Montreal Canadiens

Emelin's struggles have put Julien in a difficult position
March 16, 2017, 11:14 AM ET [226 Comments]
Jennifer B Cutler
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Alexei Emelin likely played one of his worst games of his entire NHL career as the Montreal Canadiens were defeated by the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2 Tuesday night at the Bell Centre. Emelin has become the whipping boy of choice for many Canadiens fans and members of the media as the quality of his play has been spiraling down, ultimately costing his team with defensive and mental mistakes. To make matters worse his gaffes have been especially noticeable as goals have been scored against the Canadiens directly as a result of his errors.

Emelin’s play has put Canadiens head coach Claude Julien in quite the spot as he must make difficult decisions as to how to handle the struggling veteran. While Emelin was not yet in North America during Julien’s first stint with the Canadiens, he is all too familiar with him due to the Canadiens lengthy rivalry with the Bruins and their meetings in the playoffs. That also means that Julien has seen Emelin perform at his best more often than not as the Bruins have tended to bring out the beast in Emelin as he almost always has stepped up during those matchups.

On paper the pairing of Emelin with Shea Weber should never have worked. Two big physical defensemen not known for their speed and so many wondered who would carry the puck and initiate plays. How they could possible compliment one another? Strangely enough, the duo worked as they consistently defended well against opposing top lines. Emelin was playing some of his best and steadiest hockey in his career. However, when the team began to struggle through January and February, Emelin and Weber were not immune as their play deteriorated as well.

Shortly thereafter Julien’s arrival during the Canadiens bye week, most players started to get out of their funk and start playing better. The opposite happened with Emelin as his play just kept getting worse. Julien took the necessary step of dropping Emelin off of the top pairing and replacing him with Andrei Markov while he joined former partner Jeff Petry on the second defensive pairing. Unfortunately the poor play of Emelin continued as his mistakes only became bigger. Finally he was made a healthy scratch against the Vancouver Canucks on the Canadiens recent Western Canada road trip.

However, despite the Canadiens as a team playing well and defeating the Canucks, Julien decided to give Emelin another chance as he dressed the next game against the Calgary Flames. The trip to the press box did little to wake Emelin up though as he was a minus three on the night and once again his play and decisions helped the Flames score.




Curiously, he was given another chance to dress again the next Canadiens next game against the Edmonton Oilers. Yet again his error caused another goal against as his former foe Milan Lucic took advantage of his mistake at the Oilers blue line and outmuscled him as Lucic went on to score against Carey Price. Julien though refused to throw him under the bus as he tried to give Emelin a vote of confidence after the game stating that it was a bad pass that led to Emelin losing out to Lucic.




As Julien wanted to find more ice time for newcomer Brandon Davidson, he decided to sit Nathan Beaulieu instead of Emelin despite of the latter’s recent struggles. Instead of Emelin rewarding his coach for keeping him in the lineup, He looked absolutely lost on the ice against the Blackhawks. His mistakes had a hand in the first three Blackhawks goals and it was particularly difficult to digest as the rest of the team played well. Finally Julien had little choice but to bench Emelin after the Blackhawks early in the third period which put the Canadiens behind 3-0. With Davidson playing well and earning more ice time, the Canadiens attempted another comeback only to ultimately fall short as the Blackhawks scored an empty net goal to make it a 4-2 final.




Postgame Julien refused to comment on Emelin’s play. He was doing his best to protect his veteran from further embarrassment. It was a demonstration of strong leadership by the coach and one that will not go unnoticed by the team. Unfortunately Emelin’s play has put Julien in a difficult position as he obviously is playing with little to any confidence. However, with just 12 games remaining in the season, Julien does not have the luxury of time to let Emelin work through his tough stretch, especially not when there are other options available.

It will take another day or two to get an idea of what Julien’s approach will Emelin be as he out with the flu and not practicing Thursday morning. With back to back games against their division rival Ottawa Senators this coming weekend, the Canadiens could use the Emelin of old if he were to play the version of his physical and shot blocking self. However, with points on the line for the Atlantic division lead, Emelin is a liability on the ice. Will it be possible for Julien to trust him?

Cheers and follow along!