The Montreal Canadiens won on Tuesday night, but one recurrent issue reared its ugly head once again.
Recently, the Montreal Canadiens’ defensive woes have been at the forefront of their press coverage. Not that it’s a new issue, it’s been there all season long, but when you’re winning, or you can pin the loss on the goaltender, it’s not as obvious.
In their two losses against the San Jose Sharks and the Anaheim Ducks over the weekend, Martin St-Louis’ men committed a whopping 40 giveaways. When you turn the puck over to the opponent and find yourself having to flip to defence mode in an instant, you’re more likely to commit mistakes in your reads or your coverage, and that’s exactly how the Canadiens lost those two games.
On Tuesday night, the Canadiens cut down on turnovers. Through 40 minutes, they had only committed six, and they ended the game with 11. Lane Hutson and Kaiden Guhle were separated after being on the ice for the Ducks’ game-winner on Sunday, with the sophomore skating with Jayden Struble while Guhle was paired with Alexandre Carrier.
While the defensive play was better, it wasn’t perfect. The Habs’ difficulty with the man-to-man defensive coverage was particularly evident on the Boston Bruins’ second goal. Struble had his man, but Hutson and Oliver Kapanen went for the same man, Viktor Arvidsson, leaving Pavel Zacha, who had scored the Bruins’ first goal, to skate unhindered to Jakub Dobes’ net and be in perfect position to convert on Arvidsson’s pass.
Throughout the season, the Canadiens have outscored their issues. They simply scored so many goals that it didn’t matter that they allowed so much because they were able to run up the score. The problem with that is when you get to the playoffs, or even nearer to the playoffs, as we are now, teams tighten up, and they play a more defensive game. You can’t outscore fundamental defensive flaws in the playoffs.
At this stage of the season, it’s too late for a complete overhaul of the defensive system, but Martin St-Louis has to be aware that there’s a lot of work to be done there. While on paper the system works, it means that on the ice, players need to make the right reads in a split second. That’s easier said than done, and if a player like Oliver Kapanen with such a high hockey I.Q. can make a mistake, anybody can. On Tuesday, instead of sticking with his man, the Finn stopped and was drawn to the puck carrier who Hutson already had.
Of course, it’s impossible to play a perfect game in which you make no mistakes, but if the Canadiens want to get to the playoffs and play more than the five games they had last season, they need to tidy things up as a matter of urgency.
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