Patrik Laine has played in just 36 games this season. It’s not as many as the Montreal Canadiens would have hoped for but his goal production is off the charts. So much so that the team has 42 power-play goals in total. That’s good for 17th in the league. Imagine if Laine had been able to play more this season.
Here is the direct impact. He has 17 power-play goals this season. That is 40% of the team’s power-play goals this season. That’s a crazy number and I doubt there is a close anomaly to this around the league.
Leon Draisaitl leads the NHL with 15 power-play goals in 66 games! Jake Guentzel is second with 14 then Laine is tied with four other players. Jake DeBrusk has 11 for Vancouver and that’s 26.8% of his team’s power-play goals. That was the next highest percentage that I noticed.
The fact that the Canadiens power play percentage is just 21.88 is puzzling. They are ranked 17th in the league. I know it can be better than that for sure. Believe it or not, the Canadiens power play percentage was 21.9 last year. How can you add Laine and not have it be any better? This is something that needs to be looked at after the season. They have to improve it to be a better team.
This is a good season for the Canadiens but they have a lot of room for improvement and the power play is one of those areas. Just moving up four or five spots in the rankings usually adds more wins.
