Through four games played, the Montreal Canadiens hold a 2-2 record with wins over the rival Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators. The top line, namely Cole Caufield, who has four goals has carried the bulk of the load offensively. But for the most part, the team has had a balanced attack. Some of the depth players on the Canadiens such as Josh Anderson, Emil Heineman, Christian Dvorak, and Brendan Gallagher have all gotten on the scoresheet. Meanwhile, Lane Hutson and Kaiden Guhle have been a revelation on the backend. However, the one unit that has struggled to produce has been the Canadiens second line. Let’s take a look at why the unit is struggling to produce and what Martin St. Louis can do to address the issue.
Examining the Montreal Canadiens Second-Line Woes
The second line is centred by Kirby Dach. He is flanked by Joel Armia and Alex Newhook. Dach and Newhook each only have one point on the year, while Armia has a pair of assists. While Dach has had a lacklustre and disappointing start to the year, it’s hard for Kirby Dach to shoulder the brunt of the blame, at least not for too long. Dach is returning after nearly missing an entire season following a freak injury last October which required surgery. Any injury that causes a player to miss such a large amount of time will require some patience.
Kirby Dach Shaking off the Rust
Dach looked dominant before going down with injury. Therefore, fans need to be hopeful that with some time, he can return to form. He is getting solid minutes on the second line as well as first-unit power play time. The top unit has been clicking as of late and so too has the second unit due to Lane Hutson‘s quarterbacking ability. This should allow Dach to put some points on the board and regain his confidence in the near future.
Missing Key Contributors
At the start of camp, it was expected that Dach would be flanked by Patrik Laine and one of Joshua Roy or Newhook. While Newhook currently finds himself in that role, the start to the season hasn’t gone as planned for the other two players. Laine will miss the next two to three months with a sprained knee after a collision with Cedric Pare of the Leafs in the preseason. As for Roy, he had a disappointing camp and found himself back in Laval to begin the season.
No disrespect to Armia, but having Laine on the wing would be a huge upgrade for Dach. With the trio not clicking, it would also be easy to give Joshua Roy a chance in that role if he were on the NHL roster. There aren’t many other high-skill guys on the roster that the Canadiens could put next to him. Missing these two players on the roster has hurt Dach early on.
Potential Line Changes
While the cast of the Canadiens bottom six isn’t great, there are a couple of options to shake up the lines to help jumpstart Dach. The first is adding Emil Heineman or Josh Anderson on his wing. Their size and speed would be a great asset, as Dach is still struggling to adjust to game speed again. Another option for the team is to shift Dach to the wing. This means having Oliver Kapanen play centre on the Montreal Canadiens second line. Dvorak or Kapanen would centre the second line with Dach and likely Newhook flanking. Dach has struggled in the faceoff dot so far this year. That is why allowing him to regain his confidence on the wing before returning to the middle might not be a bad move.
The final option is splitting up the top line of Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Juraj Slafkovsky. Putting either Caufield or Slafkovsky on Dach’s wing would allow the team to spread the wealth and have two dangerous duos. However, as long as the Habs top unit is playing well, it’s hard to envision Martin St. Louis splitting them up.
Whatever the Habs and coach St. Louis decide to do, fans should be patient with Dach. This is a player who was drafted third overall only five years ago. Moreover, he has had a lot of adversity over his young career. His ceiling remains sky high. Once he gets back up to game speed, Dach will be a force on the Montreal Canadiens second line.
Main Photo Credit: David Kirouac – USA TODAY Sports
