The same problems, the same weaknesses

Maxime Truman
The same problems, the same weaknesses
Credit: YouTube

Jeff Gorton may have tried to lower fans' expectations at the Canadiens Children's Foundation golf tournament, but the fans refused to lower the bar.

When you see your team finish the regular season with 106 points and then make it to the Conference Finals a few weeks later, it's only natural to start believing in them the following fall. Most fans expect the Habs to have a better season—and an even better spring—this year.

Especially with the young players, who all have another year of experience under their belts…

However, that's not what's been happening since the start of the season. The Canadiens managed to win a game they were dominated in by the Maple Leafs to open the season, but then suffered two losses afterward—6–5 and 6–4!

Montreal has allowed no fewer than 14 goals in three games since the start of the regular season; only the Flyers have given up more than that in the East (17). Except that the Flyers have played one more game.

In short, the defense is a mess, and the Habs find themselves in seventh place (out of eight) in the Atlantic Division this morning. This isn't what the experts predicted for the Habs at the start of the season.

Several players are having a disastrous start to the season: Jakub Dobes, Mike Matheson (even though mainstream journalists are trying to defend him), Noah Dobson, Kirby Dach, Juraj Slafkovsky, Jayden Struble, Arber Xhekaj, and Jake Evans, among others.

I'm willing to believe that Kaiden Guhle, Oliver Kapanen, and Ivan Demidov are sidelined, but the players on the ice simply aren't getting the job done. And the goalie isn't stopping enough pucks!

Are we reliving last year's scenario, when no goalie could manage to play a solid 60 minutes? By the way, who will we send into the fray tomorrow night? I see only one possibility: Samuel Montembeault.

Maybe Jakub Dobes should pay a little less attention to what's being written about him and really prepare himself—mentally and physically—for the huge challenge awaiting him this year…

For now, the Canadiens have the same strengths and weaknesses as they did at this point last year: they're capable of scoring a lot of goals and never give up, but their defensive structure isn't quite there yet. That's why Derek Lalonde was hired, right? It's up to him to get everything organized.

You know, we've all seen over the past two springs that the Canadiens lack physicality, that they need another right-handed defenseman to round out their top four, that they don't have a second-line center, and that they're vulnerable. Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton haven't taken any steps to address these issues. Guess what? They're still there this year.

Yes, it's all well and good to praise the Canadiens' excellent salary structure, but if you don't use your cap space to add quality to your roster, what good is that structure?

The fallen-through trade involving Matthew Knies hurt the Habs, because we were almost counting on a guy like Knies (and he would have made a difference in the top 6)…

But it also hurt the organization because Michael Hage suddenly decided not to make the jump to the pros a few weeks after that. And he opted for a third season in college over the summer.

Did he have the guts
—as my son would say—to play for a team that had traded him to the Maple Leafs (one minute too late)?

Florian Xhekaj isn't ready

We're pretty much all on the same page about one thing: the fourth line needs to have a clear identity. Like pushing the puck deep into the opponent's zone and ruffling their feathers…

So many of us applauded Florian Xhekaj's inclusion in the lineup last night.

However, young Xhekaj's performance fell short: he committed several turnovers, finished the night at -3, was all over the place on defense, and made several poor decisions with the puck. In short, it seemed to be moving too fast for him.

I'm pretty sure they'll go with Oliver Kapanen over him tomorrow night, and he'll have to be patient before making it back into the lineup. We'll see how he performs in practice to determine whether he's still an AHL player
or if he can truly keep up with the pace of the best league in the world.

Why Slafkovsky and Dach over Bolduc?

We've been asking ourselves several questions since the start of the season: why is Juraj Slafkovsky playing with Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook, rather than with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield?

Why, for that matter, is Kirby Dach getting so many chances from the coach?

Yesterday, Kirby Dach had another dreadful game…

And Juraj Slafkovsky looked like the 18-year-old Slaf who had just arrived—in the midst of a rebuild—in the NHL. On the final goal of the game, he looked like Olivier Kapanen in the playoffs: he showed a lack of intensity when entering the zone instead of dumping the puck and/or taking the hit. It cost us a goal.

Martin St-Louis will have to find a way to get Slafkovsky back on track and avoid overusing Kirby Dach.

I have an idea: he should just promote Zachary Bolduc to the top 6. Bolduc scores, he hits, he blocks shots…

Let's reward him.

That's how a meritocracy is supposed to work.

If you can't use Bolduc on one of your top two lines right now, you never will.


Extension

The guys at HFTV mentioned last night that the official Heritage Classic jersey will be unveiled on Thursday and that the one designed for the Hometown Remix collection will be unveiled next week.

They also shared a few details about the Canadiens' Hometown Remix jersey that have me pretty excited.

As for the jersey for the Heritage Classic on October 25 in Winnipeg, remember that a leak appears to have surfaced and was reported in an article a few days ago.

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