HabsWorld.net --
Last season, the Habs had a 24-11-6 record at
home; their 54 points were good for 3rd in the Eastern Conference.
However, the success hasn’t followed through into 2011-12 as Montreal has won
just 2 of 9 home games so far. So, what’s to blame for this? There
are some players who got it done at home last year that have failed to repeat
that success this season.
To identify some of the ‘culprits,’ let’s look
at each Hab players’ home point percentage from last year and compare it to the
first 17 games of 2011-12. Anyone who had less than 10 points last year
isn’t in this table as if their production was low last season, they shouldn’t
be counted on to produce significant points anyways and thus aren’t a big part
of the problem.
| Player | 10-11 HM% | 11-12 HM% | Difference |
| Mathieu Darche | 50.000% | 0.000% | -50.000% |
| Jaroslav Spacek | 75.000% | 33.333% | -41.667% |
| Tomas Plekanec | 57.895% | 42.857% | -15.038% |
| Brian Gionta | 50.000% | 40.000% | -10.000% |
| Yannick Weber | 45.455% | 40.000% | -5.455% |
| Mike Cammalleri | 59.574% | 57.143% | -2.432% |
| Travis Moen | 50.000% | 57.143% | 7.143% |
| Andrei Kostitsyn | 60.000% | 77.778% | 17.778% |
| David Desharnais | 36.364% | 54.545% | 18.182% |
| Max Pacioretty | 58.333% | 78.571% | 20.238% |
| Lars Eller | 52.941% | 75.000% | 22.059% |
| P.K. Subban | 57.895% | 83.333% | 25.439% |
| Scott Gomez | 44.737% | 100.000% | 55.263% |
Backing out the obvious small overall point
totals of Darche and Spacek, this leads us with Plekanec and Gionta as being the
primary players who haven’t been producing at the Bell Centre as we’ve come to
expect. The early season struggles of Cammalleri and despite what the
chart says, Gomez (1 total point) haven’t helped either. Now, it’s not
entirely fair to single out a couple of players but consider 4 of the 7 losses
were 1-goal games while 2 of the remaining ones were essentially one goal games
with empty netters.
A timely point (meaning there has been a goal
scored) from these big-name players who are expected to produce in the clutch
easily could have given the Habs another couple of points in the standings.
Right now, that’s the difference between Montreal being where they are now or
being in a playoff spot. Fortunately, with 32 more home games to be played
this season, there is plenty of time to turn things around.
