By the Numbers: Habs’ winless skid reaches seven games
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After finishing in the NHL’s basement last season with 55 points, the only way to go was up for the Montreal Canadiens heading into the 2022-23 campaign.
For the first two months of the season, the Habs were playing at a near .500 clip, going 5-4 in October and 6-6-1 in November.
But it has been a different story for the Habs since the calendar flipped to December, as they’ve resembled the team that was projected to be among the NHL’s worst this season.
The team has won only four games since Dec. 1 and are currently marred in a seven-game winless drought.
Montreal’s last victory was on Dec. 19 against the Arizona Coyotes in overtime, a game where they were outshot 39-26.
During this winless streak, they’ve allowed at least 31 shots against in each contest, while allowing a combined 36 goals against and have scored only 12 goals in that span. They also have the fourth-worst goals-against average (3.79) and sixth-worst mark in shots against (33.6).
Special teams continue to be a black hole for the Habs this season. They own the league’s worst power play at 14.8 per cent and the seventh-worst penalty kill at 73.8 per cent. In 2021-22, their power play was second worst at 13.7 per cent and their penalty kill was also seventh worst at 75.6 per cent.
Captain Nick Suzuki described the team’s power play as “embarrassing” after their 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 28.
“We’re not getting good touches on the power play and that’s stalling the offence,” Suzuki said. “When we don’t get those good chances on the power play, the offence dries up a little bit. We’ve had chances the last five games and when we don’t score, we fight it a little bit. I think it’s definitely psychological right now.”
Meanwhile, head coach Martin St. Louis expressed his displeasure with the team’s penalty kill this week.
“We shot ourselves in the foot early,” St. Louis said after the Habs lost 6-3 to Nashville. “We can’t kill a penalty right now to save our life. We’ve got to get better in that department. And I think you end up chasing the game all the time.”
Injuries continue to be a running story with the Habs this season as Sean Monahan (foot), Mike Matheson (lower-body), Brendan Gallagher (lower-body) and Kaiden Guhle (knee) have missed or are set to miss large chunks of time.
It will be at least another two weeks before Monahan, Matheson and Gallagher could see a return to the lineup as the team gets set to host the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night.
"We've just got to figure out a way to play better defensively," defenceman David Savard said this week. "We gave up Grade-A chances, and those are the ones that hurt. We play good sometimes, and sometimes we miss an assignment or something and give [up] a Grade-A chance.
"It's hard on our goalies, it's hard to make those saves when great players are coming down the pipe."