Tomas Plekanec has been primarily used as a defensive forward, but now we are starting to see his offensive side and just how much damage he can inflict in Plekanec’s growing offensive role.
Tomas Plekanec has been playing full time for the Montreal Canadiens since 2005-06. He appeared in two games for the Habs in 2003-04, and then spending the lockout year of 2004-05 with the Hamilton Bulldogs. But once the lockout was lifted and the 2005-06 season was ready to start, Plekanec was ready to start his career, appearing in 67 games, notching 9 goals and 20 assists. Since then he has been a rock on the lineup, only missing 12 games since his rookie season. One of Plekanec’s strengths, which is highly underrated, is his defensive play. He is regularly matched against competitive top lines, tasked with shutting them down, as well as having a gift for following the puck and taking it away. Some of Plekanec’s most memorable games were back in the 2010 NHL Playoffs, when the Habs met the Pittsburgh Penguins in round two. Plekanec was matched against Sidney Crosby for much of the series, and he limited Sid the Kid to a measly four points in six games, in which the Habs were victorious.
One of the main reasons that many Habs fans do not like Plekanec is because he does not provide much offense, but this is false. Plekanec mainly sticks to playing in the defense zone, sporting a 61.0% defense zone on even strength play, and a 64.7% for all situations for the 2013-14 season, and his previous seasons aren’t that much different, but he did start a career high 806 face-offs in his zone in 2013-14. Plekanec’s CF% rating did go down a considerable amount from last season, but this could be attributed to the lockout season being so short. Plekanec rated at 46.0 CF%, anything below a 50% isn’t great, but he also did not have the best line-mates. He mainly played with a combination of either Brian Gionta, Rene Bourque, or Brendan Gallagher. So between being stuck with some veterans who have lost their scoring touch, and starting such a high percentage in the defensive zone as well as shutting down opponents, it is completely understandable that Plekanec’s offensive numbers are to go down, regardless of Plekanec still showing he has a ton of skill left. But now Plekanec is playing with a combination of either Alex Galchenyuk, Brendan Gallagher, or Jiri Sekac, which should give Plekanec the ability to produce and feel young at the same time.
One of Plekanec’s other best strength is his face-offs. In the 2013-14 season, he took 1,713 face offs, in all situations and zones, ranking him fifth overall in the league. He won 822 of those face-offs, good enough for a 48% success rate, which puts him in 67th overall in the league, and while that number does seem bad, remember that he took the fifth most faceoffs in the league each night against the opponents top line. That is no easy feat. Regularly facing and shutting down the top lines is no easy feat. Marc Bergevin’s signing of Manny Malholtra will take off some of the defensive pressure and let Plekanec have some extra time in the offensive zone.
This is where Malholtra comes in. Manny is one of the best face-off specialist in the league, having above 50% in face offs each year for a while now. He is also sound defensively. So bringing in Maholtra will ensure that Plekanec will start above 30% offensive zone starts, leaving him to produce in an offensive role.
And boy, have we seen that so far. In four games, Plekanec has four goals and one assist, along with a 46.2% CF, 45.0% FF, and he also has a great but unsustainable OISH% (On Ice Shooting Percentage) of 20.3 to go with a near identical from last year OISV%(On Ice Save Percentage) of 93.3. While it does look similar to last season’s advanced stat line, the team is still adjusting as a whole, and will take time to sync and get the chemistry going.
With Manny signed, it makes sense to let Plekanec run with the offensive role, but through four games, he has started 56.9% of starts in defensive zone, and 43.1% in offensive zone. Keep in mind though, it is only a four game sample and as the team gets in sync, we should start to see Plekanec to have more offensive starts. He may not start above 50% in offensive zone starts because he is still a trusted and valuable two way player, but it isn’t crazy to think he could land at somewhere between 40% and 46% in offensive zone starts by season end.
This should be a good season for both Plekanec and the Montreal Canadiens, and while Monday night’s fiasco versus the Tampa Bay Lightning seemed really bad, the Bleu-Blanc-et Rouge will lose games, and will take time to get into sync. But for the time being, Habs fans should be keeping a close eye on Plekanec as he has been given the chance and tools to succeed and possibly tie or beat his previous career highs of 29 goals and 70 points.
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