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While the Montreal Canadiens got a big win Saturday night in their final home game of 2023, a recurring trend did pop up when they let the New York Islanders get back in a game they were leading 4-0 after two periods.
There have been stretches in just about every game lately where the Canadiens play into their opponents’ hands, where they turn pucks over and make it easier to produce offence against them. Coach Martin St. Louis chalked up Saturday’s third period to the fact the Canadiens are not exactly accustomed to being up four goals in the third period, and when a team is down four goals they will change the way they play, becoming a riskier team in an effort to produce offence.
The Canadiens prepared to face a very conservative Islanders team; a team suddenly more willing to take offensive risks was not what they prepared for.
There’s nothing wrong with that explanation, but it is just a nicer way of saying the Canadiens don’t know any better because they’re young. And young players, after scoring four goals in two periods and after having trouble scoring goals — particularly the forwards — for some time now, will have more of a tendency to evaluate opportunities not through the big-picture prism of managing the game, but rather the small-picture prism of a potential scoring opportunity. If that means extending a shift to try and exploit that opportunity, so be it.
Mike Matheson went through a long process early in his career learning the intricacies of risk-reward management the hard way. It took him going to a veteran team in Pittsburgh to learn some winning habits, and even now, some of those old tendencies creep back into his game. But he has a heightened awareness of the mistakes of youth because he’s gone through them, and he knows it’s not always easy to play a patient game.
“There’s different aspects that go into it, like whether you’ve gotten hemmed in the zone and they’re rolling a change and you’re tired, all that kind of stuff,” Matheson said before the game Saturday. “But I think it’s just the ebbs and flow of momentum and understanding when those are and when they’re coming and that you have to play a different game depending on what those are looking like.”
Matheson said it’s easy to recognize those ebbs and flows when you are up a couple of goals or down a couple of goals; those decisions are made easier out of necessity. But there are other moments in a game that are not score-related that take some experience to recognize.
“There’s also times where you’re jumping on the ice and you know the change hasn’t been completed yet, there are still two or three guys who are deep in a shift, that’s a less obvious one where you have to play a little bit differently at that point,” he said. “Or you know we’ve been kind of taking a beating two or three shifts in a row, you’ve got to play a bit differently than if we’ve been on top of them. So I think those are the less obvious ones than you’re up two goals or down two goals.”
The Canadiens are still learning those cues, of when to embrace risk and when to resist its temptation. But the more reps they get, the more situations they can create for themselves to play with a lead, the better they will naturally get at it.
Nick Suzuki prepares … to be kicked out of the faceoff circle. (Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images) Just drop the puck please
If you’re thinking players are getting kicked out of the faceoff circle more often than usual, it is not an illusion.
About a month ago, the NHL sent a memo to all their linesmen to crack down on wingers cheating into the faceoff circle. If one of the linesmen spots a winger creeping in — which every winger does on just about every faceoff — the offending team’s centre will be kicked out.
“We’re all still trying to figure it out,” Jake Evans said. “Sometimes they let it go, sometimes they don’t. We had one game in Anaheim where we got kicked out like 20 times.”
Evans said that in the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins last Wednesday, he was kicked out of the draw before he even got set up to take the faceoff.
Brendan Gallagher has had to cheat to get every little inch he can on faceoffs for years and knew where the line was, but he doesn’t anymore.
“The linesmen have warned us, so we know what’s going on, but it’s hard because there’s been a standard set and now it’s changing,” he said. “I mean, everyone cheats. It’s about how much you can get away with. Now that they’re cracking down, you’re trying to find the new standard of where you can be.”
Just to illustrate the difference, Gallagher has taken seven faceoffs and Juraj Slafkovský has taken eight in the 12 games since Nov. 21. In the 18 games prior, Gallagher took six faceoffs and Slafkovský took seven. So it’s happening more frequently, and disrupting the flow of games as a result.
We don’t often talk about the role of wingers on faceoffs, but they are extremely important. They need to either disrupt what the opposing team is trying to do or get to a spot to help their team create a scoring chance, depending on where the faceoff is. Every second and every inch counts.
“I’m looking at his toe caps and trying to get mine a millimetre closer to the puck than his,” Gallagher said. “Trying to get any edge you can without getting kicked out.”
That calculation has become much more difficult, and we might have to endure these extended faceoffs until NHL wingers adjust to the new standard. Speaking of faceoffs …
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Thank you for your submission to /r/Habs! Please include either a brief summary, highlight a small section, or provide talking points for this article. Not everyone can view The Athletic but everyone should be able to participate in the discussion.
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While the Montreal Canadiens got a big win Saturday night in their final home game of 2023, a recurring trend did pop up when they let the New York Islanders get back in a game they were leading 4-0 after two periods.
There have been stretches in just about every game lately where the Canadiens play into their opponents’ hands, where they turn pucks over and make it easier to produce offence against them. Coach Martin St. Louis chalked up Saturday’s third period to the fact the Canadiens are not exactly accustomed to being up four goals in the third period, and when a team is down four goals they will change the way they play, becoming a riskier team in an effort to produce offence.
The Canadiens prepared to face a very conservative Islanders team; a team suddenly more willing to take offensive risks was not what they prepared for.
There’s nothing wrong with that explanation, but it is just a nicer way of saying the Canadiens don’t know any better because they’re young. And young players, after scoring four goals in two periods and after having trouble scoring goals — particularly the forwards — for some time now, will have more of a tendency to evaluate opportunities not through the big-picture prism of managing the game, but rather the small-picture prism of a potential scoring opportunity. If that means extending a shift to try and exploit that opportunity, so be it.
Mike Matheson went through a long process early in his career learning the intricacies of risk-reward management the hard way. It took him going to a veteran team in Pittsburgh to learn some winning habits, and even now, some of those old tendencies creep back into his game. But he has a heightened awareness of the mistakes of youth because he’s gone through them, and he knows it’s not always easy to play a patient game.
“There’s different aspects that go into it, like whether you’ve gotten hemmed in the zone and they’re rolling a change and you’re tired, all that kind of stuff,” Matheson said before the game Saturday. “But I think it’s just the ebbs and flow of momentum and understanding when those are and when they’re coming and that you have to play a different game depending on what those are looking like.”
Matheson said it’s easy to recognize those ebbs and flows when you are up a couple of goals or down a couple of goals; those decisions are made easier out of necessity. But there are other moments in a game that are not score-related that take some experience to recognize.
“There’s also times where you’re jumping on the ice and you know the change hasn’t been completed yet, there are still two or three guys who are deep in a shift, that’s a less obvious one where you have to play a little bit differently at that point,” he said. “Or you know we’ve been kind of taking a beating two or three shifts in a row, you’ve got to play a bit differently than if we’ve been on top of them. So I think those are the less obvious ones than you’re up two goals or down two goals.”
The Canadiens are still learning those cues, of when to embrace risk and when to resist its temptation. But the more reps they get, the more situations they can create for themselves to play with a lead, the better they will naturally get at it.
Nick Suzuki prepares … to be kicked out of the faceoff circle. (Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
Just drop the puck please
If you’re thinking players are getting kicked out of the faceoff circle more often than usual, it is not an illusion.
About a month ago, the NHL sent a memo to all their linesmen to crack down on wingers cheating into the faceoff circle. If one of the linesmen spots a winger creeping in — which every winger does on just about every faceoff — the offending team’s centre will be kicked out.
“We’re all still trying to figure it out,” Jake Evans said. “Sometimes they let it go, sometimes they don’t. We had one game in Anaheim where we got kicked out like 20 times.”
Evans said that in the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins last Wednesday, he was kicked out of the draw before he even got set up to take the faceoff.
Brendan Gallagher has had to cheat to get every little inch he can on faceoffs for years and knew where the line was, but he doesn’t anymore.
“The linesmen have warned us, so we know what’s going on, but it’s hard because there’s been a standard set and now it’s changing,” he said. “I mean, everyone cheats. It’s about how much you can get away with. Now that they’re cracking down, you’re trying to find the new standard of where you can be.”
Just to illustrate the difference, Gallagher has taken seven faceoffs and Juraj Slafkovský has taken eight in the 12 games since Nov. 21. In the 18 games prior, Gallagher took six faceoffs and Slafkovský took seven. So it’s happening more frequently, and disrupting the flow of games as a result.
We don’t often talk about the role of wingers on faceoffs, but they are extremely important. They need to either disrupt what the opposing team is trying to do or get to a spot to help their team create a scoring chance, depending on where the faceoff is. Every second and every inch counts.
“I’m looking at his toe caps and trying to get mine a millimetre closer to the puck than his,” Gallagher said. “Trying to get any edge you can without getting kicked out.”
That calculation has become much more difficult, and we might have to endure these extended faceoffs until NHL wingers adjust to the new standard.
Speaking of faceoffs …