The Montreal Canadiens might have looked good on the exterior to start the season, but their true colours are showing through. They rank dead last in the league in regulation wins, meaning five of their wins have come after regulation. I don’t believe this is sustainable, especially for a team that has arguably been playing above where they should be. Cole Caufield can’t be the hero in every overtime win.
That brings us to the problem of scoring for the Canadiens. Oddly enough, the Canadiens have found a way to score goals despite many of their everyday players who play a larger role on the team struggling to have an impact in the goal department lately or this entire season. Who I am referring to here are Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Tanner Pearson, Alex Newhook, Jake Evans, Rafael Harvey-Pinard, and Josh Anderson. Other than Newhook, every single goalless streak is still going strong.
Caufield has scored one goal in his last 10 games and isn’t even leading the team in goals anymore. He only has five on the season. Slafkovsky has one goal in 17 games this season after we thought he turned the page this summer. Pearson has zero goals in his last 12 games after three in the first five games of the season. Newhook, before scoring in the most recent loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, hadn’t scored in 13 games. Other than scoring the very first goal of the season for the Canadiens, Evans has no goals. This means he’s gone 16 games without one. After a 41-goal pace last season, Harvey-Pinard has no goals this season. Finally, Anderson has been a massive disappointment and doesn’t have a goal this season.
These are pretty significant droughts from players that should be counted on to score because they have in the past. A season-opening outburst isn’t going to do much if everyone goes cold and doesn’t continue to contribute. Let’s dive into each player in more depth.
What is the Real Problem in Montreal?
The Canadiens had a 3.25 goals-per-game in the first eight games of the season, and that has dropped to 2.66. That reason is pretty obvious when we see who isn’t contributing. Caufield is expected to be an elite scorer, and he showed that ability since Martin St. Louis took over as head coach. If Caufield hadn’t gotten injured for half of last season, he would have easily pushed for 50 goals. He scored four goals in the first seven games of the season, and only two of them have come in regulation. On top of that, only three of them are even at five-on-five. The expectation was for him to at least hit 40 goals, but without him scoring much, it has the largest impact on the team.
Slafkovsky worked hard this offseason to prepare for this season and improve his game. He looked good in preseason and early in the season but has only managed to get one goal on the season. He had a lot of problems on the second line and just kept getting worse until he was placed on the top line. That saw him score his first goal of the season. There was a debate about whether he should stay in the NHL or be sent to the American Hockey League (AHL), but it is pretty evident that the Canadiens want Slafkovsky as close to St. Louis as possible for the best development. Slafkovsky has a lot to prove and has to start producing. I don’t even chalk this up as a sophomore slump because he didn’t have a strong first year where he’s taken a step back.
Pearson looked like a great pickup by the Canadiens right at the start. He and the third line were clicking at a very nice rate and carrying a lot of the offensive load. This wasn’t going to last all season, but Pearson has gone dry in the goals department after scoring three in his first five games. He is also starting to fall behind his other linemates and is a two-time 20-goal scorer in the NHL. Despite a forgettable one goal and five points in 14 games last season for the Vancouver Canucks, he’s not actually doing that much better at this point, with only three goals and six points in 17 games. The Canadiens need a little bit more out of him right now.
Newhook has had the displeasure of centering Slafkovsky and Anderson for most of the season due to Kirby Dach’s injury. This has been tough and kept him off the scoresheet for the most part. He just potted his first goal in a while, but the lines have been altered a bit, and he is now skating alongside Nick Suzuki, who hasn’t had trouble producing this season. Newhook does have four goals and nine points on the season despite how the season has gone, but he has been given a larger role in Montreal and is expected to run with it.
Who would have guessed that Evans would have scored the first goal of the season for the Canadiens and go dark for the rest of the games to this point? He has only three points on the season, and it’s not like he has been limited in ice time. Due to Christian Dvorak missing a number of games, Evans has skated 13:20 per game this season on average, so the production isn’t ideal. He had the same issue last season, only scoring two goals in 54 games. The Canadiens hope he can get back to his production in the 2021-22 season, where he put 13 pucks in the back of the net.
Harvey-Pinard really impressed when given the chance last season to enter the top six of the Canadiens. Due to all the injuries, he spent a good chunk of the season playing on the top line and being able to score. Since he was scoring, he stuck around. As a rookie, this saw him score 14 goals and 20 points in 34 games. It was likely that it would be more difficult for him to score while playing lower in the lineup but not be completely shut out to this point. He doesn’t have a goal in 13 games and was recently tested on the top line to see if anything could change for him and the Canadiens’ fortunes. The spark wasn’t reunited in the short opportunity.
I mentioned Anderson as being the biggest disappointment on the Canadiens, and that is because of his $5.5 million AAV cap hit and the opportunities he’s received all season without any success at all. He has just two assists in 17 games, has played in the top six the entire season, and continues to be gifted top-unit power-play time. He is already up to over 65 minutes on the season on the power play and has one assist to show for it. He averages over 17 minutes a game and is now even on the top line. At a certain point, St. Louis has to call it and make Anderson earn everything he gets because the offense just doesn’t seem like it’s coming anytime soon, and it’s hurting the rest of the team (from “Josh Anderson symptom of greater scoring problem for Canadiens”, The Athletic, Nov. 15, 2023).
Related: Canadiens Might Have Missed the Best Time to Trade a Goalie
While all of these players need to start getting on the scoresheet more, there have been some goals coming from unexpected places throughout the lineup. This hasn’t been enough to help the Canadiens be competitive enough to stay in a playoff spot, and they have started to drop down the standings. I don’t expect them to be a playoff team, but these are negative signs in a season where many of these players were supposed to show improvement. It has been a step back or a struggle for some, and they will have to turn around soon.
