Montreal Canadiens: Confidence Is the Key So Far for the Team

Bob Gainey flushed the engine in Montreal between the 2008-09 season and 2009-10. A group of veterans lead by Alexei Kovalev, Saku Koivu and Alex Tanguay were allowed to leave while a group of younger veterans were signed to expensive long term contracts to be the team core for years to come.

That group was lead by Scott Gomez, Mike Cammalleri and Brian Gionta at forward. They had mixed results last year struggling through the regular season. The veteran defense lead by Hal Gill, Roman Hamrlik, and Jaroslav Spacek had trouble keeping the shot count down. The tiny forwards had trouble scoring at even strength.

That roster barely backed in to the playoffs in their last game of the season by losing a shoot-out to the Toronto Maple Leafs. They struggled to score last year and surrendered one of the highest shots against per game counts in recent Canadien's history.

Jaroslav Halak won the starting job in nets. His fifth best in the league, .924 save percentage, allowed him to drag Les Habitants, practically single handedly, into the playoffs.   

Once they made the playoffs Montreal transformed into a team of giant killers. They beat the President's trophy winning Washington Capitals in a tough seven game series. Timely scoring and great goaltending help them overcome a suddenly gun-shy Washington team, which also received some shaky goaltending at just the wrong time.

The confidence they earned there helped them beat the then-reigning Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins, again in seven games. Even the final loss to Philadelphia hasn't seemed to deflate that confidence that got built in the playoff run last year.

The line-up in Montreal is almost identical to the one that stumbled though most of last year's regular season. Carey Price has replaced playoff hero Halak, and done a great job so far.

PK Subban has taken on first pair minutes and mans the point on the power play. He has been perhaps the biggest improvement for the team personnel-wise this year. His brashness and skill with the puck have improved the team's ability to move the puck out of their own zone and helps keep it in the opponent's zone.

Markov was hurt most of last year and he looks to be hurt most of this year. Alex Picard replaces Ryan O'Byrne. 

Power play specialist Marc-Andre Bergeron was dumped and the power play has suffered.

Some checkers who played key roles last year like Glen Metropolit and Dominic Moore were moved out. Jeff Halpern has been brought in and been an excellent replacement.  

Generally speaking however the roster is identical to last year's that snuck into the playoffs. Yet this year the group is leading the northeast division by six points almost a quarter of the way into the season. 

The only appreciable difference between this team and that is the experience of playing together for an entire season. That and the success they had together in the playoffs. I think that experience and success has energized a group that hardly anyone was thrilled with when Bob Gainey put it together.

STRENGTH DOWN CENTER

Scott Gomez has always struck me as a fair second line offensive center. Tomas Plekanec seems like a very good second line center or perhaps more accurately, playmaking winger. Career checking center Jeff Halpern has come in to town and rounded out this group.

Halpern has been great killing penalties. He's leading the team in the face-off circle winning 55.9% of 213 face-offs so far. That's a huge boon to a team that couldn't buy a face-off win last year. Still this year Tomas Plekanec takes most of the face-offs and he only wins 47.4% of them. Whatever the marketing guys might try to tell you, that's not good enough.    

Halpern has also provided offense from the checking center position just like Metropolit did last year so there has been no loss offensively. He suffered a head injury versus Philadelphia the other night. Hopefully he's not going to miss too many games.    

Suddenly this group looks pretty good, especially compared to teams who don't have "a" good center. Montreal might not have that great team leading center but they have three pretty good ones.

Plekanec is leading the team in scoring. Scott Gomez needs to get his offensive production up. Six points in 18 games seems like the kind of production you hope to get from your fourth line energy player. The rest of the veterans seem to be starting to score and with Pouliot with nine points so far the Habs have six forwards with at least half a point a game.  

Price has been solid in the center of the ice as well. His confidence, to use that word again, seems to be surging. The frightening glove high goals that went in at the start of the year haven't recurred, yet. The acid test for Price will be how he weathers a losing streak and or a series of bad goals.  

Carey has not been beating himself with bad attempts to play the puck or mad scrambles out of position. He's been quick and controlled and unbeatable along the ice all year long. He's yet to look flustered. It would be nice to get Alex Auld into a few more games just so Price doesn't get burnt out half way through the season.  

OVERCONFIDENCE 

P.K. Subban has brought with him to the NHL the confidence of a player who has been in the league for a decade. He makes a lot of scary decisions with the puck but invariably his talent has allowed him to carry them off.

He's been given the quarterback job on the power play and he's fourth on the team in shots taken. His shot from the point hasn't been all that successful as he's got the lowest scoring percentage among players on the team with at least one goal. He's been great at keeping pucks in the opposing zone and alive from the point. He's been creative and active getting pucks out of his own zone. He seems to have the ability to skate at full speed in any direction which allows him to skate away from fore-checkers just by changing direction and separating from them. He reminds me a little of Serge Savard in his ability to get away from opponents.  

Subban seems ready to try anything. At times the thing he tries looks crazy. The other night against the Philadelphia he was skating behind the net with the puck with a Flyer in hot pursuit. He decided to jam the Flyer into the net while keeping the puck away and getting ready to pass. He hip checked this forward into the net knocking it into Carey Price. He could have injured his goalie with this strange play.

I'm not sure how he even conceived the idea to do this rather bizarre thing.

Subban does at times seem to be an ice time hog. He is yapping at everyone on both sides of the ice, constantly. Mike Richards made threatening noises about Subban's cockiness after their 3-0 loss to the Habs. I guess I'd say consider the source in this case. There's another cocky talented young player yipping about Subban's arrogance. I'd be prepared to accept it if it came from a player with a bit better reputation than the one Richards has generated. 

Confidence has been critical for the Canadiens and Subban this year. I think as he gains experience he may learn to let his talent do more of his talking for him. Hopefully some of his decisions become more optimal over time as well.

So far what generally has been a line-up that Bob Gainey put together a year and a half ago is performing fabulously this year. Hopefully this first quarter success is reinforced and carried on to the playoffs.