Habs News: Joel Armia Contributing on Scoreboard, Jonathan Drouin Ovation at Bell Centre, Montreal Canadiens Defensive Unit Struggles
ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | LAVAL, QC. — Happy Thanksgiving to all the readers in Canada! I hope you enjoyed lots of turkey over the long weekend. The players had Sunday off, and likely didn’t want to overdo it with their meals because they want to look sharp for Monday’s team photo.
The Canadiens just finished a stretch of three games in four nights by collecting three of the possible six points. That brings their total to six points through the first five games of the season. That’s a pace that the team will need to pick up as the season progresses.
On Wednesday night, the Canadiens lost 5-4 in overtime against the Sabres that are off to an excellent start of season once again. The following night, Montreal lost 4-2 to Detroit in the home opener in a game where the Habs looked flat against a team that is expected to battle for a lottery draft pick. On Saturday, the Canadiens played their best game of the season by the defending Stanley Cup champions, St.Louis Blues, by a 6-3 score.
Montreal continues their four game home streak this week by hosting Tampa on Tuesday and Minnesota on Thursday, before heading on the road on the weekend to face St.Louis on Saturday and Minnesota on Sunday.
Armia Contributing on Scoreboard
I think that the most positive aspect of the start of the season has been the team’s third line. The line of Jonathan Drouin, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and Joel Armia has a total of seven goals and five assists. This has been the team’s best and most consistent line since opening night.
“I’m not touching that line because they’re playing well together. They are producing and it looks like they have good chemistry,” said Claude Julien following Saturday’s game. Julien had shuffled his lines during the game against the Sabres and Red Wings, and to start the game against the Blues, but he left that third line intact. “At this moment, it’s difficult to break that line up.”
Joel Armia had himself an excellent week by scoring three goals and adding one assist. He’s the team’s leading goal scorer tied with Max Domi. Last season, Armia scored a career high 13 goals and he accomplished that in 57 games, which prorates to 18 goals in 82 games. With Andrew Shaw getting traded over the summer, there isn’t a dangerous offensive threat on the right wing besides Brendan Gallagher, therefore if Armia can contribute 15-20 goals this season, it will become a valuable tool in the coach’s toolbox.
“He’s got a good shot, he’s got to use it a little bit more,” said Julien prior to the game in Buffalo. “There’s sometimes he’s in tight and he’s still trying to make that last move, that little play and I think whenever you see him get that quick release off, he’s been successful.”
Drouin Ovation at Bell Centre
Drouin is the team’s leading scorer, tied with Gallagher, with six points in five games, and leads with plus-four. His biggest flaw has always been the effort level that he provides on the ice. I haven’t seen that deficiency in his game this season. “Right now, Jonathan is probably playing his best hockey since he’s with us; he’s playing with a lot of confidence, a lot of energy. […] It’s not the others that are making him better, it’s him that is making the others better,” said the coach on Saturday.
The spotlight has been on Drouin since the start of the camp. Most of the discussions concerning him were negative. With his skill level and the way that he finished last season, it was merited. Over the summer, we were told that Drouin had spent time with the coaching staff, from his own initiative to work on improving his game, and his agent Allan Walsh posted a video of his client working out in preparation to the start of the camp.
Drouin didn’t help the negativity as he didn’t play well in the pre-season. There were several confirmed reports that Drouin’s name was being circulated to other general managers. Marc Bergevin avoided the question joking that reports were started by people from their basement in Toronto.
With his two point performance against the Blues, Drouin was named second star of the game and TVA’s Renaud Lavoie interviewed him on the ice. The crowd acknowledged his performance since the start of the season by giving Drouin a long standing ovation that made him emotional.
The ovation reminded me to the one that Carey Price received in April 2018 following a video tribute played at the Bell Centre to acknowledge surpassing Jacques Plante for most starts in a Canadiens uniform. “It was definitely an emotional moment for myself,” Price said at the time. “I didn’t expect it to be, but that video and that ovation was something that I really needed. I’m really thankful and really appreciate that. Just the reaction from the crowd was something I’ll never forget.”
Price was getting booed by fans at the Bell Centre, with some being unhappy with the length and dollars of his contract. Since that night, that ovation, the relationship between the fans and the star goalie is at it’s best.
The next time that Drouin goes into a slump, he needs to look back at Saturday night and remember the crowd’s reaction. If Drouin has a good season, the ovation that he received after the Blues game will become the norm.
Struggling on Defence
The Canadiens biggest struggle to start the season has been on defence. We keep hearing that scoring is always higher in October and that it goes down as the defence tightens. I acknowledge that it’s a factor into Montreal’s early struggles but it’s only the fifth time in franchise history, that the team has allowed at least three goals in each of their five games. I think that this shows that there’s more to it than the month on the calendar.
I’m not pointing any of the blame to Carey Price or Keith Kinkaid as they have done an excellent job in goal considering the quality of scoring chances that they’ve faced. They have allowed a league high average of 36.4 shots per game. The entire defensive scheme of the five man unit struggled in every game, with an improvement in the game against St.Louis.
“We wanted to make some adjustments so that we could move the puck a little bit better,” said Julien on Saturday. “And I think our guys did a pretty good job between the D’s and, and the forwards coming in or centreman coming in with low support, no matter where the puck went. […] So I think it was a more of a five man unit that was better.”
The Canadiens best defenceman up to this point has been Jeff Petry. He leads the defensive unit in points and time on ice, and has been the most consistent. The rest of the defenders are playing below expectations.
The left defence side was the team’s biggest need in the off-season and early on it continues to be the team’s weakness. Last week, TSN’s Pierre Lebrun reported that Marc Bergevin has a planned trip to Russia in early December to visit prospect Alexander Romanov. Romanov is in his final year of his KHL contract and Bergevin will make the visit to build his relationship with the prospect as the GM wants to make sure that Romanov will come to Montreal next season and not sign a new contract in the KHL at the end of the season.
In previous columns, I have written that the acquisition of Ben Chiarot was a wash compared to Jordie Benn, and I keep getting told on Twitter by readers that Chariot was an upgrade. Five games into the season it looks like I might have been wrong about it, as I’m starting to think that he may actually be a downgrade. It’s still early in the season though, and I have been wrong before.
By Chris G., Senior Writer
All Habs Hockey Magazine
Copyright © 2019 Rocket Sports
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