Die-hard fans of the Montreal Canadiens know that their record 23 Stanley titles is a total that any other NHL franchise would be hard pressed to break. It can help give supporters solace during the tough times, which by any measure, the 2022-2023 would certainly qualify as. As other teams march on throughout the postseason, the Canadiens found themselves last in the Atlantic Division, and only finishing with more points than one team in the Eastern Conference.

Playoff enthusiasts will focus on NHL odds like +1.5 for the New Jersey Devils or -1.5 for the Edmonton Oilers, but Montreal can use this valuable time to get their house in order for next season. Management can take an honest look at what went wrong and make assessments about how they will need to improve their team before the puck drops on the next regular season.

We’ll take a look at three metrics that will need to improve in order for the Canadiens to rise up the standings next year.

Penalty Minutes Per Game

There’s certainly something to be said for playing a physical brand of hockey, as opponents can sometimes be psyched out by a matchup before they ever reach the ice. It’s a sensible strategy if a team can pull it off, but it has to be done effectively and strategically. When it doesn’t work, and there isn’t a lot of discipline amongst the players on the ice, it can serve as a significant impediment towards winning hockey games.

The Canadiens finished in the top five(or bottom five, depending on how you look at it) of the league in average penalty minutes per game. As mentioned above, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing if a team is roping players on other teams into doing things that take them out of their game, and get their side penalized as well. However, this approach was met with limited success, as Montreal opponents only averaged 9.3 penalty minutes per game, as compared to the Canadiens’ 11.6.

It’s going to be interesting to see how this gets addressed heading into next season. The coaching staff may decide to take a more tactful approach when it comes to playing aggressively, or the front office might double down and supplement their roster with free agent players better suited to execute that style. Either way, the team will not be able to continue to shoot themselves in the skate.

Power Play Goals Against

This section goes hand in hand with the one above, but there are some other takeaways from diving into these metrics more deeply. It stands to reason that the Canadiens would be involved in more power play disadvantages considering how their penalty metrics are slanted. However, Montreal objectively didn’t do a great job thwarting their opponents’ attack in these situations.

The Canadiens gave up 75 power play goals, which was the third most in the NHL this season. That number is made to look worse considering the fact that Montreal only had the seventh most power play opportunities against them. In other words, teams really took advantage of Montreal finding the back of the net when they had their chance on the power play.

The Canadiens will have to take a long, hard look at whether Jake Allen or Sam Montembeault is their answer in net. It’s also fair to say that they didn’t have that much help throughout the season, as the Canadiens were constantly put in positions to retreat. The team will have to look at how they can sure this area up before next season.

Scoring Chances Against

As true hockey fans know, not all scoring chances are created equal. There are prayers of a shot that are fired in from a great distance away, with a plethora of bodies in between the puck and the net. There are other attempts that are a lot more nerve-wracking, where an opposing player has a head of steam as he releases a shot towards the crease.

Unfortunately for Canadiens fans, the latter was a common occurrence throughout the season, and is another reason why it was a challenge to accurately gauge the play of their two goalies in 2022-2023. Montreal dealt with 718 “high-danger” scoring chances last season, which was only fewer than the total the Anaheim Ducks had to put up with. Teams that have advanced deep into the NHL postseason gave up close to 200 fewer high-danger scoring chances over the course of the season.

Due to the nature of the sport, cleaning up their penalty act will help Montreal improve in this category, as it’s hard for any team to win games while they’re constantly under siege. They may also need to make better decisions throughout the course of the game from a possession perspective, so as not to give their opponents momentum heading the opposite way.