The last month has been distressing for fans of la Sainte Flannelle. Of the last 10 games, they've won only 2, lost 6 and lost in overtime twice, for a total of 6 out of 20 possible points. You don't get to the playoffs that way, and the Habs are currently fourth in the very tight Atlantic Division, close to a wild card spot... but not close enough.What's happened to le bleu, blanc et rouge? IMHO their problems all amount to the same thing -- lack of depth. Ten or twelve games before the last 10, they iced a pretty good, nicely balanced team. Four decent forward lines and four or five reliable defencemen, plus, of course, Carey Price, when he was on his game. Then came the injuries.
Top forwards Jonathan Drouin and Paul Byron fell in one game against Washington. And last week sophomore hopeful Jesperi Kotkaniemi was concussed by a vicious hit from Colorado's Nikita Zadorov. (See "NHL's Department of Knuckleheads disgraces itself again", by Jack Todd, in the Montreal Gazette, 8/12/19.) A couple of games earlier, Victor Mete, Captain Shea Weber's defence partner, injured his ankle during a game against Philthydelphia. That's four of the Habs' best/better players gone, likely until the new year.
To make matters worse, former all-star goalie Carey Price has been, shall we say, less than stellar so far this season. He allowed only one goal in Friday night's 2-1 over the Rangers, but over 24 games in which he's played, his GAA is 3.04 and his save pct just .902. That's in the bottom quarter of active (20 games or more) NHL goalies. It would be OK if backup Keith Kinkaid had been able to pull a couple of games out of the fire, but he wasn't and has now been sent down to Laval.
Who has come up from Laval to backstop Price and the four skaters? Well, Charles Hudon, for one. Hudon is the king of coulda/shoulda/woulda. He's been up and down like a toilet seat at a mixed party, always being given yet another chance to prove that he's capable of playing at the NHL level. Yet he never quite succeeds. Too bad for him. Other call-ups like David Gustafsson, Otto Leskinen and Matthew Peca (another up-and-downer), all of them Europeans, have similarly failed to impress. Too bad for them, too bad for the team.
I am still hopeful, though, for Cayden Primeau, brought up from Laval to give Carey Price a rest, especially in back-to-back games. Primeau's first start was against Colorado last week. He look at a bit shaky at first -- the nerves of a 20-year-old playing his first game with the big team -- but settled down and was not solely responsible for the 3-2 loss. His save pct so far is .914.
Conclusion? Les Glorieux need some new players who can score and/or defend, and, with the possible exception of Ryan Poehling, they're not going to come from the Laval farm team. So it's up to GM Marc Bergevin to find some new talent, and he'd better do it PDQ because if the Habs miss the playoffs again, his head will be the first to roll. He's made some good moves in the last three years, notably the Weber-for-Subban trade, but also some bad moves, like failing to resign Alex Radulov and Andrei Markov.
The Canadiens have lots of cap space -- some $8 million -- but to trade for top players they'll have to be willing to give up some top players. Such as... Drouin? Maybe. Max Domi? Possibly; he's off to a poor start this year. Weber or Price? Unthinkable? They're both getting older and slower, but are still at the very core of the team. And they both have hyuge contracts which few other teams would want to take on. So, is a puzzlement, but unless fresh forces are found, unclear the future is.
