No one will be surprised to hear that Alex Newhook is off to a bad start to the season.
He managed to score five goals, which isn’t bad, but something is clearly missing in his game. This is especially noticeable when looking at the assist column on his scorecard.
He hasn’t collected any this season. Zero.
He’s already played 24 games and he’s just not capable of collecting a single one.
And it’s not like Martin St-Louis isn’t giving him a chance to stand out. He plays on the first line with the third highest scorer in the entire NHL in Cole Caufield!
He also spent the majority of his time on the second line, there he should have the playing time necessary to collect at least one assist!
The worst part of all this is that he is the only regular attacker for the Canadian not to have collected an assist this season. The only other forwards who have played at least one game with Montreal this season without collecting one are Lucas Condotta (seven games), Joshua Roy (four games), Michael Pezzetta (three games) and Alex Barré-Boulet (two games).
Even worse: all regular defensemen have collected at least one assist except Justin Barron, who is often left out and who has only played 12 games this season.
The Canadiens are far from being the masters of the NHL in total assists. They are 20th in the NHL in this regard with 120.
Except that among these 120 assists, Newhook should have at least one!
With the possible return of Patrik Laine to the lineup, we should expect Newhook to receive some punishment for his lack of offensive contribution.
Kirby Dach and Juraj Slafkovsky had to play a game on the fourth line. It would be nice to see Martin St-Louis cut Newhook’s playing time or even send him into the stands for a match.
In burst
– It’s terrible.
– A true warrior.
– It might be excellent.
– They need to make changes.
Canada
