The sample size may be small, but it’s somewhat revealing.
The Montreal Canadiens, who own the NHL’s second-best record at 16-5-2, are 4-4-1 on the road—where their inability to produce enough offence may indicate a flaw in their strategy.
If the team is going to return home from this five-game road trip with their Eastern Conference lead intact, they’ll need their two leading forwards to get on the ice more frequently.
Alex Galchenyuk, who is averaging 16:03 per game and is tied with Jakub Voracek, Wayne Simmonds, Claude Giroux and Phil Kessel for eighth in NHL scoring (22 points), is playing at least three minutes less per game than any of the league’s top-12 scorers.
Linemate Alexander Radulov, who has 18 points in 21 games, is averaging just 15:59 per game.
While it may be plausible that Galchenyuk’s 39 per cent faceoff efficiency and his lack of defensive expertise is causing pause for Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien, the evidence suggests that not employing the top-scoring duo more often is most likely related to the offensive strategy.
As Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty said following his team’s 2-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Nov. 24, “I feel like we use four lines like no other team in the league does.”
Pacioretty is absolutely correct. Sportsnet’s Stephen Burtch demonstrated as much when he broke down how much the Canadiens depend on even distribution of ice time for their forwards.
“We try and get everybody involved in the game, whereas you see other teams trying to rely heavily on individuals,” said Pacioretty. “I think for an 82-game year, it’s important to make sure everybody gets their confidence; everybody gets their looks, and the fact that we have no egos on this team makes for a good balanced lineup and makes for a good team chemistry as well. Everybody’s happy with their role in here and everybody knows what they’re expected to do night-in, night-out, and it gives everybody a sense of urgency when they get out there.”
Both Therrien and general manager Marc Bergevin have recently pointed to the harmony of their group as the primary reason for its success thus far, and the balance of scoring on the team makes it that much harder to consider deviating from the plan. All but three of 15 Canadiens forwards used this season have managed at least one goal, with seven of them scoring five or more.
One more reason to keep things status quo: the spread in ice time is also conducive to avoiding burnout for any particular player, which is a smart way to tackle the marathon that is the NHL season.
But a few more road losses—in which scoring proves elusive for Montreal—might have the coach rethinking things as we move along.
In five November games away from the Bell Centre, the Canadiens were shut out 10-0 by the Columbus Blue Jackets, and they lost all but one game when limited to two or less goals by the Hurricanes, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings and Anaheim Ducks.
It’s not going to get any easier for Montreal from this point forward.
The Canadiens begin December on the road in San Jose against the Sharks on Friday, where they haven’t won a game in 17 years.
The club will then go to Los Angeles for a Sunday matinee against the Kings — where they’ve been on the losing side since 2011 — before wrapping up their trip Tuesday against the St. Louis Blues, who currently own the West’s best home record at 11-1-2.
If Therrien is going to stick with the four-line strategy on the road, he had better hope Galchenyuk and Radulov can break through, regardless of having to play against the opposition’s best defenders on most of their shifts.
But given that Galchenyuk—who has points in 17 of 23 games—has been blanked off the scoresheet in five road games, and that Radulov has been held without a goal and has only managed three of his 14 assists away from Montreal, this strategy might require an adjustment sooner rather than later.