After a stellar back-to-back in the middle of last week, the Montreal Canadiens went into a weekend set at the Bell Centre with some optimism. It went about as poorly as it possibly could, with losses in regulation to the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks on consecutive nights. While this setback has yet to hurt them too badly in the standings, they will be looking for answers as they’re about to meet two of their divisional rivals this week.
When they do, they had better do a much better job of defending the slot than they did against Anaheim.
Count them up; three even-strength goals scored from the slot, at or below the hash marks. Part of their problem is an inability to exit their zone effectively, which has been particularly prevalent since the Olympic break, and often leaves them scrambling to re-organize. A lot of the slot chances they’re giving up would be avoidable if they would exit the zone more purposefully. The general quality of their defending could also stand to improve, but at least getting out of the zone easier would have made a big difference against the Ducks.
Juraj Slafkovsky had enough of one such shift where they were failing to exit the zone, and charged up the middle of the ice on his own. That ended up becoming a goal for Nick Suzuki. Transitional play is a strength for this team, without a doubt, but until they can improve their zone exits, that strength is limited by their own doing. They spend so much energy just trying to get out of their zone that it takes away from their ability to attack with speed. They allow more quality chances, and create fewer of their own. The chances allowed are arguably the bigger problem, because they’re running out of ways to mitigate those.
Goaltending has been a hot-button issue this season. Samuel Montembeault has seemingly been relegated to a permanent press-box attendant due to his role in that issue. But if this team can’t defend the slot better, they could trot the second coming of Dominik Hasek out there and still have trouble winning games. They’ve played every card they have at this point when it comes to goaltending. They have to find a way to defend their slot better, whether it’s focusing on getting the puck out of the zone on their first try, or changing up defensive assignments.
If they can’t, they are going to make this stretch run very difficult on themselves, because the teams they’re chasing, and the ones chasing them, aren’t sitting on their hands.
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