"What's that noise?", alleged all-star defenceman P.K. Subban (76) seems to be asking. "Is it booing? Who are they booing? Surely they're not booing ME?!" But indeed they were, and deservedly so. Pernell Karl got assists on both Montréal goals, the second for a nice cross-seam pass to Alex Galchenyuk. But he also coughed up the puck a number of times (as is his wont), including two egregious giveaways which resulted in Columbus goals. -1 for the night.
So it's time once again (sadly) for me to ask, what's wrong with the Canadiens? Can it be fixed during the all-star break, or at least before the end of February trade deadline? Do the Habs have any hope of even making the playoffs, or will the nightmare continue until an early summer vacation?
Here (IMHO) is the problem in a nutshell. Les Glorieux are scoring just over 2 goals per game at the moment. Their goaltenders are allowing a slightly higher number, on average. Result? Loss after loss after loss. To fix the obvious problem, they must either score more or get scored on less.
I have much sympathy for the Montréal goaltending duo. Ben Scrivens, obtained from Calgary to replace the useless Dustin Tokarski, seems to be a graduate of the Mike Palmateer school of goaltending, but is doing his best. Mike Condon, elevated to the No. 1 role after Carey Price's injury -- will he ever recover? -- has a save percentage of around .910, which is reasonable for an NHL goalie. But his GAA is well over 2.00 and climbing, and... see preceding paragraph.
What Condon and Scrivens need is more help on defence. The Habs have some four defencemen -- Emelin, Petry, Gilbert, and Barberio -- who are either good or adequate. Greg Pateryn, brought up from the farm club last year, has been riding the pines most of this season, but would be OK if he were playing with the right partner.
Which brings us to Markov, Beaulieu and Subban. Andrei Markov appears to be getting tired. He's 37, so maybe he's just physically tired, but I believe his increasingly frequent flubs come from being paired with Subban and having to guess what the unpredictable "all-star" is going to do next. Perhaps it's time to give Markov a rest and let Pateryn play more, with Emelin perhaps, leaving Subban and Beaulieu to team up for the risky business.
As for the lack of scoring punch, I'm not alone in thinking that the forwards have a confidence problem. Knowing that Carey Price isn't back there to bail them out and the defence is suspect, they are playing to not make mistakes! They hesitate to carry the puck at top speed into the opponents' zone, lest they get trapped and then accused of being irresponsible on defence.
Instead, they leave it to the "offensive defencement" -- Subban and Beaulieu -- to initiate the break-outs. Subban tries to do this in one of two ways. Sometimes he tries what Don Cherry calls the "Alley Oop" pass, a lob up the centre which a forward is supposed to pick up for a breakaway. When that play works, it's great. At other times, Subban elects to carry the puck himself. Showboat that he is, he always makes a pivot or two along the way, which means that the forwards have to stop at the blue line to wait for him. Really. Not great.
There's my diagnosis. I'm running out of space so will only touch briefly on the question of who should be traded if the Habs are going to have a shot at the playoffs. The way things are now, if I were Marc Bergevin, I'd consider everyone except Carey Price a potential candidate for a trade. (Yes, some of them have no-trade clauses, but so what.) That includes P.K. Subban, who I think is not a team player, a disruptive force in the room and on the bench, and, on balance (as he often isn't!) a liability to the team.
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