Underrated Habs Players: Maxim Lapierre

During his time with the Canadiens, Lapierre served as an agitator type who was able to contribute some very key goals at clutch times. Being a bottom-six forward, he was often not brought up as an important player in the success of the 2010 playoff run to the Eastern Conference Finals. Lapierre scored a big goal in Game 6 of the 2nd Round against the Pittsburgh Penguins that contributed in the team moving on. This is probably the  most remembered play by him as a Hab, but he did a lot more than that in his time playing for them. 

Lapierre spent parts of 5 seasons with the Canadiens, where he was a good do-it-all type of player. He would score, hit, fight and do whatever it took to win. Not to mention, he learned to become a very reliable faceoff ma n, winning 53.8% of his faceoffs in the 2008-09 regular season.

One of my best memories of Lapierre was actually during the Christmas holidays of the 2008-09 season on back-to-back nights. The first game, he scored his only NHL hat-trick on December 29th, 2008 , against the Florida Panthers in a 3-2 victory. Then, the next night, he scored the game-winning goal in the shootout against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Even though Lapierre was a 4th-line centre, he had his moments where he seemed to be a rockstar in Montreal. It quickly became a fan favorite with his agitating style of play. While it seemed like he played a minor role on the Canadiens, it turns out the minutes he played were actually very significant in bringing his team success. 

Lapierre proved to be a very successful penalty killer with the Habs, helping the Canadiens have a PK of 80%+ in each of his 4 full years with them. He also scored a career-high 2 shorthanded goals in the 2008-09 season.

That 2008-09 season as a whole was a great one for Lapierre as he managed to score 15 goals and 28 points, which were career-bests. He was also the Jacques Beauchamp Winner as the team’s Unsung Hero for that season. It was rightly deserved as he played a big role in the team making the playoffs, despite injuries holding the team back in their Centennial season.

Following that season, Lapierre continued to be an agitator who would get under the team’s skin, but unfortunately, he wasn’t able to recreate the success he had that year. In his final year with the Canadiens during the 2010-2011 he was struggling, so they shipped him off to the Anaheim Ducks for defenseman Brett Festerling and a 5th-round pick.

In 293 games with the Montreal Canadiens, Lapierre scored 40 goals and 80 points, along with 284 penalty minutes. He will always be remembered as an agitator who got on the other team’s nerves and do whatever it took to win. I can still remember clearly watching him laugh at his opponents as he’d get escorted back to the bench or penalty box.