It’s time to call a spade a spade. The Montreal Canadiens are not playing well and haven’t been for several weeks. From Dec. 3-Jan. 21, the Habs went an impressive 16-6-1. Since then, they’ve fallen back down to earth and out of the playoff race with a 1-5-1- record.
One by one, the Canadiens have started failing challenges their schedule has presented, when they had previously risen to the occasion, at least since the start of December. It’s like they’re a completely different team. In reality, that’s only part of the problem.
It’s easy to pinpoint the factors that initially put them on the path the success. For example, the debut of forward Patrik Laine, the acquisition of defenseman Alexandre Carrier and the promotion of goalie Jakub Dobes. How about the factors that have caused them to fall off course?
More Respect, Fewer Backups Faced
Even if the Canadiens fall deeper out of the race, at least Habs fans know what this team is capable of come next season. The problem is other teams now know too. They’re less likely to take them for granted now, and they haven’t based simply on the quality of goaltending the Habs have faced over the last little while.
At the start of the Canadiens’ playoff push on Dec. 3, the Canadiens faced six backups up until the new year, a span of 13 games. Since then, over their last 17 games, they’ve faced only four backups and on three of those occasions the opposition had been playing on back-to-back nights: Charlie Lindgren of the Washington Capitals on Jan. 10 (to start, before he got replaced mid-game due to injury), Jonathan Quick of the New York Rangers on Jan. 19 and Marc-Andre Fleury of the Minnesota Wild on Jan. 30.
The fact the Canadiens are just 2-2 in those games, including an outlying loss to the near-last-place Chicago Blackhawks on Jan. 3, is a justifiable source of frustration. In fact, the Habs’ only win over their last seven games was against the actual-last-place San Jose Sharks. So, while the Habs are playing fewer backups, they’re not even winning consistently against the ones they do face, putting them at risk of falling back to Square One.
Emil Heineman Injury
On the surface, losing Emil Heineman to injury shouldn’t have been that big of a deal. Granted, it was a relatively serious car accident, so a big deal in that regard. However, Heineman is a fourth-liner, albeit one who had been putting together an impressive rookie season with 10…
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