The Montreal Canadiens are being schooled by the Carolina Hurricanes right now, and as hard as it is for fans to accept, that's another level of growing pains they have to go through.
Much has been written and said in recent days about the Montreal Canadiens needing to shoot more in their Eastern Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes. After Game 3, coach Martin St-Louis admitted that his team needed to generate a higher volume of shots after spending the season brushing aside concerns over the lack of shots. While we weren’t in the video room with the team on Tuesday, there’s no doubt that St-Louis told his men that they needed to shoot more. Then, on Wednesday night, 21,000 people told them as well when they replaced the traditional “Go Habs Go” chant with an annoyed: “Shoot the puck!”
The problem, however, is that something else needs to be fixed before the Canadiens can take more shots: they need to get out of their own zone. When the puck dropped on Game 4, play immediately went in the Canadiens’ zone, and the Hurricanes started to control play. When the Habs got the puck back, be it on a rebound or by intercepting a pass, they were unable to do anything with it, aside from turning it over most of the time.
How many attempted lob clearances have we seen in this series? Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Jake Evans have all attempted that kind of play and failed to execute it. Even worse, there are times when the Habs don’t even get the opportunity to miss that play because by the time they’ve decided what they want to do with the puck, they’ve had their pocket picked.
If you can’t exit the zone, it will be hard to get more shots on net. We’ve often heard that when a player has reached his ceiling, the game slows down for him and he can make the right reads and decisions in seconds. At times this season, it genuinely looked like the game had slowed down for the Canadiens’ top line, but not in these playoffs. If anything, it looks like the Hurricanes are playing at ludicrous speed, yes, the same speed spaceships can reach in Spaceballs.
What’s the solution? There may not be one right now. The Canadiens are in the fourth year of their rebuild, and they’ve yet to reach the Hurricanes’ level of experience and dedication to their system. Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton’s job is not done yet, far from it. Martin St-Louis is doing what he can with the roster he has, but he cannot get on the ice himself. It’s up to the players to execute, and the fact is that there are still key pieces missing in the puzzle. As for the pieces that are already there, they appear to be running on empty.
Last season in the playoffs, the Canadiens learned from the Washington Capitals that the postseason is physically demanding, and you need to be ready to be hit. This time around, the Canadiens are watching an execution clinic. Carolina is just so good at executing their game plan that the Canadiens are watching the train go by. If the series is to end in five games on Friday night, though, the Habs will still be able to hold their heads high; they’ve learned a lot this postseason. They’ve learned to play with incredibly high stakes, and they've closed two series in Game 7, which is priceless. Down the line, all that experience will come in handy, even if the players are hurting right now.
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