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The Canadiens have the worst powerplay in the NHL in April
Charles-Alexis Brisebois
The Canadiens have the worst powerplay in the NHL in April
Credit: Getty Images
The Canadiens are not a perfect team.

It’s an exciting team. It’s an unpredictable team. It’s a team that shouldn’t be taken lightly… but it’s definitely not a perfect team since it still has flaws to correct.

Here are three. There are more, I know, but we’ll start with three.

1. The team must score more often on the powerplay

Yesterday, Juraj Slafkovsky scored a goal on the powerplay. It was his 50th point of the season, which allows him to equal his total from the previous season, by the way.

But did you know that it was the Habs’ first powerplay goal in April?

The team had 17 powerplay opportunities in April and Slaf is the only one to have taken advantage of it. We’re talking about a 5.9% success rate, equal with the Ducks and the Kraken – two powers… – at the bottom of the Bettman circuit.

I don’t see Martin St-Louis bringing Ivan Demidov to the first wave right away (he’s currently on the second unit) and that’s okay… but we can still mention his name.

The Capitals, in April, have a mid-class powerplay, with a 80% success rate. Will the Habs, if they make the playoffs, be able to score on the powerplay against them?

We’ll see in due time.

2. The team must start their games better

Yesterday, the Habs took the lead 2-0 (against a bad team) and finished the first period ahead 2-1. It was the first time in 15 games that the Habs were leading after 20 minutes.

Renaud Lavoie talked about it this morning on BPM Sports’ morning show. There were seven times when they were trailing, seven times when it was tied… and once (yesterday) when the Habs were leading after a period.

Martin St-Louis recently talked about his team’s bad starts. And even if the team is capable of coming back in games, it can’t always be done – and the coach knows it.

In the playoffs, you can’t just play catch-up hockey. Especially against (potentially) Washington…

3. The team must shoot more

The (second) best scorer of all time said it: you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. And if the Habs are going to play against the Capitals (and against the best scorer of all time) in the playoffs, they’ll need to shoot to help themselves a bit.

In their last five games, the Canadiens have shot 17, 22, 21, 15, and 21 times on goal.

Obviously, the best players must be the best and shoot more. But the whole team must bring pucks. Games where there’s less than one shot per guy on average, it doesn’t work.

Ivan Demidov is part of the solution (three shots yesterday), but it will take more from many guys.


in overtime

– Wow.

– The Flames want to believe.

– Suspension coming?

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