Montreal Canadiens Plus/Minus: Power Play and Power Forwards

Meant to be an informal retrospective on the past week in the world of the Habs, Montreal Canadiens Plus/Minus will overview the good and bad in the past seven days of Tricolore Hockey.

In the first edition of this new feature, Plus/Minus takes a look at the performance of the team's power forwards, Josh Gorges' utilization on the man advantage, the Andrei Markov fiasco and Louis Leblanc's first week in the NHL.

Plus

The Power Forwards: The Canadiens 2011-2012 season opened with so much optimism. Great goaltending, a deep blueline, forwards who can hit as well as score, three lines that would pose an offensive threat.

Sadly, a quarter of the way through, that optimism has faded.

The defense has been decimated by injuries, Andrei Markov has yet to return, the power play has failed to click and some attackers, namely Mike Cammalleri, Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta, have been underwhelming.

Amongst all of these shortcomings, the team's three designated power forwards — Max Pacioretty, Erik Cole and Andrei Kostitsyn — have delivered as expected.

The aforementioned are all on pace for well over 20 goals each and have been consistent physical presences. Cole is second on the team in hits, while the other two also find themselves in the top-10 in spite of missing some games.

Louis Leblanc: The Canadiens sent down Aaron Palushaj — who looks like he has no business in the NHL right now — on Sunday. The main reason the Habs were able to do so? Louis Leblanc has not looked out of place at all in his first three games.

Picking up his first career point on Saturday, he has been able to throw a few hits, keep his game simple and not become a defensive liability against his team. Hard to ask a rookie forward on a decimated squad to do much more.

The recently demoted Palushaj should take note.

Minus

Gorges on the Power Play: On Wednesday night, in Anaheim, Jacques Martin used Josh Gorges on the man advantage for over six minutes. He also used him extensively in the games against San Jose and Los Angeles.

True, he is having a career year offensively, but the fact remains that he only has three power play tallies in 391 games. Not exactly earth shattering stuff.

Meanwhile, Frederic St-Denis, who still leads Bulldogs' blueliners in points, and Alexei Emelin, who, as Fred Poulin points out, has some untapped offensive potential, do not even get a sniff.

When your man advantage ranks near the bottom of the league, it certainly could not hurt to give the youngsters a chance.

The Andrei Markov Debacle: He is at practice. He might play. He disappears. He is not in San Jose. He is in L.A. He is seeing a doctor. He is having surgery. He will be out another three weeks.

Really?

Whoever managed the flow of information regarding Andrei Markov certainly did not minimize the distraction it would create. It was deflating for fans to discover he would be out until the new year, mere days after expecting him to return imminently.

It's hard to imagine that the whole situation was a blow to the entire team's psyche.

So that's it for this week. What were your pluses and minues for the past week?
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Louis is an Associate Editor at HabsAddict.com and an Editor at HabsWorld.net. Louis was born in Chicago but grew up in Quebec City where he earned Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from Université Laval. He currently lives in Ottawa and works for the Coaching Association of Canada. He can be reached at l.moustakas@habsworld.net

(Photo by Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images North America)

Posted in: alexei emelin,andrei kostitsyn,andrei markov,brian gionta,erik cole,Frederic St-Denis,Josh Gorges,louis leblanc,max pacioretty,mike cammalleri,montreal canadiens,Scott Gomez