Montreal Canadiens' coach Martin St-Louis made some changes to his defensive pairings ahead of Saturday's game against the New York Islanders, will he now do the same with his lines ahead of the game against the New York Rangers?
The Montreal Canadiens lost their last game to the New York Islanders on Saturday night after being on the wrong end of a nine-round shootout loss. Nine players had a go against Semyon Varlamov, but Kirby Dach stayed on the bench. The big centre is struggling to find his groove back (unlike Stella in the 1998 movie) after suffering a serious knee injury last season and undergoing reconstructive surgery.
Former NHLer (Calgary Flames, Phoenix Coyotes, Philadelphia Flyers, and Los Angeles Kings) and current RDS analyst Denis Gauthier said the other day that it takes around 18 months to truly return from that kind of injury. Healing the physical part of the injury is one thing, but healing the mental part is not that easy. Once you're back on the ice and skating, you must get your reflexes and confidence back and overcome the hesitation, the unconscious fear of reinjuring yourself.
While his slow start is normal in this circumstance, it probably wouldn't hurt to provide him with some help besides a pat on the back, a video session, and telling him he needs reps.
When he suffered his knee injury last season, he had a great start to the season and an equally great camp, playing alongside power forward Juraj Slafkovsky and Alex Newhook.
While the top line of Slafkovsky, Cole Caufield, and Nick Suzuki has produced offensively so far this season, they have yet to "click" at five-on-five. Their underlying numbers are nowhere near as good as last season. Their goals expected share stands at 38%, putting them at the bottom of the league. The Philadelphia Flyers are 31st with 42%, and the Carolina Hurricanes lead the league with 67%.
Much of the problem resides in their inability to get out of their own zone. Perhaps now would be the time to put something else in place. Taking Slafkovsky off the first line and making him join Dach on the second line might just be the infusion of energy the big centre needs to get back into gear.
Then, who could move up to the first line? Well, Josh Anderson has had numerous opportunities to gel with Caufield and Suzuki, and it never really worked, so I'd be tempted to give Emil Heineman a try there. He's a left winger, just like Slafkovsky. He's got a great shot most teams haven't really taken notice of so far, and as the coach said himself, "he's annoying to play against" with the pressure he puts on the forecheck.
It would also mean moving Joel Armia back to the bottom six, either with Brendan Gallagher and Jake Evans, where he had started his training camp, or on a line with Christian Dvorak and Oliver Kapanen.
To be fair, Josh Anderson has done nothing to deserve a demotion, so I'd probably keep him on his current line with Gallagher and Evans while Armia could join Dvorak and Kapanen.
The Canadiens had a day off yesterday and will be back at the Bell Centre this morning for an 11:00 AM practice and the annual team photo. Perhaps the Sunday off will have allowed St-Louis to think about what his attacking lines should look like. We'll soon know if he's decided to keep going with the ones he's used in the first six games. Mine would be the following:
Caufield-Suzuki-Heineman
Newhook-Dach-Slafkovsky
Anderson-Evans-Gallagher
Armia-Dvorak-Kapanen
What would your lines look like?
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