Lack of Effort for Montréal

 

Justin Dahan (HV)

 

The Montreal Canadiens may have an impressive record but recently there has been a considerable drop in their play. According to team captain Saku Koivu there isn’t one clear reason for the Canadiens play, “I don’t think there’s one reason I think there’s a bunch of things, its something were working on, and we have to get more creative, and get more goals”

Montreal ’s all-star defenseman Sheldon Souray said, “Stay out of the box, get it in their zone, make their defense work. Those are all things we wanted to do. We didn’t do any of them, its just lack of commitment, lack of desire” and, “Look at our 5-5 play, and our shots against and shots for, and it’s consistent.” It’s true that Montreal has not been able to sustain any offensive pressure. They have relied strictly on their 2nd ranked power play and their 3rd ranked penalty kill (stats of January 26th). They need to start playing better in 5-5 situations.

Basically Montreal needs to get back to what got them into fourth place in the Eastern Conference (January 26th). Early in the season teams used to fear playing the high flying Canadiens, now they are defensive minded teams. Sheldon Souray put it best, “Were easy to play against, and we’ve been like that for the last 15 or 18 games now”

Of course it doesn’t help that their best players have not been their best players. Alex Kovalev has only 12 goals thus far this season, much less than what is expected from the former 44 goal scorer. Sergei Samsonov has been another underachiever for the Canadiens; he has not performed what they expected when they signed him to a two year deal worth 7.05 million dollar. The former Rookie of the Year for both the IHL and the NHL has been reduced to playing on the third line. He is also on pace for his worst year offensively ever. Christopher Higgins started off the year on fire, but after coming back from an injury has had trouble getting his play back on par. Even super consistent Saku Koivu hasn’t been producing offensively, although to be fair he is on pace for his best year so far, but his -10 (as of Jan 26) just won’t cut it. Recently the only positive for the Canadiens has been the play of Tomas Plekanec. The native of the Czech Republic has finally come into his own; he now has 9 goals, most of them coming recently.

Photo: Sheldon Souray © Richard Wolowicz (HV)