The Canadiens are one of the worst teams in terms of goals scored

Dose
Crédit: MONTREAL, QC - OCTOBER 26: Montreal Canadiens center Jake Evans (71) plays the puck during the St. Louis Blues versus the Montreal Canadiens game on October 26, 2024, at Bell Centre in Montreal, QC (Photo by David Kirouac/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The Canadiens have now lost three straight games, scoring seventeen goals in the process. That’s far too many! Especially when the team only scores six goals in reply.

With fifty goals already conceded in just 12 games, the Habs occupy second-to-last place in the NHL, ahead only of the Colorado Avalanche, tied with the San Jose Sharks and Pittsburgh Penguins, who have both played one game more.

Although the image doesn’t show the right number of goals, the Canadiens are thirty-first in the League. That goes a long way to explaining the club’s lacklustre start to the season.

The team has particularly struggled in five-on-five with a minus-fourteen differential for twenty-ninth place across the NHL. This is a regression for the organization, which finished last season with a respectable minus six for twentieth place.

Arpon Apsu of The Athletic questions the Canadiens’ objectives, seeing no progress so far this year.

It’s all the more frustrating given that the special units are working better this year (although the disadvantage is ripping some off recently).

How can we explain this regression? We can point to the lack of experience of our defensive brigade for our setbacks in this area, but shouldn’t it be getting better?

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Could the hybrid defensive system that the Canadiens’ coach, Martin St-Louis, is trying to implement with the team be too complicated for a young defense? That’s what Brian Wilde of Global News thinks in his article published this morning.

Playing a hybrid system means constantly switching between a zone defense and a man-to-man defense depending on the situation, requiring a level of communication and maturity that seems to be lacking from the Canadiens so far.

It often seems that the players think too much on defense and react to the play rather than anticipate it. This would explain the Canadiens’ annoying habit of giving away a second goal quickly after conceding one.

Perhaps it’s time for St-Louis to implement a simpler defensive system better suited to a defensive brigade. The Habs should apply the good old KISS method: Keep it simple, stupid, because sometimes it’s better to keep it simple…

In Overtime

– Wild win in overtime.

– Ovy scores in fourth straight game.

– Gold glove for Varsho.

– Nice mark for Ehlers.

– Pick six!

This content was created with the help of AI.