They sit atop the Eastern Conference, and are yet to lose a game in regulation.
Of course, there’s always room for improvement, and in this case Montreal’s most obvious flaw seems to be their power play. It’s an issue that has plagued them for the last few years, and so far this season, even with the addition of Kirk Muller and Shea Weber, Montreal simply isn’t doing much damage with the man advantage.
They currently have a 14.3% efficiency on the powerplay, which is even worse than their 16.2% success rate from 2015-16. For the record, they finished 25th in the NHL in terms of power-play efficiency last year.
Seeing as the struggle has continued through five games this year, the Habs are breaking out one of my favourite setups: using four forwards.
Alex Radulov practiced with the first unit this morning.
#Habs power play:
1st unit:
Pacioretty – Galchenyuk – Gallagher
Radulov – Weber2nd:
Lehkonen – Plekanec/Desharnais – Shaw
Markov – Petry— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) October 24, 2016
It’s also worth noting that Artturi Lehkonen is practising on the second unit, despite having a rough game versus the Bruins on Saturday, which is an encouraging sign for both the player and the coach.
L’avantage numérique est au menu ce matin // Putting in some power play time now #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/kQqu27NaDd
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) October 24, 2016
