Coming off a brutal 8-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken, the Montreal Canadiens needed a bounce-back effort against the Washington Capitals on Halloween. They delivered the polar opposite, stumbling their way to an ugly 6-3 loss that could have been even worse. The usual suspects chipped in with some goals, but there were few if any redeeming qualities in what was a wall-to-wall pathetic effort.
There was plenty of blame to go around in that loss, but one thing was made abundantly clear if it wasn’t already – Christian Dvorak can’t be keeping his roster spot.
This is an error you can tolerate from a rookie finding their way as a professional. It is absolutely not one you can tolerate from a supposedly-responsible defensive centre in his ninth NHL season. Arber Xhekaj was sent to the press box for less, and he at least has the excuse of being barely over a season’s worth of games into his NHL career.
If this was an isolated incident, it would be something you could probably look past and hope he can correct. It isn’t isolated, however, as this is just the most glaring error he’s made while often looking like he’d rather be anywhere other than on the ice in a Habs jersey.
Grant him that. See if any of the teams not on his eight-team no-trade list would like his services. If they don’t, put him on waivers and hope that a stint with the Laval Rocket can do for him what it did for Joel Armia last season. Even if he doesn’t make it there, taking his $4.5 million cap hit off the books a little earlier all while freeing up a lineup spot for younger players is probably worth more than hoping he resurges enough to fetch a mid-round pick at the trade deadline.
To be fair, Dvorak was not solely responsible for this loss whatsoever. A number of players could use a talking to after that effort, but few if any are making $4.5 million to look disinterested in fourth line minutes.
His acquisition was a mistake by the previous regime. The current one shouldn’t keep insisting on playing him when his game hasn’t been up to par.
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