Canucks: How do they compare to the Montreal Canadiens? (Part 2)

It’s been said time and time again, but the Vancouver Canucks aren’t equipped to be a playoff contender just yet.

The team finished the 2020-21 season with a 23-29-4 record, good for 24th in the league and dead last in the Scotia North Division.

Despite the low point total, however, the Canucks actually weren’t too far back from the fourth and final playoff spot in the all-Canadian division. As we know, that spot eventually went to the Montreal Canadiens, who, despite finishing just nine points ahead of Vancouver, were ultimately able to put their mediocre season behind them at the most important time. To almost everyone’s surprise, the Canadiens stormed past the Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets in the first two rounds, and are now representing Canada in the final four of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Currently, the Canadiens are down 1-0 to the Vegas Golden Knights, with many people believing that this team’s miraculous postseason run is about to come an abrupt halt. Despite the game one loss, here’s still lots of hockey left to be played between these two teams, and you can’t rule out either of them until mathematical elimination prevails.

No matter how this series end, though, there’s no denying that the Canadiens took charge of their postseason journey, carrying their underdog momentum as far as it would take them, which poses the question:

How do the Canucks stack up against the Habs right now?

We previously looked at the goaltending, comparing Carey Price and Thatcher Demko between the pipes. Today, we’re taking a deeper dive into the forward groups.

Forwards

This is an interesting one for the Canucks and the Canadiens.

On paper, both teams are actually structured pretty similarly in terms of youth and speed. The Canucks’ top-six is very much on the rise, led by centremen Elias Pettersson and Bo Horvat, and winger Brock Boeser. The Canadiens have also been relying on their youth, specifically the services of Nick Suzuki and Jesperi Kotkaniemi down the middle, as well as budding star Cole Caufield on the flank.

Frankly, it’s hard to find too many differences between the top-six forward groups, aside from how each management group landed these players. Benning has been quite successful in his drafting over the past few years, selecting both Pettersson and Boeser in the first round of their respective drafts. He also had Horvat already in the prospect system when he was hired by Vancouver in 2014.

The Canadiens, on the other hand, have dabbled in quite a few areas of player acquisition and development. GM Marc Bergevin did select Kotkaniemi third overall in 2018, ahead of more notable forward prospects like Brady Tkachuk and Garrett Hayton. He also snagged Caufield 15th overall in 2020, which is beginning to look like a steal, despite Caufield’s small stature.

Outside of those two players, Bergevin had to be aggressive and bold to find his other young stars. He received Suzuki from Vegas, after dealing former captain Max Pacioretty the other way. Forward Tomas Tatar was also included in that deal, which has paid off well for Bergevin. Tatar did recently hit 30, but that hasn’t slowed him down too much. Since coming to Montreal, Tatar has registered 57 goals and 92 assists in 198 games, and even led the team in scoring during the 2019-20 season.

More recently, he signed free agent and former Canuck Tyler Toffoli to a four-year, $17 million deal, which is already looking like a bargain. He also traded away Max Domi, who led the team in scoring during the 2018-19 season, to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for power forward Josh Andersen. Like Toffoli, Andersen fit in quite nicely with the Canadiens. The 27-year-old recorded 17 goals and 24 points, good for fifth in team scoring.

As mentioned, both teams are carrying their own strengths, so why does Montreal have the overall edge? In reality, it comes down to two things.

The first point focuses on the forward group as a whole.

The Canadiens have the ability to effectively run four lines on a nightly basis, something the Canucks haven’t been able to do for a few years now. Interim head coach Dominique Ducharme has had the luxury of rolling out different line combinations this season, knowing that he’ll still often get production from those lines. This also goes for the team’s powerplay, which, unlike most teams in the league, can have two effective units on a nightly basis. The man advantage hasn’t exactly been firing on all cylinders for the Canadiens in the past few years, but they seemed to improve this season, finishing with a net powerplay efficacy of 17.9%, good for 15th in the league. In comparison, the Canadiens finished 21st last season.

Eight of Montreal’s forwards finished with at least 20 points this past year, with both Suzuki and Toffoli eclipsing the 40-point mark.  This list also includes players like Jonathan Drouin and Brendan Gallagher, who were limited to just 44 and 35 games played.

This trend has carried over into the playoffs, with many of these players continuing to find ways to contribute. Toffoli is producing at just under a point-per-game pace, notching four goals and seven assists in 12 games. Suzuki has followed up with eight points, and Caufield tallied his first-ever playoff goal on Monday night.

Ducharme was also able to dress capable centres for all four lines this year. We touched on Suzuki and Kotkaniemi, but it’s also important to discuss Phillip Danault, and his crucial role with the team. In 56 games this season, Danault was able to put up five goals and 19 assists. More importantly, however, he posted a faceoff win percentage of 52.48%, and was often tasked with shutting down his opponent’s top players, such as Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews. He was able to take care of the last two players in the first round, at both even strength and on the powerplay, and did much of the same in the second round against Winnipeg’s stars.

The 28-year-old, who is set to become a UFA at the end of this year, has proven that he can be a reliable, middle-scoring third line centre, much like the Canucks had in Manny Malhotra in 2011.

Of course, as Canucks fans painfully know, head coach Travis Green wasn’t given any of the above luxuries this past year.

Seven of his players did hit the 20-point plateau, but two of them were defencemen, and one was Pettersson, who only played 26 games. Tanner Pearson was close with 18 points, but that’s definitely not good enough for a second-line winger. And, aside from Tyler Motte, whose aggressive and gritty style of play is the closest comparison to Montreal’s third and fourth lines, the list unfortunately still looks pretty grim.

Brandon Sutter, who commonly played the role of third-line centre, only recorded 12 points, while the remaining forwards weren’t even able to hit double digits. Out of those players who failed to get 10 points, eight of them suited up for at least 20 games.

Most people who read these underwhelming stats will refer back to how the team lost Toffoli in the offseason, after giving up so much to acquire him at the 2020 trade deadline. There’s no doubt that Toffoli, who would’ve likely surpassed his career-high in goals and points this season had it gone the full 82, would’ve also been a welcomed addition to the Canucks’ line-up. During his time in Vancouver, Toffoli found immediate chemistry with Pettersson and J.T. Miller on the top line, and he also gave the team more flexibility when it came to balancing their two powerplay units.

But, even if Toffoli had ended up in Vancouver, his presence still wouldn’t have solved the Canucks’ biggest problem, and that was the fact that the team was far too reliant on their top-six as a result of their bottom-six inconsistencies.

Of course, the Canucks do have some promise in their prospect pool that could soon boost the bottom three lines, and fans were able to get a first look of some of those players this past year, such as Kole Lind, Jonah Gadjovich and Will Lockwood. Nils Höglander also made an immediate impact on the team, and many are expecting the same from Vasily Podkolzin, who signed his entry-level contract in May.

However, none of this matters if the kids can’t get a chance to actually play in the NHL, or if they aren’t able to play alongside strong, well-seasoned veterans who can show them the ropes while also continuing to produce for the team.

And this leads us to our second point: the never-ending contracts.