Opening night is finally right around the corner, and the Montreal Canadiens are in the final stages of preparation to kick off the season at home against the hated Toronto Maple Leafs.
Here is how the lines look like:
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Max
Pacioretty
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David
Desharnais
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Daniel
Briere
|
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Rene
Bourque
|
Tomas
Plekanec
|
Brian
Gionta
|
|
Alex
Galchenyuk
|
Lars
Eller
|
Brendan
Gallagher
|
|
Travis
Moen
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Brandon
Prust
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George
Parros
|
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Michael
Bournival
|
Ryan
White
|
|
Josh
Gorges
|
P.K.
Subban
|
Andrei
Markov
|
Raphael
Diaz
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Jarred
Tinordi
|
Francis
Bouillon
|
Carey
Price
|
Peter
Budaj
|
If
the lineup doesn’t change for tomorrow’s game, the team will feature a very
balanced top-9 forward group and an extremely physical fourth line. The
Pacioretty, Desharnais, and Briere line will be the line who will be most
counted on to contribute offensively, with the EGG line as a secondary offensive
line. Plekanec’s line will receive most of the defensive assignments while the
bottom line will act as a support line. Obviously, Moen, Parros, and Prust will
be counted on to swing momentum in the Habs’ favor with their physical play.
The
defensive unit has a few question marks however. Gorges and Subban is a solid
top pair. They can play in all situations, and should eat up a ton of minutes.
Things look shaky after them though. Markov and Diaz isn’t the most reliable
pairing. Markov isn’t a top level skater anymore, and Diaz isn’t the ideal
partner for him. Diaz hasn’t had a great camp, and hasn’t shown that he can
play top-four minutes yet. Tinordi and Bouillon are two defenders who usually
play on the left side, so one of them will play on his off-wing. Therrien faces
are real puzzle with his defensive corps early on this season with Emelin,
Drewiske, and Murray now on the injured reserve list.
Moen-Prust-Parros as a Line, and
Markov on Penalty Killing.... Really?
It
is understandable that Therrien wants to have a line that can stand up against
Toronto’s tough guys, but at the expense of using an actual center on the
fourth line? Prust is not a natural center. Yes, he’s already been used their a
few times, but he can’t win face-offs as regularly as White or Bournival, who
are both natural centers.
If
the coaching staff wants to have a physical bottom line so badly, why not us
Ryan White at center? He’s an extremely physical player, and he will fight
anybody, like he showed by fighting Chris Neil twice against the Senators
during pre-season. It is okay to use Parros as he can take care of the
fisticuffs if need be, and Prust is indispensible. So why not scratch Moen and
dress an actual center? Only the Habs’ coaching staff knows.
Another
questionable decision is having Andrei Markov on the penalty killing team
instead of Subban. Honestly, why? Why not use the Norris trophy winner on the
penalty killing? Why not use the player who was one of the team’s best penalty
killers two seasons ago instead of the player who obviously has lost a step and
ran out of gas at the end of last season? Again, only the coaching staff knows.
If
Therrien wants to maximize his assets and give himself the best chance to win,
he will need to use a natural center on his fourth line and use Subban on the
penalty killing instead of Markov. The Russian rearguard should now be used as
a power play specialist from now on. He shouldn’t see more than 20 minutes a
night, while Subban should see 25+ minutes per game, like other elite
defensemen. Not using Subban in every situation is a complete lack of logic and
hurts the team.
As
for the lack of natural center on the fourth line, this is the perfect example
of a coaching staff concentrating more on gooning up rather than putting the
best team on the ice. It is okay to use an enforcer like Parros when you’re
facing a big physical team with a few fighters in their lineup, but you can’t
sit down your natural centers and use three wingers to have a tougher team. Even
worse, Moen was used at center during a few exercises during practice. This
defies any sense of logic and reason. Moen has never played center during his
career. Would you seriously want to have Moen take a faceoff? Even if Therrien
is smart enough to not use Moen at center, who would you rather have take a
faceoff, Prust or White?
Despite
all this, the Montreal Canadiens will show up tomorrow with good chances to
win. They have the better offense and the better goaltender heading into the
game. The Leafs have a better defense, but in the end the Canadiens’ balanced
attack should be able to win the game, as long as the team stays disciplined.
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