Montreal Canadiens: Examining The Season’s Line Combinations

Michel Therrien has a bit of a reputation of juggling the lines for the Montreal Canadiens, for better or for worse. The Habs’ coach also got his fair share of criticism this season for not deploying his forwards as best as possible.

There were whispers, and outright shouts, that Therrien’s deployments were the reason Marc Bergevin traded Rene Bourque and Travis Moen early in the season. These were moves made in order to make room for Jiri Sekac. And then, when Sekac was traded, it seemed as though Therrien’s refusal to give him a prominent role on the team was the motivating factor.

When all was said and done though, the Canadiens finished second overall with 110 points, even if they couldn’t make it past the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Let’s take a closer look at how Therrien deployed his lines this season and whether or not that could tell us anything about what the Canadiens depth chart could look like next year.

A big thank you on this piece goes out to Micah Blake McCurdy, @IneffectiveMath on Twitter, for his help with the visualization. Below is a representation of how Michel Therrien deployed his forwards last season. While it’s interesting to see who played most each game, note also which forwards played together most often. Left Wing Lock has additional insight into line combinations that will come in useful.

The Montreal Canadiens line combinations for 2014-2015, image courtesy of @IneffectiveMath – Micah Blake McCurdy

Rene Bourque, Travis Moen, and Jiri Sekac

Bourque played just 13 games with the Canadiens this season, all of them on the wing with Lars Eller. Bourque’s biggest successes with the Canadiens came during the 2014 playoffs on Eller’s wing, so it shouldn’t be a surprise he played his time with the Habs this season in the same role; but that combination didn’t pay dividends this season. Bourque was sent down and then traded after amassing no goals and just two assists this season.

Jiri Sekac started the season on the same line but bounced back and forth to play on the wing with Tomas Plekanec and Alex Galchenyuk. After just six games, Sekac was scratched, but Bourque wasn’t the obvious beneficiary, Travis Moen was. But there’s no question that Rene Bourque’s absence gave Jiri Sekac a permanent spot in the line up, at least for the time being.

Even before Moen was traded it seemed he didn’t have much of a home in the Canadiens lineup, the most he played with the Habs this year was 12:25, just enough to be considered third line minutes for one game, and he was scratched as often as not.

While Sekac got an opportunity early in the season to play with Plekanec and Galchenyuk, many of his assignments later in the year came with Eller and Brandon Prust, they were the linemates he played with most during his time with the Habs. So the question is, was Jiri Sekac given a fair shake with the Canadiens?

While Sekac’s linemates weren’t ideal, Prust did put up 14 points in 38 games with the Canadiens during the lockout season, playing mostly alongside the likes of Alex Galchenyuk, Brendan Gallagher and Lars Eller. Prust doesn’t necessarily have the skill necessary to elevate his linemates, but he has shown he’s capable of playing at their level.

Lars Eller also struggled this season, putting up just 15 goals and 27 points of 77 games. If more was expected of Eller, then more was expected of Sekac as well. In that sense, Sekac was given a chance to prove himself, although he certainly wasn’t given time to develop and trading him for Devante Smith-Pelly might still come back to haunt Bergevin and Canadiens fans.

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