MONTREAL – Time sure flies when you’re having fun.
Believe me, the Montreal Canadiens are having a good time.
With a 16-4-2 record, they sit atop the Eastern Conference and are coming fresh off a home-and-home sweep against the New York Islanders.
We’ve just passed the quarter mark of the season, so I’ve decided to take a look at some of the surprising statistics from the first 22 games.
Here’s a look at the Habs by the numbers:
6 – The number of right wingers the Habs have seen this season.
Now that Brendan Gallagher is out indefinitely with two fractured fingers, the search is on for a temporary top-liner.
In the past week, both Sven Andrighetto and Greenfield Park native Torrey Mitchell have made appearances on the right side.
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With Alexander Semin in the perpetual dog house, it’ll be interesting to see how many right-wingers the team cycles through.
It’s a lucrative position – Gallagher’s replacement will play alongside Tomas Plekanec and captain Max Pacioretty – I like to think it’s a line that could use an injection of Andrighetto’s speed.
If he produces results, he could be invited to stay in Montreal for an extended period of time.
8 – The most-used version of the fourth line of Brian Flynn, Torrey Mitchell and Devante Smith-Pelly have a combination of eight goals and 13 assists.
They’ve been described as the best fourth line in the league and are gaining credibility as a dangerous scoring line.
To put that into perspective, they are almost as productive as the Philadelphia Flyers‘ first line of Brayden Schenn, Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek, who have a combined 12 goals and 17 assists so far.
When the Habs have all four lines firing, they really are unbeatable; that scoring rate has fallen in recent weeks, but what hasn’t changed is the fact that bottom-six scoring is essential to victories.
9 (and 0) – While it feels like the Canadiens’ winning start was a while ago, there’s no denying how important that streak really is.
With 18 points off the top of the season, it’s an impressive pad to be able to fall back on if a slump does come up.
As any hockey player will tell you, the games that matter aren’t in October – they’re in April.
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It puts a target on the Canadiens’ back that will stay there as long as the team continues to dominate the East.
Reporting on the Habs during that starting streak was a treat – everyone was all smiles and there was big availability for interviews.
What was even better was that there was a different hero every night, so a lot of the guys who don’t generally get media attention got a little face time.
13 – What is Michel Therrien going to do with Alexander Semin?
More importantly, what is Marc Bergevin going to with him?
Number 13 went from the first line to the fourth line in the span of five minutes against the Islanders on Sunday.
Semin took a few dumb penalties late in the game because he lacks the speed to shut down top-flight wingers.
Not to mention – in the majority of games, he gets nailed to the bench in the late third, especially when the Habs are down.
Sitting in the press box, the joke is that the silver lining with Semin is he’ll never be offside – because he lacks the speed to keep up with his line-mates.
But with the injury situation the Habs are facing with its right-wingers, Therrien and Bergevin won’t be able to ignore him much longer.
78 – The Canadiens are first in the league in goals, with 78 so far – a huge change from last season when they finished 20th in the league.
The headlines were unanimous that Carey Price was the only reason the Habs were winning.
Trade deadline talk was all about how the team needed a scorer – a bona fide sniper.
It’s incredible to think that there have only been three regular additions to the team in the past six months: Mitchell, Semin and Tomas Fleischmann.
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Yet, the Canadiens have that scoring spark.
One has to wonder what the trainers are putting in the water bottles this season…
750 000 – That the boost to Tomas Fleischman’s bank account this year.
Let’s not forget he started out with the Habs on a professional contract, impressed the brass and is now a steadfast player on the third line.
Better yet, he’s netted seven goals, including two game-winners.
Fleischmann is the ‘bang for the buck’ that Bergevin hoped Alexander Semin would be.
(A note: as I wrote this sentence, Fleischmann scored short-handed, right in front of where I’m sitting).
His hockey knowledge and instincts are worth more than his contract and, in my opinion, he’s the best signing Bergevin has made this year.
Of course, the most important statistic is the number of wins versus losses.
With the Canadiens among the top in the league, the numbers are really starting to add up in the right column.
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