How The Montreal Canadiens Can Avoid Benching Patrik Laine

Montreal Canadiens forward Patrik Laine wasn’t the only player who had a difficult outing versus the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.

The team suffered the type of collapse that was reminiscent of the first two years of the rebuild, essentially dashing the hope and good will they had built since the holidays.

Head coach Martin St-Louis decided to bench Laine in the third period, and if we’re basing decisions on statistics, the fact that the Laine, Kirby Dach, and Alex Newhook line was being outshot by a wide margin (1-8) certainly provided all the evidence necessary to justify a change in ice time.

However, this was not the first time the line struggled at 5v5.

To be more accurate, they’ve been a poor combination at 5v5 from the very get go, which isn’t particularly surprising. Even before Laine returned to play, both Newhook  and Dach had managed to control only 41.4 percent of the shots (CF%) and 42.4 percent of the expected goals (xGF%) while playing together.

With Laine in the mix, they have controlled more shots, to the tune of a 47 CF%, and a 43 xGF%, which isn’t great, but it connotes that Laine isn’t necessarily the problem.

When evaluating the lines, it becomes quite clear that Dach and Laine is not a combination that has shown any semblance of eventually becoming useful. And we’re not talking about slightly below-replacement numbers. From a statistical standpoint, Dach and Laine are the oil and water of the Canadiens lineup.

Both players recently dealt with long-term injuries, and it’s quite clear that Laine hasn’t quite recovered from an endurance standpoint.

It also doesn’t help that Dach is a poor playmaker.

He’s producing 0.09 primary assists per 60 minutes of 5v5 ice time, which is less than defenceman David Savard (0.19). To put a fine point on it, it’s actually the lowest primary assist per 60 pace of the entire team, and among the worst results in the entire league.

That’s not an ideal situation for a player who is supposed to feed a sniper.

It’s actually the worst possible situation for both players, something I’m sure most of you picked up on simply by watching them desperately attempt to build chemistry, only to prove they’re not meant to be linemates.

If the Canadiens hope to one day have both Dach and Laine provide a positive impact on a nightly basis, the most logical  step forward is to avoid placing them on the same line for the foreseeable future.

All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted. Via Natural Stat Trick.