Canadiens Need More From Their Star Players To Stay Alive
The Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning have yet to play a playoff game decided by two goals.
Most contests have gone to overtime, a testament to how evenly matched the Habs and Bolts have been throughout the series.
While the teams prepare for their decisive Game 7 on Sunday, every other playoff series has already been decided. The Eastern Conference semifinals between the Carolina Hurricanes and Philadelphia Flyers begin Saturday night.
But the mere fact that the Canadiens have managed to push the series to seven games is quite the feat when we consider they’ve received no 5v5 contributions from their first line.
And that’s not an exaggeration.
Cole Caufield , Nick Suzuki , and Juraj Slafkovsky have not managed score a single goal at 5v5, a considerable drag on a team that usually counts on their top trio to drive the offensive charge.
Montreal Canadiens Brass Tacks
Friday night was probably the first line’s best from a statistical standpoint. Head coach Martin St-Louis made a few lineup modifications, which means Slafkovsky wasn’t always used with Suzuki and Caufield, but in their 10 minutes of ice time at 5v5, the controlled 58% of the shots and 50% of the high-quality scoring chances.
However, at this point in the series, the process needs to make way for results.
If the Canadiens lose on Sunday, and the first line fails to make an impact at 5v5, very few will care that they improved their underlying numbers throughout the series. It would be considered a failure of a season for many fans and analysts, even though you could argue that the Canadiens are well ahead of their long-term rebuild plans.
Fair or not, fans want to see constant improvements, and they’d be much quicker to forget Suzuki’s 100 point season, or Caufield’s 50-goal campaign, if the team fails to make more noise in the playoffs.
Such is life for the highest paid players in the lineup.
The good news for the Canadiens is that they tend to be at their best with their backs against the wall.
A certain level of adversity has produced fantastic results for the youngest team in the league. While it’s not an ideal approach, it’s difficult to downplay the outcomes.
If the players who usually provide secondary and tertiary scoring respond to the adversity, the Canadiens will be in good shape.
If their top line responds strongly, Montreal will be very difficult to beat.
All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick .
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