Anatomy of a Losing Season

Well only those wearing rose coloured glasses believe the habs have a chance of making the playoffs. So what happened? I think most people can see the two 8 game losing streaks created most of the mess that eliminated the habs from the playoff race. Another reason could be linked to the anemic performance against eastern team wannabes New Jersey and Detroit.

First, if we review those six games against the wings and the devils some things become apparent. Goaltending is an issue. One can argue if the habs had a decent back-up goaltender, Price should have probably not played any of those games. However, he did play three of the six games.  He lost all of them. His save percentage was a poor .887 average for those games.  Kinkaid played one game against his old team and had a save percentage of .907 but he lost that game. Charles Lindgren played two games and even though he won one of the games in a shootout his save percentage for those two games was .850. Surprisingly the two players that had two   games with high minuses were Gallagher -5 over two games and Tatar -4 over two games.

The first 8 game losing streak started November 16th and ended December 1st. Part of that 8 game streak were two losses to the devils, one to both the senators and rangers.  All these teams are still behind the habs in the standings. Kinkaid started 2 of those games and relieved Price in the 8-1 shellacking to the bruins. His save percentage for those two plus games was an ahl worthy .815. Price started six games but did not finish the bruins game. His save percentage was .80 which was AHL worthy as well. Of course, his save percentage was skewed by that bruins game where he recorded a .545. Three of the games Price played he faced under 30 shots including the game he was relieved by Kinkaid. One other game he faced 30 shots.

Petry had three games where his minuses were -2 or more. Chiarot had two games. For the forwards, once again Gallagher and Tatar had two games of minuses. The habs scored 20 goals over those 8 games. Three of those games they only scored one goal. Therefore for 5 games they averaged over 3 goals a game.

The second 8 game losing streak started December 28th and ended January 9th. The only team they played twice was Tampa. Lindgren played two of those games and had a combined .907 save percentage. He had one great  game where he had a .943 save percentage and 43 shots. Price started the other six games. Only two of those games Price had a save percentage of over .9. His average save percentage for the six games was .876. Three of those games Price faced under 30 shots and one game he faced 30.

Chiarot and Petry had two games of -2 or greater. Forwards that had two games of -2 or greater were Domi,  Cousins, Lehkonen, and Suzuki.  Once again the habs scored 20 goals over those 8 games. They had two games where they scored only one goal. 

One must question should Carey Price be starting  47 games at 32. Is he still the workhorse goalie that can play at a high consistent level? Tuuka Rask also 32 has played only 32 games. Holtby has played 38 games. Fleury, Bobrovsky, and Andersen are over 30 and have played over 40 games. Two of those teams had their coach fired and Bobrovsky’s stats are worse than Price. 

Time for a reality check. There are other reasons the habs won’t make the playoffs three years in a row other than the standard excuses of coaching, they are too small, young players need experience, their stars were injured, and lack of franchise forwards. Consistency especially in goaltending is missing.