The message from management is clear: the Habs’ defense needs to change

During the regular season, the Canadiens showed everyone that they had the offensive talent to achieve great things. A 50-goal scorer, a 100-point scorer, the sixth-highest goal total in the entire league (283)…

Defensively, however, things were more complicated. The Canadiens finished the regular season ranked 18th in the NHL in goals allowed (256).

That trend continued in the playoffs: the Canadiens allowed 56 goals in 19 playoff games, 14 more than the second-worst team in that category. The Habs scored four fewer goals than the Golden Knights but allowed 18 more. They also gave up 35 more goals than the Hurricanes!

So we weren't surprised to hear Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton admit this morning that there's work to be done defensively if they hope to win the Stanley Cup.

“We need to make adjustments. We're not the best defensive team, if you look at the stats […] we just have to be better, period.” – Kent Hughes

“We saw in the third round (that the defense needs to improve). We're going to be better. We've already talked to Martin St. Louis about this […] Tampa Bay didn't change its identity; it was a good offensive team, but it learned to defend better before winning the Stanley Cup.” – Jeff Gorton

Listening to Hughes and Gorton, it's clear that there will be changes both in terms of the players and the tactics taught and demanded by the coaches.

Noah Dobson, Mike Matheson, Lane Hutson, and Kaiden Guhle are signed for several years and will be called upon to log a lot of minutes. The first three won't be traded, but might we be tempted to sacrifice the fourth? Guhle had a strong playoff run, but he's prone to injuries. Because you don't significantly improve your blue line by swapping out your fifth, sixth, or seventh defensemen.

Although from what I'm hearing, Alexandre Carrier and Arber Xhekaj could be traded this summer.

On a related note, Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes admitted that the Hurricanes outplayed the Habs in terms of physicality.

“The Hurricanes' physical style made life difficult for us.”

We need to take these comments from the Montreal front office in a positive light: they saw what wasn't working, what was missing… and they're aware of the needs that need to be addressed. The playoff series against Tampa Bay, Buffalo, and Carolina will have served as a barometer for what's to come.

Except I can't help but come back to Martin St. Louis: why didn't he use Arber Xhekaj when his team needed physical play?

It's clear to me that Martin St-Louis doesn't trust Xhekaj and that the latter will be traded this summer.

It's worth noting that improving defensively also means implementing new defensive strategies, adjusting your hybrid man-to-man system, involving your forwards more (and in different ways), and perhaps even making changes to your coaching staff.

Only time will tell, as they say.

Update

Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes confirmed that several players are currently injured, but that no one is expected to require surgery.

The organization will likely provide a full medical update after today's medical exams.