When Alex Burrows retired as a player in 2018, he barely took the time to come home before he signed on as an assistant coach with the Montreal Canadiens’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Laval Rocket. Two and a half years later, he was appointed assistant coach with the Canadiens when Marc Bergevin called time on Claude Julien’s second stint and Kirk Mueller’s second turn behind Montreal’s bench. His promotion happened on the day Dominique Ducharme was hired as the team’s interim head coach.
From the start, Burrows was tasked with improving the Canadiens’ failing power play unit even though he was much better known for his penalty-killing prowess. Three and a half years later, has it improved? Is it time to ask someone else to take the reins?
The State of Affairs in Burrows’ First Season
When Burrows and Ducharme were appointed, the season had only been going for a few weeks; it was the shortened season in which the NHL had realigned divisions to bypass the “no border crossing” difficulty. At the end of the 56-game calendar, the Canadiens had a 19.2% success rate with the man advantage and were 17th in the league on the power play, but keep in mind that was in a season where Montreal faced the same six teams over and over again. That stat should therefore be taken with a grain of salt.
The year before, in the 71 games played before COVID-19 invited itself to the party, the Canadiens scored on 17.7% of their power play opportunities, which gave them the 22nd rank in the league, hardly anything to write home about, to say the least.
In Burrows’ first full season at the helm of the power play, the Canadiens’ success rate plummeted to just 13.7% making them the 31st team in the NHL in that regard. This was Nick Suzuki’s third season in the league and Cole Caufield’s rookie season. As for Juraj Slafkovsky, most people on this side of the pond had no idea who he was until around the Olympic Games and the World Championship. Clearly, the Canadiens didn’t have the strongest of lineups, and it makes sense since general manager Kent Hughes had traded Arturri Lehkonen and Tyler Toffoli the spring before, acquiring mostly prospects in return.
Evolution in the Last Two Seasons
While one cannot deny the percentage points went up (16.1% and 17.5%), being 29th and 24th in the league on the power play are hardly numbers you could refer to as satisfying. The roster excuse shouldn’t be used anymore either as the rebuild is well on its way; Suzuki is now a veteran, Caufield just finished his third season, Slafkovsky has improved by leaps and bounds this last season, and above all, Sean Monahan made the Canadiens’ power play much more efficient than it was before being traded to the Winnipeg Jets on Feb. 2. Once he left, it didn’t take all that long for the man advantage to go down the drain, yet again.
Granted, the absence of Kirby Dach this season probably made it impossible to have two real menacing power play units, but still, you have to keep going, and progressing. As Martin St. Louis once said:
“I know it’s hard to continue when you lose players as much as we did last year, but the rest of the league doesn’t care if we’re injured, the league moves forward.”
In an interview with Sportsnet’s Eric Engels, St. Louis mentioned that he was as much to blame as Burrows if the power play wasn’t producing. However, it’s not the head coach’s main and only focus.
Is It Time to Move Forward Without Burrows?
After his first half-season with the Canadiens, Burrows was given a new three-year contract. While the Canadiens announced before the end of the season that they were exercising their option on St. Louis’ contract to keep him in place for another three years (he was already signed for next season), there has been no word on Burrows’ or any of the other assistant coaches’ fate.
Related: Canadiens Planning For All-Around Improvement with Burrows Extension
Considering the Canadiens’ power play hasn’t improved much since Burrows joined Montreal’s coaching staff, perhaps the time has come to make a change. Hughes wouldn’t even have to fire anyone, he could even say Burrows had decided to leave to seek other opportunities, spend time with his family, or any other classic formulation used every day when somebody is not reconducted in their functions.
Of course, there’s the small matter of knowing if the head coach would be on board with that plan, but I doubt St. Louis would threaten to quit over this. Furthermore, this could be an opportunity to bring in a more experienced assistant coach, something the media and fans have been suggesting for some time, especially for special teams.
If Hughes would like to see his team battle for a playoff spot this upcoming season, he has to do something to sort out the power play. Furthermore, you need your core players to start being productive on the power play and you cannot wait to be serious contenders to do that. Practice makes perfect, but not if there’s no improvement. St. Louis even said himself that power play struggles can influence even-strength play. This statement makes it even more important to address this power play issue sooner rather than later if Hughes wants to know exactly how productive an offence he has on his roster.
Hopefully, we’ll hear soon what Hughes intends to do with the assistant coaches unless his sole focus is on the draft until the end of next month. I don’t think anyone would blame him if it were considering how important it is for the rebuild.
