41 Games - By The Numbers

POINTS

Tomas Plekanec is currently in 7th place in the National Hockey League for points. He has 36 assists, behind only San Jose’s Joe Thornton. We’ve been dying for an offensive star.

Well, we’ve got one and he’s homegrown.

Mike Cammalleri isn’t doing so bad himself, sitting with 35 points at 30th in league scoring. He has 19 goals (11th – NHL) and is on pace for about 38. With Andrei Kostitsyn waking up from his lumber and a secondary scoring line coming together, the Habs will be a much more dangerous offensive threat in 2010.

PRODUCTION

Pleks earns a point for every 18:42 of ice-time. Roaring back from injury, Markov’s production is second amongst the Habs at 19:28. Cammy also sits with the NHL’s top 50 producers, earning a point around every 22:46 of ice-time. Marc-Andre Bergeron – that forced signing – contributes to the Habs offense every 26:24, making him more productive than guys like Phil Kessel and John Tavares.

Other notables producers

Andrei Kostitsyn- 24:01

Glen Metropolit- 27:31

Brian Gionta- 29:31

Scott Gomez- 30:32 (producing just above Alexander Frolov and one-time Hab Robert Lang)

With these guys putting up consistent points, we’d be expecting them to get enough ice-time to contribute. The Habs top 3 for average time-on-ice (ATOI), however, are Roman Hamrlik (24:31), Andrei Markov (22:43), and Josh Gorges (21:47). We don’t even have one forward in the top 100 for ATOI. Brian Gionta, who missed 21 games, averages 20:40. Tomas Plekanec, who is one of the leagues top scorers, is 136th for ATOI (20:05) – and we all know that too many of those minutes come when the Canadiens are short-handed.

SPECIAL TEAMS

The Habs have been a man down 183 times – the most in the NHL. In contrast, the league’s least penalized team (New Jersey) has been short-handed only 111 times – a difference of 144 minutes (that’s over 7 periods of short-handed hockey). The Canadiens have taken 200 minors (second only to Philly), 38 of them tripping penalties (1st-NHL) and 29 of them for holding (1st-NHL). For a team that’s supposed to be built on puck possession, that’s a heckuva lot of penalties. Luckily, the Habs have a solid PK. They’re T-16th for powerplay goals against (28) and sit 8th overall with a PK efficiency of 84.2%.

On the flipside, the Habs have a tremendous PP. The NHL’s number 1 unit converts on 25% of opportunities (30/120). Unfortunately, the team sits 30th for powerplay opportunities (120). In case you were wondering, Pittsburgh has had the most chances with the man-advantage (169, or 98 more minutes). That’s a lot of time to play more 5-on-5 hockey and combine that with the extra 144 minutes being a man-down and the Habs are looking like a pretty worn down team.

It’s hard to say why there is such a disparity in powerplay opportunities for-and-against. Looking at all of those hooking and tripping calls might indicate that we’re under-sized or late getting to the puck. Surprisingly, our quick and skilled players aren’t drawing many penalties against other teams. A grinder and defenseman lead that category: Maxim Lapierre and Jaroslav Spacek each have 9 penalties drawn. Scott Gomez has drawn 8, Josh Gorges and Max Pacioretty, 7; and Plekanec only 4.

It doesn’t help that two of our biggest (physically) free-agent signings get called the most for infractions: Paul Mara has 44 PIM; Hal Gill 43 PIM.

LITTLE THINGS

We have a lot of shot blockers (Roman Hamrlik – 90; Gorges – 85; Spacek; 77) but not a lot of hitters – Travis Moen has 87 (37th – NHL), Lapierre has 72 (68th) and Andrei Kostitsyn has 67 (84th). If we’re not hitting, you’d at least hope that we were getting shots on goal, but Mike Cammalleri is the Habs only player in the top 100 (131 SOG – 12th). Plekanec has 87 (102nd – NHL) and AK46 has shot the puck on net 82 times (121st – NHL).

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So we’re doing some things well but other things not well enough. Our skilled guys need more ice-time. Give our top two lines an extra few shifts every night and we might just see some additional offense. A little extra discipline in our zone will help reduce our time on the PK, ease the burden on guys like Pleks and give them to expel that energy in the offensive zone.

SURPRISES

Glen Metropolit is our 6th leading scorer (19). What could be more surprising than that? Well, how about Marc-Andre Bergeron being our 5th leading scorer (21)? And who would’ve thought that Travis Moen would already have 7 goals by mid-season?

Max Lapierre, last season’s most consistent and defensively responsible forward, has a -10 (+/-) rating. Off-season acquisition Paul Mara is -11. Mike Cammalleri, who earned his keep in Calgary on the powerplay, only has 3 PPG.

The Habs have the most lethal powerplay (25%) but are 8th in powerplay goals (30).

Kyle Chipchura has 2 goals in 11 games for the Ducks and Guillaume Latendresse has 6 goals in 14 games for the Wild.

Georges Laraque averages 5:53/game and still doesn’t have a goal as a Montreal Canadien. Carey Price leads the team with 26 starts, but Jaroslav Halak leads the team with 10 wins, a save percentage of 0.924 and a GAA of 2.56.

…

The Habs may have lacked consistency, blueline depth and secondary scoring for most of the season but somehow they have managed to stay competitive. After 41 games, the Habs are playing .500 hockey. Is that good enough to make the playoffs? Probably not, but now they have Markov and Brian Gionta back. The Habs have rope-a-doped their way to 7th in the East. They’ve been jabbed, hooked, and cut above the eye but have never gone down.

Now it’s their turn to hit back.

Bring on Round 2.