Habs Stats: The First 10 games

What a time to be a Habs fan, right? 7-3 record in the first 10. At the top of the Atlantic Division (and the Leafs struggling as icing on the cake). Individually, Suzuki is tied for fifth in the league in scoring with 13 points, Caufield tied for second in goals with seven, Dobes second in save percentage at 0.940, Hutson second in points by a defenceman with nine, and the Habs have two of the top three rookies in points, with Demidov leading with nine and Kapanen tied for third with seven.

When Martin St-Louis envisioned his team coming up with a good start, the current situation was probably a dream-like scenario for him. When we do listen to him in his postgame interviews though, it is quite obvious that he is not completely satisfied. He does have some barely hidden concerns about the way his team is playing. This is not a surprise. Teams at the top are always on the lookout for areas to improve, possible bad habits developing, or signs that the trend is relying on unsustainable performances by either a few players or the team in general.

So what do the numbers tell us? Let’s have a look at the progression in groups of five games:

The first thing that pops up is that the team is a goal-scoring machine right now. They are on top of the league in that column, and it’s coming from all over the lineup with Cole Caufield leading the way. Eight players have two or more goals, three more than the second-best scoring team in the league, Utah. Furthermore, the team’s power play has improved drastically after a slow start in the first five games. This not-so-coincidentally happened when Ivan Demidov took the place of Zach Bolduc on the first power play unit in the last two games, with two goals in four attempts.

On the concerning side, the Habs are also giving up a lot of goals, listed at 24th in the league. The elephant in the room here is that Sam Montembeault was in net for 68% of these goals (excluding two empty-net goals). It is clear that Montembeault is struggling right now but to his defence, he has faced tougher opponents, albeit he is far below Dobes in every metric possible at this point. The penalty killing performance can also be linked to Montembeault’s struggles. The goaltender is always the most important player during a penalty kill and with Montembeault in net in that situation, they sit at 70%, which skews this metric significantly.

It was a pleasant surprise after the first five games to see the team giving fewer shots per game but it seems that they have gone back to their old habits in that regard as of late. The shot differential has been negative in each of the last four games. In addition, the Habs are third in the league in High Danger Chances Against at five-on-five. The big difference this year is that they currently stand 10th in the league in High Danger Chances at five-on-five compared to 27th last year.

Advanced stats presented by NHL Edge continue to show that the Habs are a high-octane scoring team with speed and talent. They rank sixth in +35 km/h skating speed bursts, second in Total Skating Distance, and in the top 10 in both high-danger and mid-range shots.

The Habs remain in the top half of the league in both offensive and defensive zone time although these have decreased somewhat in the latter five games so far.

St-Louis, after the 4-3 win versus Vancouver, mentioned that his team was still struggling to maintain a lead late in a game. This was quite evident in all three games out West so far, getting outshot by a wide margin when they were leading. According to St-Louis, this is to be expected with a young team that has not experienced this situation regularly over the past two years. So far this year, they have been able to survive more often than not, which is a step in the right direction.

If the first 10 games are a sign of what to expect this year watching the Habs, it is clearly not for the faint of heart! Nail-biting comebacks, highlight-reel goals, seven out of ten one-goal games, and high danger chances at both ends of the ice. As far as I am concerned, I’m all for it!