It was a regular week for the Canadiens with no back-to-back games, but unfortunately, the performances were not regular. Michel Therrien broke out the line blender for the first time, and the shot totals were relatively low. Against Washington, the Habs were stopped by Braden Holtby at the top of his game.
On Saturday, they started slowly, and then generated a lot of shots. But there is more to that than meets the eye. They outshot the Carolina Hurricanes 38-29, out-chanced them 32-31, but were bested 19-15 in high-danger chances. With the team seeing it’s first real scoring drought, the need for the return of Brendan Gallagher has seemingly never been greater.
Let’s take a look at the numbers:
|
Shots |
Goals |
|
|
Average before |
31.08 |
3.48 |
|
Average this week |
33 |
2 |
|
Average now |
31.3 |
3.32 |
|
82-game pace |
2565 |
272 |
Here are the numbers for the entire roster. You can click a column’s heading to sort it. (S = shots; G = goals; P = points)
| Player | Position | GP | Exp. S | Actual S | Pace S | Exp. G | Actual G | Pace G | Exp. P | Actual P | Pace P | Sh% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrighetto, Sven | F | 4 | 110 | 12 | 246 | 10 | 3 | 62 | 25 | 3 | 62 | 25 |
| Beaulieu, Nathan | D | 25 | 144 | 29 | 95 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 20 | 9 | 30 | 6.9 |
| Byron, Paul | F | 13 | 131 | 9 | 57 | 12 | 3 | 19 | 25 | 5 | 32 | 33.33 |
| Carr, Daniel | F | 1 | 110 | 3 | 246 | 8 | 1 | 82 | 20 | 1 | 82 | 33.33 |
| Desharnais, David | F | 25 | 109 | 37 | 121 | 10 | 7 | 23 | 45 | 17 | 56 | 18.92 |
| Eller, Lars | F | 25 | 108 | 48 | 157 | 12 | 7 | 23 | 27 | 11 | 36 | 14.58 |
| Emelin, Alexei | D | 18 | 74 | 11 | 50 | 3 | 14 | 2 | 9 | |||
| Fleischmann, Tomas | F | 25 | 131 | 52 | 171 | 12 | 7 | 23 | 25 | 15 | 49 | 13.46 |
| Flynn, Brian | F | 25 | 99 | 38 | 125 | 6 | 3 | 10 | 20 | 7 | 23 | 7.89 |
| Galchenyuk, Alex | F | 25 | 225 | 52 | 171 | 25 | 7 | 23 | 50 | 20 | 66 | 13.46 |
| Gallagher, Brendan | F | 22 | 208 | 70 | 261 | 25 | 9 | 34 | 50 | 19 | 71 | 12.86 |
| Gilbert, Tom | D | 25 | 49 | 26 | 85 | 2 | 12 | 1 | 3 | |||
| Holloway, Georges | F | 1 | 88 | 1 | 82 | 8 | 22 | |||||
| Markov, Andrei | D | 25 | 140 | 37 | 121 | 8 | 2 | 7 | 40 | 18 | 59 | 5.41 |
| Mitchell, Torrey | F | 20 | 66 | 23 | 94 | 4 | 5 | 21 | 12 | 10 | 41 | 21.74 |
| Pacioretty, Max | F | 25 | 308 | 115 | 377 | 37 | 13 | 43 | 60 | 25 | 82 | 11.3 |
| Pateryn, Greg | D | 7 | 49 | 7 | 82 | 2 | 8 | |||||
| Petry, Jeff | D | 25 | 192 | 59 | 194 | 8 | 3 | 10 | 25 | 11 | 36 | 5.08 |
| Plekanec, Tomas | F | 25 | 167 | 58 | 190 | 20 | 7 | 23 | 50 | 25 | 82 | 12.07 |
| Semin, Alexander | F | 15 | 153 | 18 | 98 | 17 | 1 | 5 | 48 | 4 | 22 | 5.56 |
| Smith-Pelly, Devante | F | 24 | 115 | 30 | 103 | 7 | 3 | 10 | 19 | 8 | 27 | 10 |
| Subban, P.K. | D | 25 | 211 | 73 | 239 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 50 | 21 | 69 | 1.37 |
| Thomas, Christian | F | 1 | 110 | 4 | 328 | 8 | 20 | 2 | 164 | |||
| Weise, Dale | F | 25 | 88 | 64 | 210 | 8 | 9 | 30 | 18 | 15 | 49 | 14.06 |
| Tinordi, Jarred | D | 49 | 2 | 9 |
Daniel Carr finally got his first taste of NHL action, and in true Mario Lemieux fashion, he scored on his first shift, with his first shot. With the success that minor leaguers like Carr and Andrighetto are enjoying in Montreal, it has to make you wonder what Charles Hudon or Michael McCarron could bring to the team.
True though it may be that the Habs have some injury problems, they need to get some more goals from their veterans. That said, the likes of Tomas Fleischmann and Dale Weise were producing well above expectations, so it would be unfair to put them on blast here.
Tomas Plekanec has collected 10 assists over his last 12 games, but has failed to find the back of the net. Again, it is hard to criticize him, because he’s nearly at a point per game, and if he continues the way he has, he’s on pace for a career year.
Alex Galchenyuk has seen a solid rise in his production since being given Andrighetto as a right-winger, and is only a goal behind his expected pace. Max Pacioretty is generating a ton of shots, but hasn’t had the luck to strike gold. There are a lot of things to be happy about, even considering the overall lack of goals recently.
The Canadiens will face Boston, Detroit and Ottawa this week. Nothing to be afraid of, but nothing to take lightly either. Boston has been playing rather well lately, so they should provide a solid test to kick things off on Wednesday night.
