This season, the Canadiens’ defensemen have scored several goals. They now require their forwards to start scoring.
The Canadiens were defeated 4-0 by the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, dropping their record to 9-10-2. It was the Canadiens’ first shutout of the season, and it also ended an eight-game streak in which they had a goal from a defenseman. Defensemen have scored 11 of the Canadiens’ last 22 goals.
Mike Matheson has the most goals among the defensemen, with five, followed by Justin Barron (four), Johnathan Kovacevic (three), Kaiden Guhle (two), and Arber Xhekaj and Gustav Lindström (one each). The 16 goals are nearly half of what the Canadiens got from their defensemen last season, when they finished with 33, led by Matheson’s eight.
Forwards Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, Alex Newhook, and Sean Monahan are tied for the team lead with six goals, putting them on pace for a season total of 23. There were 84 players in the NHL with more than six goals after Sunday’s games. Suzuki and Caufield are tied for the team lead in points (6-11-17), ranking them 71st in the NHL.
Since Brendan Gallagher’s 33 goals in 2018-19, the Canadiens haven’t had a 30-goal scorer. They haven’t had a 40-goal scorer since Vincent Damphousse in 1993-94, nor have they had a 50-goal scorer since Stéphane Richer in 1989-90. The last time a Canadiens player averaged a point per game or better in a season was Alex Kovalev, who had 35-49-84 totals in 82 games in 2007-08. They haven’t had a player finish in the top ten in NHL scoring since Mats Naslund finished eighth with 43-67-110 totals in 1985-86. That year, the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup.
That’s why I was surprised when the Canadiens chose defenseman David Reinbacher with the fifth overall pick in this year’s NHL Draft. For a long time, the Canadiens have struggled with a lack of offense.
There were red flags about Matvei Michkov going into this year’s draft, including the mysterious death of his father in Russia, who went to the Philadelphia Flyers with the No. 7 overall pick. However, Ryan Leonard, who was selected eighth overall by the Washington Capitals, appears to be a player who could help the Canadiens. The 6-foot, 192-pound right-winger scored 77 goals in two seasons with the US National Development Team before being drafted. That’s two fewer than Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs scored during his two seasons with the US development team and three more than Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils. Leonard, an 18-year-old freshman at Boston, has nine goals in 14 games this season .
Canadiens GM Kent Hughes said at the NHL Combine before this year’s draft that Leonard reminded him of the Tkachuk brothers — Matthew of the Florida Panthers and Brady of the Ottawa Senators — with his “physical, intense play style and work ethic.” Former Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin passed on Brady Tkachuk at the 2018 NHL Draft, instead selecting Jesperi Kotkaniemi with the third overall pick before Ottawa took Tkachuk with the fourth. Former Canadiens assistant GM Trevor Timmins, according to a reliable source, was concerned about Tkachuk’s skating ability. Tkachuk has 135 goals in his sixth NHL season, while Kotkaniemi has 59, including seven this season with the Carolina Hurricanes.
This isn’t a knock on Reinbacher, who has 1-2-3 totals in nine games with Kloten HC in the Swiss-A League this season and has the potential to become an excellent NHL defenseman. However, scoring goals is difficult to come by, especially for the Canadiens.
Josh Anderson of the Montreal Canadiens is still without a goal this season after 21 games and more than 354 minutes of ice time, including 76 minutes on the power play.
Jake Evans scored in the season’s first game and hasn’t scored since. Rafal Harvey-Pinard did not score in 13 games before suffering a lower-body injury. Michael Pezzetta has one goal in his last eight games and none in his last 17. Juraj Slafkovsky has two goals, one of which has come in the last ten games. Back to last season, the 19-year-old, who was the first overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, had two goals in 42 games.
Despite being acquired from the Vancouver Canucks, he has yet to score in his last 16 games. Since returning from knee surgery, Christian Dvorak has one goal in 11 games and no goals in the last nine.
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Caufield has two goals in his last 14 games, Monahan has none in his last 11, and Suzuki and Gallagher have both gone seven games without scoring.
Right-winger Joshua Roy, who was selected in the fifth round (150th overall) of the 2021 NHL Draft, is averaging a point per game as a 20-year-old AHL rookie with 7-11-18 totals in 18 games with the Laval Rocket.
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