Is the Canadian too much at the mercy of his special teams?

Special teams are one of the aspects of the game where the Canadian is doing better than last year.

It is true that they have failed him in the last four games. THE CH conceded 6 times in 15 numerical disadvantages (60%) and that its five-man attack only scored one goal in 12 opportunities (8.3%).

After 30 games, Martin St-Louis’ men placed their two special teams in the second third of the NHL, while last year, both the power play and the penalty kill were in the bottom third of the league.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the team continues to be almost at the mercy of them to be successful.

We don’t teach you anything by telling you that special teams often help to make the difference in a game. However, good teams find ways to win even when one or other of their special units is not there.

The surprising Washington Capitals, for example, are the team with the best success rate in the league. Since the start of the season, they have managed to post a record of 9-3-2 when shut out on the power play, with the 13th five-man attack unit in the league.

And even if they are in 9th place in the NHL on the penalty kill, they have a record of 8-2-2 in games where they have given up at least one goal on the penalty kill.

Let’s change the team lineup since it is illusory at the moment to compare the Habs to the best teams.

L’Utah HChold. He is more or less average for the league with his two special teams (16th in advantage and 21st in disadvantage), which is a bit similar to the Bleu-blanc-rouge, which is respectively 18th and 14th in the league. .

L’Utah HC has a deficit record when its power play is shut out (6-9-3) and when the opponent manages to take advantage of at least one superiority (5-11-2). This goes hand in hand with the idea that special teams often make the difference.

On the Canadian’s side, the line is to be decided with a butcher’s knife: he displays a poor record of 1-10-1 when he is silenced on a power play, and his record is 2-11-1 when he gives the minus one inferior goal.

During a recent episode of the podcast So Hockeycolleague Martin Leclerc was right to compare the club’s current performance to that which we saw under the orders of Jacques Martin: the team won with its special teams or when its goalkeeper was smoking, because he was no match for equal forces.

CH’s style of play is obviously no longer the same as at the time, but there is still a certain similarity.

Still far away at 5 against 5

The Canadian hosts Tuesday evening the poor Buffalo Sabres, who received a visit to Montreal from their owner Terry Pegula to hear him call for calm and preach continuity.

The last meeting between the two teams, on November 11, marked a turning point in the first half of the season for Montrealers. That afternoon, the CH won 7-5 in Buffalo.

After 16 games, the team allowed an average of 4.12 goals per game. But in the 14 games that followed, the Habs gave up an average of 3.29 goals to the opponent, which represents an appreciable improvement.

However, according to Natural Stat Trick (New window)his statistics have not changed much at 5 against 5. Even if he has tightened his defense, apart from a few evenings of relapse, the Canadian has fluctuated since this match against the Sabers between 26th and 30th ranks in numerous categories at 5 against 5, including shot differential, goal differential, expected goals differential and dangerous chances.

Martin St-Louis maintained Monday that in addition to the recent third periods against the Bruins in Boston and against the Pittsburgh Penguins, his team’s game at even strength was going in the right direction.

Sometimes your special teams will steal a game from you, but if you’re not good at 5-on-5, it’s hard to be in games. So it’s about looking for consistency. We’re getting closer to that, I think.

There are games where your special teams will make you feel bad, where you will tell yourself that if we had scored one on the power play, we would be in the game, even having given up two on the penalty kill.added the head coach, referring to Saturday’s defeat in Winnipeg.

We know it, we talk about it, and if we are able to continue to improve at 5 against 5 – and we are on the right track on that – and to continue to be demanding on our special teams, that will be good for us. provide an opportunity to not only be competitive, but to seek results.

The right way at even strength, it mainly goes through Nick Suzuki, who took advantage of a prolific performance on November 11 in Buffalo to really launch his season. He and Cole Caufield have been flawlessly tied in numbers for a little over a month.

The same can’t be said for all of their teammates, who don’t produce much.

If there is one place where the numbers support what St-Louis is saying, it is in terms of the differential. In the first 16 games, barely two players had a differential of -2 or better. Since the victory in Buffalo, there have been 13.

Missed opportunities

With the arrival of Patrik Laine and the transfer of Hutson to the first unit, the Canadian’s five-man attack now has the potential to be one of the best on the circuit.

As for the penalty kill unit, it is fortunate to have in David Savard, Kaiden Guhle and Mike Matheson 3 of the 13 players who have blocked the most shots in the league on the disadvantage. It’s also striking to see how his two attacking duos (Evans-Armia and Dvorak-Anderson) exert more effective pressure than before.

There is reason to believe that despite the relaxation of the last few days, the CH has something with this inferiority unit, although it is the second team having spent the most time in inferiority since the start of the season . By taking so many punishments, it’s normal to get burned from time to time.

It’s really tied numerically where there is still a good step to take until the signals that St-Louis perceives are confirmed. Because his team is always closer to last place in these situations than it is to the league average.

I think we had opportunities where we could have scored at 5 on 5, noted Lane Hutson. The difference is that sometimes the puck doesn’t fit. We’d like her to come home every time, wouldn’t we? But if you look at the number of escapes we had, if we had taken advantage of them, it would have been different matches. Perhaps we could have maintained our lead or widened the gap further.

I think our chances are there at 5 to 5. I hope we start taking advantage of them a little more often.