MONTREAL — If you’re skimming this article, you might want to stop on the key stats for an explanation as to how the Montreal Canadiens have gone from Stanley Cup finalists in July to bottom dwellers through half of the 2021-22 season.
Of course, there are some other reasons you should consider. They’re not excuses, but valid reasons. Like Carey Price shocking the entire team, and the hockey world, by checking into the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program on the eve of the regular season.
That the superstar goaltender’s knee rehabilitation has kept him out of every game since returning to Montreal in November has certainly had an impact on the Canadiens’ results.
Price isn’t the only one who’s been absent all along. Captain Shea Weber came out of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final too injured to continue his playing career. Paul Byron was supposed to be back from off-season hip surgery in late December and has yet to appear in a game. Finally, Joel Edmundson suffered a back injury on the first day of training camp and is still facing an uncertain timeline for his return.
Staying on the same theme, the Canadiens not only lead the league in most goals allowed; they rank first in man-games lost (366). No team has had to rely on more skaters this season and none have placed more players on the COVID-protocol list.
Perhaps an average start, while the Canadiens were relatively healthy, would’ve mitigated some of the damage we’ve seen since. But getting out of the gate at 0-5, having suffered two blowout losses before collecting a win, the snowball grew and turned into an avalanche.
It took down the front office within eight weeks of the start of the season, and it plundered the Canadiens to their worst first half in franchise history.
They have eight (!!!) wins to show for their efforts and none earned in consecutive games. It’s been hideous.
If you read all this instead of skimming, the numbers below are just as hard to look at.
Key Stats
Team record: 8-26-7 (8th in the Atlantic Division, 32nd in the NHL)
Goals for per game: 2.17 (32nd)
Goals against per game: 3.76 (1st)
Power play: 13.1% (31st)
Penalty kill: 73.2% (29th)
Best surprise: You know it’s a bad season when you can’t point to anything on the ice. Owner Geoff Molson hiring former New York Rangers GM Jeff Gorton as executive vice-president of hockey operations before hiring former player agent Kent Hughes as general manager completely shook up the front office. We’ll find out if it was in a good way, but it was definitely in a necessary way. And those moves were certainly received well by the fans.
Biggest disappointment: Jeff Petry. It is unfathomable that this player is playing the worst he ever has after the three best seasons of his career. He topped 40 points in each of those, including through just 55 games last season, but he’s only managed five points through 34 games this season.
Admittedly, the short off-season and extra pressure Petry put on himself in Weber’s absence knocked him off kilter, but he’s had a hard time regaining his stride.
I refuse to believe we’re seeing the real Petry right now. He’s been better of late, though not as good as he can be, but the 34-year-old has much to do to crawl out of this category.
Biggest questions for the second half: Who stays? Who goes?
This won’t all get sorted out before the Mar. 21 trade deadline, or even before the final 41 games of the season get played, but it will determine which direction this team is headed in.
A rebuild, with only a handful of young players and some key veterans sticking around, seems in order. But we’ll only have confirmation that’s the direction the Canadiens are headed in well after the dust settles on this season.
In the meantime, some players can play their way into staying. Some might ask out or play their way off the team.
One thing is certain: no game will be more compelling than that storyline over the second half of this wretched season.
Canadiens mid-season review: Hideous first half worst in franchise history
Source: Pinas Ko Mahal
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