BROSSARD, Que. — The Montreal Canadiens‘ power play was impossibly bad last season.
The team ranked 23rd with the man-advantage (16.5 per cent efficiency) with a cast that included P.K. Subban, Andrei Markov, Jeff Petry, Alex Galchenyuk, Tomas Plekanec, Brendan Gallagher and David Desharnais.
It went from bad to worse in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, where they finished with the second-worst power play of the 16 teams participating (5.5 percent efficiency).
“Teams don’t go out there taking penalties, but if they do they’re not worried about [our power play],” said Subban Wednesday. “You just know, when you’re playing Pittsburgh you don’t want to give them a chance on the power play. That’s what they want. Guys like [Sidney] Crosby and [Evgeni] Malkin and [Phil] Kessel — you know that’s where they’re going to pad their stats.”
And so, some major changes are in order.
After Wednesday’s practice, head coach Michel Therrien announced that assistant coach Dan Lacroix, who ran last year’s powerless power play, will now be running the team’s penalty kill. Assistant coach Jean-Jacques Daigneault will take Lacroix’s place on the power play.
The responsibility isn’t solely on Daigneault’s shoulders, though. Craig Ramsay, brought on as a consultant to the coaching staff on August 25, will help him in his new role.
“Craig’s got a lot of experience,” said Therrien on Wednesday. “Sharing his ideas, not only on the special teams, not only the power play, but regarding the team’s play at five-on-five. This is the reason he’s there.”
The Canadiens need all the help they can get in this department. In addition to whatever strategy changes emanate from Daigneault and Ramsay, newcomer Alexander Semin could completely shift the dynamics that rendered the recently-mighty Montreal power play so stale.
There was a stretch between 2005 and 2011 during which the Canadiens could seemingly do no wrong on the power play. After placing fifth overall in 2005-2006, they finished with the league’s top power play in 2006-07 and 2007-08. They dipped to 12th at a respectable 19.8 per cent efficiency in 2008-09, but came back up to second place in 2009-10. Sixth place in 2010-11 wasn’t exactly an indication that the Canadiens power play was falling off a cliff.
There were common denominators that made them so dominant during those years. One constant was having Markov as a setup man. Another was having a rocket of a one-timer to his right in Sheldon Souray or Marc-Andre Bergeron or Mathieu Schneider.
But the key that tied it all together was that the Canadiens had a second shooting option from the half-boards, playing on the same side as their guns on the point. From 2005-2008, that role was played masterfully by Alex Kovalev. From 2009-2011, Mike Cammalleri proved to be a worthy successor before falling out of favour in 2012.
In a conversation with Subban towards the end of last season, he brought up the relevance of having a triple-threat from the half-boards; a player with a wicked one-timer; one who could set up plays as well as he could finish them; one who could make you think he was going to pass or shoot but instead opt for a one-one-one move down to the goal line.
In the history of the NHL, Kovalev and Cammalleri fit as well into Subban’s description as any other player you can name.
Semin has proven in the past that he, too, is capable.
“The last time I probably had another righty that could shoot [on the left of me] was when [James] Wisniewski was here [2010-11] and our power play worked very very well with that,” said Subban, also a right-hand shot. “It’s one of those things where you can just kind of sit there… With Semin there — if that’s the spot he’s going to play, I don’t know — I think it’s an interesting look. He can shoot the puck… the power play is all about forcing the [penalty kill] to make decisions in terms of who they want to give up and what they want to give up.”
What opposing penalty killers weren’t willing to give up on last season was blocking Subban’s one-timer from the point. The Canadiens tried to adjust by putting Subban on the right, but that effectively neutralized him altogether.
Subban insists the Canadiens have all the necessary weapons to get the job done and concedes how important it will be to have the confidence in the man-advantage heading into the post-season.
“We waited too long last year to really focus on it, thinking it was just gonna turn and things were going to happen and [they] just didn’t,” said Subban. “You look at the years before; our power play helped us win rounds [in the playoffs].”
At this point, the Canadiens would settle for anything that helps them climb out of the league’s bottom tier in goal scoring.
