Conservative Hockey Is Back In Town!
November 18, 2023
By Grant McCagg
The Canadiens are hitting the skids quickly, having gone 2-6-1 in the past nine games. But fear not – conservative hockey is back in town!
Caufield, Ylonen, Newhook and Slafkovsky combined for 59 shifts, or 14.8 shifts each on average versus the Golden Knights. Anderson, Pearson and Evans, who have failed to score one goal between them in the past 12 games (and four goals all season)…played 63 shifts; 21 shifts each. Veteran privilege prevails.
Jake Evans has three goals in his last 1008 minutes of hockey. Ylonen scored two goals in a four-minute span at the midway point of tonight’s game. Evans more than doubled Ylonen’s ice time. Ylonen was Montreal’s most dangerous forward last night, and he languished on the bench for the last 30 minutes, playing just four shifts after scoring twice.
I understand that the game was close and the coaches’ mindset must have been that even getting a point against Vegas was ultimately a win. But we are seeing signs of coach Marty St. Louis developing the conservative mindset that inflicted the last few Montreal coaches – the tendency to play not to lose instead of playing to win.
What is also disconcerting is that St. Louis does not appear to be a coach that will switch up lines to any extent during a game unless it’s to err on the side of caution. Jake Evans replacing Slafkovsky late in tie games has been his most common move. Jesse Ylonen had the hot hand versus Vegas. Could he not have been moved up into the top nine for a few spins with the game on the line?
Why has the Pearson-Monahan-Gallagher trio never been switched up at any point this season? That line has clearly struggled in the last seven games. Pearson and Gallagher have combined for three points and are -19 in those games. Gallagher has taken costly late penalties in the past two games that may well have cost the team at least two points and perhaps even four. But they are trotted out more than any other line in the third period if the game is close. The supposition that veterans are the only players who can help you late in close games is a curious one, especially when they keep doing the exact opposite and look slow at the end of games.
Hasn’t the company line been that the team is most intent on development and “the process” right now? How is it helping players like Caufield and Slafkovsky to be glued to the bench late in close games? How is it helping Slafkovsky’s development to never see time on the first power play or to see the ice when the club is down a goal late and has the goalie pulled while a forward with zero goals (Josh Anderson) keeps getting opportunities? It would be understandable if Anderson was scoring goals but he is not.
So not only is it not the best move to make to get a goal but it’s also stalling Slaf’s development. He needs to be put in those situations at least occasionally. Who knows…maybe he even scores?
It’s not all gloom and doom on the development front by any means. The club has a lot of young players with key roles, particularly on defence. It’s not like Slaf is sitting or playing on the fourth line either, and that’s a step up from the previous regimes.
Claude Julien, Michel Therrien, and Dom Ducharme typically rode the veterans and quelled the rookies. It didn’t matter if the vets weren’t producing. Were they successful in developing young players? It can never be argued that Nikita Scherbak and Michael McCarron were best served either sitting in the stands or playing fourth-line minutes while players like Byron Froese and Brian Flynn never left the lineup of teams that were going nowhere. Their development was stalled and they never recovered. Neither were great prospects but both should have carved out serviceable NHL careers.
It is not beyond the realm of possibility that St. Louis went to Rafael Harvey Pinard and told him that he planned to scratch him against Vegas but for the sake of it not becoming a distraction, suggested to him that day publicly announce that he’s out of the lineup day today instead of saying he’s a healthy scratch.
I’m not stating that this is what happened. It’s entirely speculative. What I do know is that if that is what transpired, I have no issue with it. Imagine the hoopla if RHP had been a healthy scratch on Dad’s Night!
Considering that David Savard is out of the lineup and that Sam Montembeault was not starting, there was not a single French Canadian in the lineup. We all know how certain newspapers and politicians reacted to that happening a few years back when Danault and Drouin were injured and the Canadiens iced a roster sans Quebecois.
Mind you…there are a couple of Quebecois on the Rocket who are deserving of an NHL look. RHP is waiver exempt. If he continues to struggle offensively and is sent down to Laval, it may well be so that Joshua Roy is brought in for an NHL look. I have a feeling that Roy might be more effective on the power play than Josh Anderson.
Is Jake Evans a better center than Brandon Gignac right now? He scored 13 goals in 72 games in 2021-23 but since then, Evans has three goals in 70 games. Gignac is tied for 12th in AHL scoring with 15 points in 14 games. His game has taken another step this season. The former third-round pick brings a lot of the same qualities as Evans. Smart, competitive, decent on faceoffs, and versatile.
Gignac would give the Canadiens more flexibility to move Monahan to the wing when Evans is also in the lineup. Newhook’s lack of success on faceoffs makes it difficult to have him as the only center on the ice at any given time. Gignac has won 57 percent of his faceoffs this season, so having one more faceoff option would free up Monahan to move to the wing when necessary. Gignac also has enough offensive ability to center the third line if called upon. You can never have too many centers in your lineup as they can be used situationally on faceoffs, and it’s always easy to move them to the wing when necessary. He may be a better option for the big club than RHP right now.
I was glad to see Primeau get the start versus Vegas. He had sat for long enough, and if he is going to be an NHL regular he will have to be able to play well against any opponent. This was a solid test for him, and despite giving up six goals, the score could have been much worse. Primeau looks much more comfortable than he has in previous stints.
Arber Xhekaj will not play tonight after injuring his “other” shoulder in the Vegas game. The encouraging news is that he is only day-to-day, and Jordan Harris moves back into the lineup. Lindstrom’s play has been fairly solid in the past two games, and it’s not like the Canadiens need Xhekaj in the lineup to deal with Milan Lucic after his arrest last night.
I concur with 99% of what you wrote.
The Habs are in a rebuild. Play the kids and teach them after mistakes. I get you want to pump up the trade value of some of these vets, but good lord!
Gallagher takes untimely penalties and skates with a piano on his back and may be the worst passer on the team. But let’s keep rolling him out there. Anderson brings size & speed on an otherwise smallish team so he needs to see ice. Not, however ahead of guys who are, you know, scoring.
I am cautiously optimistic that the last 40 games of the season will be different from a usage perspective but the history of previous coaches does not bode well.