Habs in Need

Expectations in Montreal always run high.

With the Habs in their centenary year and hosting the All-Star game in late January of 2009, the rabid fans and media, in La Belle Province, think it’s their divine right for a possible return to the Stanley Cup finals, their first since beating the Kings in five in 1993.

With a surprising first place finish in the Eastern Conference last year, the Canadiens felt they were a couple of players away from taking the next step towards their 25th Stanley Cup.

Habs GM Bob Gainey made two key additions in hopes of a parade down Rue St. Catherine. Gainey picked up Alex Tanguay and Robert Lang, via trade, and added them to a team that was second in the league with 257 goals, one behind the Ottawa Senators.

Last year the Habs’ power play was first in the NHL. They clicked at a robust 24.1 per cent with 90 goals in 374 chances. In the play-offs their power play ended up at a dismal 14.6 per cent and that was a key reason they lost to the Flyers in the second round.

In the post season the game becomes a five-on-five battle with mistakes and chances at a minimum. The man advantage separates the winners from the losers.

Signing Tanguay and Lang garnered big headlines in Montreal but the loss of UFA Mark Streit to the Islanders and the loss of Sheldon Souray to the Oilers, the year before, are more damaging than any transactions the Habs have made.

They simply haven’t replaced the points that Souray and Streit provided.

Without Souray and Streit the Habs power play has become a major concern for Les Glorieux. Currently, the Habs are 24th in the league at just under 15 per cent.

Included in that was a less than glorious 1-33 between Nov. 8 and Nov 18 and a woeful 6 for 55 at home so far this year.

Every team goes through ups and downs during a season but the style of the game today places so much emphasis on special teams.

Sometimes you’ve got to give the opposition credit but the Habs simply must do better.

Lately the Habs have been using Lang on the point along with Andrei Markov. Lang and Markov both lack the big shot that Streit and Souray possessed. Without the big shot, from the point, teams have been collapsing down low and taking away the slot and the two-on-one play by the net.

Judging by the nightly chorus of boos at the Bell Centre the results have been evident. Too many passes around the perimeter and a lot of hesitant and individual play by the power play units.

The most ironic thing is that Montreal has six more points than they did last year, at this point, when their power play led the league.

If the Habs want to make a run deep into June then Gainey has to find a way to pick up a mobile defenceman with a big shot. Easier said than done. There aren’t a lot of guys like that and the teams that have them aren’t giving them away for free.

Maybe Gainey will wait until the trade deadline to see which teams have fallen by the wayside.

If not, then the Habs may have to wait for another year and in the pressurized and over anxious atmosphere that is Montreal, another year could feel like a hundred of them.