Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishThe Montreal Canadiens power play has become an issue, and with the playoffs still not assured but looking likely, it will need fixing.The Canadiens have not scored on the power play in 11 of their last 12 games and are 2-for-26 over that span. The fact Patrik Laine has only one power-play goal in that time frame is no coincidence.The power play has grown overly reliant on Laine, which is understandable when you have the most lethal power-play weapon in the NHL. But it also leaves you prone to slumps and adjustments from opponents, especially in a playoff series.Laine is undoubtedly the most efficient power-play scorer in the league. His 6.13 goals per 60 on the power play are easily first in the NHL — Pavel Dorofeyev of the Vegas Golden Knights is second at 4.58, and the gap between Laine and Dorofeyev is a bit higher than the gap between Dorofeyev and Auston Matthews, who sits 25th in the league at 3.05 goals/60.No one registers more shots on goal than Laine’s 25.32 shots/60, and only Artemi Panarin has slightly more shot attempts than Laine’s 41.65 per 60.Except of late, Laine is not shooting at those rates.Over the Canadiens’ last six games, they have had 10 power-play opportunities and haven’t scored on any of them. Laine’s rates are way down — 14.69 shots on goal per 60 on 39.18 attempts. You’ll notice the rate of his attempts is not nearly as down as his shots on goal. Whereas Laine’s attempts hit the net 60.8 percent of the time on average this season, that is down to 37.5 percent in the last six games.“We’re a little too slow, and therefore the other teams recover all the time, they’re able to recover back in their structure,” coach Martin St. Louis explained last week. “I think we just need to play a little quicker.”Yes, there is no doubt that is true. But it would also appear Laine has lost a little confidence in his shot lately. We have uncharacteristically seen Laine fail to connect on more shots than usual, such as this opportunity against the Philadelphia Flyers on April 5.Or this against the Ottawa Senators on Friday.In between, we saw numerous attempts get blocked, miss the net, or simply not happen. And it all resulted in this sequence against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday where Laine seemed flat-out reluctant to shoot.This is all pretty normal stuff. But it impacts the Canadiens power play excessively because it has grown so reliant on Laine’s shot. Since Laine’s season debut on Dec. 3, the Canadiens have attempted 356 shots on the power play, and Laine has attempted 102 of them, or 28.6 percent. Just as a comparison over that same span, Panarin has attempted 23.6 percent of the New York Rangers’ total attempts on the power play.When one player is attempting nearly a third of the shots and that player loses confidence in his shot, the entire power play is likely to suffer because everyone’s top priority is to feed that guy the puck.So yes, the Canadiens power play needs to be quicker, but it also needs to diversify a bit. Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki are dangerous power-play shooters, but they have not taken nearly enough advantage of how opposing teams are focused on taking Laine away. Lane Hutson could also stand to shoot a bit more on the power play — he has among the lowest shot attempt rates on the power play in the league this season — which is something Laine himself suggested a couple of weeks ago.As the playoffs approach, the Canadiens might want to experiment with using Laine more as a decoy than a primary shooter, because if other threats emerge, it would only open Laine up even more to let go of his shot once he gets his groove back.Angry SlafComing out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break, we saw a different version of Juraj Slafkovský. He said repeatedly that he needed to play angry all the time, and that meant not only being physical but also being aggressive and using his physical gifts to their utmost advantage.St. Louis often says Slafkovský is most effective when he brings a combination of pace and physicality, but that is difficult to maintain over 82 games. It takes energy and a willingness to do it every shift, something Josh Anderson has done with remarkable consistency this season but Slafkovský has not.The heavy schedule lately surely has a part to play in that, especially for someone who just turned 21 and is still learning how to use those physical gifts at this level.“I think like the rest of our team, we’ve played a lot of games in a short amount of time, and I think some of that tends to dip a little bit in the players,” St. Louis said last week. “And when he doesn’t have that, he’s not as efficient. But we’re trying to do everything we can to make sure we have gas in the tank. But that’s when he’s at his best.”Last Tuesday morning, we asked Slafkovský where he felt his game was at, expecting him to be overly critical of himself. He remained on brand in that sense but was able to see things with some perspective, at least.“I feel I can still bring a little more,” he said. “It’s also new for me, I feel like I’m learning because obviously I played last year, but at this time of the year last year we were out … Now there are bigger things on the line. But I feel I can be a little different, the last two or three games weren’t what I want it to be. Maybe I’ll be better tonight.”That was before facing the Detroit Red Wings, and Slafkovský had one shot on goal on two attempts in 16:46 of ice time with three hits. On Friday in Ottawa, Slafkovský had one assist and one shot on goal on his only attempt in 16:23 of ice time. And Saturday in Toronto, when no one on the Canadiens scored, Slafkovský had two shots on goal on six attempts in 18:05 of ice time with four hits.But there was one instance where Slafkovský’s inconsistency in using his physical gifts was most glaring.It came late in the second period when Caufield picked off a pass in the neutral zone and brought the puck back into the Maple Leafs zone. Slafkovský took a second to realize what was happening, but once he did, look at the route he took to the net.That’s Chris Tanev standing between Slafkovský and the Maple Leafs net, so that’s quite an obstacle. But still, in that situation, it would have been nice to see him challenge Tanev in some way, to cut in front of him and drive the net hard to make himself available for a pass from Caufield or put himself in better position to tip a puck or collect a rebound. Instead, Slafkovský took the path of least resistance to the net, making a potentially dangerous situation in a 0-0 game decidedly less dangerous.If Slafkovský were playing angry in that situation, he would have taken that more aggressive route and forced Tanev to at least work to keep him away from danger in front of his own net. Instead, Slafkovský’s choice of route was not angry and did much of Tanev’s work for him.Matheson’s special teams timeThe Canadiens are on track to lead the NHL in time spent on the penalty kill, and as a result, Mike Matheson sits second in the NHL in penalty kill ice time at 273:52. In fact, the Canadiens have three players in the top 10, with David Savard and Jake Evans also on that list.What makes Matheson unique among that group is he is the only one to play significant minutes on the power play as well. And the disparity between his power-play minutes and those of the other nine players on the list is not particularly close.
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This is to drive home the point that Matheson is asked to do a lot for this team, far more than he should reasonably be asked to do. Most of his five-on-five minutes come against the opponent’s top lines starting in the defensive zone, and he plays these high-leverage minutes as well on special teams.Does he make mistakes? Yes, many of them. Does his usage contribute to those mistakes?Perhaps.Reinbacher should pay attention to SeiderThat is not meant to be hockey advice, but more career perspective advice.Red Wings defenceman Moritz Seider came from a non-traditional hockey country to become the No. 6 pick in the 2019 NHL Draft — a pick, by the way, that disrupted that draft to such an extent that it probably contributed to Caufield being available at No. 15 for the Canadiens. David Reinbacher, also from a non-traditional hockey country, was the No. 5 pick in the 2023 draft. They are both right-shot defencemen. And they both did not play in the NHL in the two years following their draft.Seider played his first year in North America in 2019-20 entirely in the AHL and the following year in Sweden, partly because of COVID-19. Reinbacher played another season in Switzerland following his draft and played this injury-plagued season in the AHL, so the reverse of what Seider did.Seider is now established as a cornerstone for the Red Wings, but he’s able to look back at those two years following his draft as the foundation of what he’s become today.“I feel it’s important you earn everything, a spot on the team, a role, ice time,” Seider says now. “You shouldn’t just get it just because you’re a high draft pick.”Seider’s first NHL training camp was going very well, much like Reinbacher’s, and both were cut at the very end of camp. Reinbacher was devastated at the time, as was Seider. But Seider now has the perspective to realize it was good for him, something Reinbacher should probably realize as well, as difficult as the last two seasons have been for him.“At the time, you always think you’re ready, you want to be out there,” Seider said. “Going through the full training camp, even the last preseason games, and then getting cut on the last day obviously isn’t the most fun, but it’s part of learning and processing things. I think that was really good for me.“Deep down, you kind of see in the AHL how hard it is to play on a nightly basis for 72 games, not even 82. You just try to be an athlete, to be professional about everything, your nutrition, your sleep, your recovery, you’re learning all that along the way.”And though the Red Wings are not fully out of their rebuild, Seider had one more observation that would have applied to Reinbacher last season as well.“As unfortunate as it was at the time, you’ve got to look at the big picture,” Seider said. “Us as a team, we weren’t in a super great situation, and obviously it’s a lot more fun playing important minutes and getting some wins and learning how to be a true professional player in the AHL and then hopefully making a better impact instead of just playing a couple of minutes every now and then and kind of accept losing for a little bit.“Obviously (playing in the NHL) would be a big step in the right direction, but when you look back at the stretch that we had back then, there was kind of a sense of accepting to lose here, and that’s kind of key for a young guy, not to live that or go through that. So then it was a better example of just staying in the AHL and playing there.”Seider won the Calder Trophy two years after the Red Wings drafted him, using the experience he gained in the AHL and in Sweden to make an immediate impact. If Reinbacher’s impact is anywhere close to that, the Canadiens will be in a much better place next season.(Photo of Patrik Laine: Dan Hamilton / Imagn Images)
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