Canadiens’ power play can make or break series vs. Capitals

BROSSARD, Que. — It was about 11 months ago that the Carolina Hurricanes watched their 111-point season burn up in the least likely way imaginable to them.

And no, it wasn’t because it was the 114-point, Presidents’ Trophy-winning New York Rangers holding the flamethrower. 

“It was because our power play couldn’t score,” said Jesperi Kotkaniemi when we caught up with the former Montreal Canadien ahead of this past Wednesday’s game at the Bell Centre.

The Hurricanes ran the second-best power play in the league last season, clicking at 26.9 per cent. They felt as though it could be an element of play that could truly help finally push them from contender to champion, and that feeling was only reinforced when their power play scored on five of its first 15 opportunities and helped them dispatch of the New York Islanders in five games in the opening round of last year’s playoffs. 

Then it went 0-for-15 and helped the Rangers take a 3-0 series lead in Round 2.

New York’s power play scored on four of its first nine opportunities, and had it kept scoring at even half that rate — instead of going 1-for-10 — the series probably would’ve ended in less than six games.

“It was just brutal,” said Kotkaniemi.

It was unquestionably decisive. 

You could say having an ineffective power play in the playoffs hasn’t always been. 

Watching the Boston Bruins go 5-for-61 through the first three rounds of the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs would support that.

But the Bruins were one of three teams since that year to win the Cup with a power play that clicked at under 13 per cent, and none of the last 11 Cup winners have operated at less than 16 per cent.

You can imagine what happens to teams that click at just five per cent.

That’s what the Canadiens did over their last nine games of the season — going 1-for-20 — and it’s unimaginable they’ll make it out of their first-round series with the Washington Capitals if that continues.

“It’s something we know we have to be better at,” said Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki on Friday.

He plays on both units of the power play but wasn’t on the ice with either of them Friday.

That’s because instead of practising, the Canadiens only had a handful of players take to the ice while nearly everyone else was given rest.

Rest was essential to get the Canadiens to the playoffs. They spent much more time off the ice in between games to put every ounce of energy into their final games of the season.

But that decision came at a cost, and that cost was not being able to practise the power play. 

Now, with one opportunity to do that traded for more rest, the Canadiens will only have three more chances to get some power-play reps in before facing the Capitals in Game 1 Monday.

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Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis — who took on primary power-play coaching duties after Alex Burrows stepped away from his role as assistant coach prior to the season — explained on Friday how the work off the ice will be just as important.

“You first start looking at Washington — the way they kill and where the holes are — and it’s just try to make the five guys understand that. And they all have to do their part,” he said. “When the power play struggles, it’s not necessarily four guys struggling. Sometimes it’s just one guy, and sometimes it’s two guys, and then it’s hard to get going as a power play. The five guys have to be really doing their job, doing their part, and you don’t break down the other PK with one guy. Everybody’s got to be part of the equation in breaking that down.”

Jake Evans, who has become one of the best penalty killers in the NHL, said on Friday that the hardest power plays to defend are the ones that “keep you guessing.”

“They don’t have one way of scoring,” Evans continued. “They have a lot of options, and they keep moving around.”

The Canadiens have had the members of their first unit moving around, but they’ve struggled considerably in creating more than one way to score. 

Patrik Laine has scored 15 of the 23 goals those players have combined for since the beginning of December, and they haven’t found a way to free up his shot — or anyone else’s — with consistency down the stretch. 

When they did free Laine’s shot up, he wasn’t using it with the same confidence. Hence, his last power-play goal coming 11 games ago.

“It’s not necessarily going to be the same guy that’s pulling the trigger, but we all have to be calculated in setting that chance up,” said St. Louis. “I don’t think we’ve done a good job of that lately, so we’re going to really dive into that.”

With fewer power plays typically afforded in the playoffs and margins to win each game so thin, he’ll have to be far more malleable if Plan A doesn’t work out of the gate.

“I mean, listen, I have a bunch of cards I can use,” said St. Louis. “Obviously, we’ve got (Ivan) Demidov now, so that’s a new card. I don’t exactly know how I’m going to use all these cards, but we have plenty of cards.”

The fifth-overall pick isn’t just a new card St. Louis can use; he’s a total wild-card.

Even if everything Demidov showed in his two games mirrored what he showed in breaking the record for most points in a KHL season for a player under 20 years old, there’s still so much to be discovered about what he can do. And even if he didn’t put up a point on the power play—and somehow didn’t score any of his 19 goals on SKA’s power play in the KHL—there’s no telling to what extent his skillset can be exploited to help the Canadiens’ power play in the playoffs.

There’s reason to believe the 19-year-old can be a serious threat, and St. Louis must optimize that threat in a hurry. 

Earlier this season, he could afford to wait to put Lane Hutson on his first unit, and that’s what he did until Hutson made it impossible to deny him that chance.

But now? 

It’s debatable St. Louis should wait even one more second before putting Demidov on that first unit, and we’d argue he shouldn’t wait one more to use a card he hasn’t all season — having Hutson, who produced 26 of his 66 points on the power play, play on both units.

Granted, there’s a downside to making too many changes at this stage.

“We also don’t want to reinvent the wheel and try a bunch of different things and cause chaos,” Hutson said.

But he knows the appropriate balance must be struck quickly for the Canadiens to avoid their power play leading to their demise against Washington.

The Capitals will test their penalty kill, too, after having scored nine goals over their last 24 power play opportunities through their final nine games of the regular season. 

They may have only scored on 23.5 per cent of their power plays over 82 games, but they adjusted late to improve.

The Canadiens scored on 20.1 per cent of their power plays this season. They also ranked 28th in the NHL in expected goals on the power play, which indicated there were structural, strategic and composition issues that weren’t adequately addressed.

Maybe all that goes out the window against a specific opponent over a seven-game series. Maybe Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky suddenly finally find their best selves from the bumper and the goal line, respectively, after debuting in those positions in December and remaining in them through mid-April. Maybe Hutson and Suzuki free Laine up and he starts shooting like he has his whole career. Or perhaps Demidov makes the second unit so dangerous, he doesn’t need to be on the first one.

But if none of that happens, and if potential adjustments to structure, strategy and composition fail, it’s hard to imagine it won’t greatly impact the Canadiens’ odds of pulling off an upset.

Quick hits

• David Savard confirmed this will be his last NHL season Friday, saying he had been weighing the decision for quite some time before informing Canadiens management and his teammates he was resolved to retire.

He is the oldest player on the youngest team entering the playoffs, one of only two players on their roster to win the Cup, and the Canadiens are hoping to push his retirement as far back as they possibly can.

“He’s really loved in the room, and he’s been a big part of this rebuild and been someone to look up to for a lot of guys, including myself,” said Suzuki. “Obviously want to prolong his career.”

-The Capitals finished 20 points ahead of the Canadiens in the standings, second overall behind the Winnipeg Jets but first in the East by three points, and St. Louis made sure to acknowledge their status as an overwhelming favourite in this series.

“I mean, I feel it’s the best team in the league,” he said, “so you do the math.”

The betting odds have the Canadiens as the biggest underdogs in the playoffs.

• Aliaksei Protas hasn’t skated since suffering a foot injury in a game April 4. The six-foot-six, 247-pound winger had 30 goals and 64 points this season and was plus-40 through 76 games. To say he’d be a “big” loss if he couldn’t play Round 1 would be understating it. 

Protas had one goal and three assists in three games against the Canadiens.

• The Canadiens won their last game against Washington in overtime. They lost the one prior to that by two goals. 

But that first one was the most memorable, with the Capitals scoring three third-period goals to win 6-3, leaving St. Louis to repeat several times that the Canadiens “puked all over” themselves.

That was Oct. 31, and much has changed since then.

We’ll see how much come Monday, when Game 1 gets underway at Capital One Arena at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.

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