Canadiens Powerplay Issues Reflected In One Key Statistic
The Montreal Canadiens have made impressive strides in addressing one of the issues that has plagued the team for several years: their underwhelming power play.
Between 2022-23 and 2024-25, the Habs scored on just 17.9% of their powerplays, representing the 29th most efficient man advantage in the NHL.
However, they’re scoring on 24.1% of their powerplays this season, good for seventh overall in the league.
All things considered, this improvement should be celebrated, and yet, Canadiens fans will be quick to tell you that the team leaves much to be desired when opponents end up in the sin bin.
With highly skilled players such as Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov, and Lane Hutson featured on the first powerplay unit, it’s not surprising they’ve managed to find the back of the net over 45 times this year, but there’s one metric that suggests the Canadiens could do a lot more damage in that particular situation.
The Montreal Canadiens average just 93 shots per 60 minutes of ice time on the powerplay, which is the fourth-worst result in the league. Only the Winnipeg Jets (90), Chicago Blackhawks (87), and St. Louis Blues (80) have managed to produce fewer shots on the man advantage, three teams that find themselves among the bottom-six organizations in the standings.
Beyond the importance of a healthy power play during the regular season—an easy way to improve a team’s odds of qualifying for the playoffs—postseason series can, and often are, decided by special teams.
In other words, playing well at 5v5 is crucial, but when it comes down to it, a solid power play can be the difference between a long playoff run and an early vacation to Cancun.
Montreal Canadiens Brass Tacks
The good news for the Canadiens is that the skill level featured on their powerplay has mitigated the impact of the lack of shots, and simply improving the shooting rate could easily push them into the realm of elite.
By increasing the volume, they’d also generate many more high-danger chances, another area in which they struggle. The Canadiens rank 30th in the NHL when it comes to producing high-quality scoring chances on the powerplay.
It’s a symptom of a young team attempting to find perfection, which often results in the type of overpassing that you’d expect in a Simpsons sketch.
By adding a little more greed to the mix, not only would Canadiens players improve their individual powerplay production, it would go a long way in generating the type of shot volume you’d expect from a team with a top-10 man advantage.
All Montreal Canadiens statistics via Natural Stat Trick.
