What’s Going On With The Habs PP?

Over the last 7 games, the Montreal Canadiens have gone 2-for-24 on the power play for an abysmal 8.3% success rate in that time span. One of their goals came during a 4-on-3 power play against the Florida Panthers in overtime on December 30th. While some may say a 5-on-3 power play is easier, the fact that there is more space on the ice for a 4-on-3 makes that likely the easiest type of power play for a team to execute.

While the Habs scored, it seemed like they were only searching for the perfect shot, which took about 1:40 before Nick Suzuki was able to end the game on a backdoor play with an empty net to get the goal. It was a nice goal to get, but the fact that they only attempt to find the perfect play is likely the exact issue that they are having currently.

The Canadiens clearly have the skill to score on the power play, but the problem is that they try to get too fancy and look for the perfect shot to get goals. When it’s been a while that the power play has been struggling, the team should go back to the basics and just throw pucks towards the net to get goals. The players on the Habs’ top unit clearly have great chemistry, as shown by the way they move the puck and look dangerous, but because they are looking for the perfect shot, the puck just keeps getting passed around, and there are no results that come with it. With that being said, it’s time for the Habs to get back to the basics and just find open shooting lanes regardless of the angle to try to force rebounds. They could also use some other plays that have worked well in the past but haven’t been used in a while.

One thing that the Habs could go back to trying that they haven’t used enough since Ivan Demidov joined the Habs this year is having Nick Suzuki along the right wall, where he comes into the right faceoff circle and launches a hard wrist shot. While it may force Demidov to play on the other side to make his potential cross-ice passes, he’s a skilled enough player to be able to do that very effectively. Either way, the main goal of the setup would be to get Suzuki the puck near the point where he can get ready to get off his deadly wrist shot. Considering the Habs haven’t set up for this regularly since Mike Matheson was the PP1 QB, it is something that teams wouldn’t expect to prepare for, which is why it could be something that may work.

As beautiful as the passes have been with Lane Hutson and Demidov taking over the power play, the man-advantage has started to get too predictable. Teams just need to make sure to cover the high-danger areas, as the Habs never shoot from the low-danger or even medium-danger areas on the power play anymore. Therefore, the Habs need to prepare a play that keeps things simple like that Suzuki shot to break out of their power play slump.

What do you think the Habs need to do to get out of their current power play slump?