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Pearson – Monahan – Gallagher: the magic no longer works

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Pearson – Monahan – Gallagher: the magic no longer works
As many predicted, the Montreal Canadiens are having a decent season so far.

It’s been this way and that, while the club isn’t in the top tier of the National Hockey League, it’s not one of the worst teams in the NHL either.

The Tricolore manage to put on a good show for their fans, but they’re also capable of putting on some disheartening and rather pathetic performances.

In short, it’s night and day with the Habs, and the same goes for many of the team’s players.

They all seem capable of the best and the worst.

And even those who were thought to be capable of nothing but the best are struggling.

Take the team’s third trio of Tanner Pearson – Sean Monahan – Brendan Gallagher.

This trio, which was one of the team’s best, if not the team’s best, night after night at the start of the season, is going through a major slump.

In fact, over the CH’s last seven games, this trio has really struggled, as was pointed out on Radio-Canada Sports’ Tellement Hockey program.

Since the game against the St. Louis Blues, the Pearson – Monahan – Gallagher trio has scored just one goal and allowed eight at five-on-five.

If we look at each of the three players separately, well, we notice that Tanner Pearson has just one assist in his last 12 games, Brendan Gallagher has just one goal in his last six games and Sean Monahan has just one assist in his last four games.

These are eye-popping statistics that make a trio that was considered untouchable not so long ago look very bad indeed.

So, perhaps it’s time to break up the only trio that has remained intact since the first game of the season against the Maple Leafs in Toronto.

The magic clearly isn’t working any more, which is unfortunate, but at the same time normal considering that all the other trios have been changed many times since the start of the season.

In my opinion, Sean Monahan could really help revitalize Cole Caufield, who has great difficulty buying a goal or simply a good five-on-five scoring opportunity.

The CH’s number 22 doesn’t stand out in five-on-five situations, and his only goal in 16 games in such circumstances is testament to that.

So Monahan, who seems to make the players next to him better, could really help Caufield regain his confidence.

Maybe Monahan could even make Juraj Slafkovsky better.

In short, I think a simple switch between Monahan and Dvorak could be very beneficial to the CH.

Maybe even putting Gallagher on Nick Suzuki’s trio instead of Josh Anderson could be beneficial.

Newhook – Suzuki – Gallagher
Caufield – Monahan – Slafkovsky
Pearson – Dvorak – Anderson

In short, all this remains to be seen.

We could have new trios as early as tonight against the Boston Bruins.


In a gust

– Tomorrow is the final, starting at 6 p.m.

– Don’t miss today: the last game of the Global Series in Sweden.

– The best and worst goaltenders in the NHL this season.

– What do you know. I guess it’s the ECHL, huh.

– Read on.

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