Omar White – awinninghabit.com/

On this week’s Roundtable, we discuss Max Dom and his production, the Montreal Canadiens ability to deal with injuries and what their biggest challenge is.

The Montreal Canadiens are almost half-way through their Western Canada road trip. It didn’t start the way they wanted, but like always, they have us asking questions. And many of them could persist for the remainder of the season.

And thus, we bring you Mark VII of the AWH Roundtable.

1) Can Max Domi continue his goal-scoring ways?
Zack Cook: If you were to say that you expected Max Domi to score at this pace, you’d have absolutely been lying. Domi has provided the Canadiens everything that they’ve desired at the number one center position, and it looks as though Marc Bergevin might have finally acquired their number one center, who I was told weren’t available by trade.

Judging by his body of work, it would be pretty unlikely for him to continue this torrid pace, but I also expect him to start piling up more assists. Domi has shown time and time again that he can get bunches of primary assists, and that one pure display against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.

Kamal Rehman: Shooting at north of a 25.0% clip as pundits will say is unsustainable. Can it happen? Sure. William Karlsson shot at a 23.4% clip last season, and everyone kept saying his pace would stop. It did…this season. So, yes, Domi’s goal scoring should slow down. The question is when? Domi heading into this season is a career 8.6% shooter, so I do anticipate a decline.

The difference however with this season’s version of Max is that Max is being encouraged to shoot more. Father Tie is telling his son to shoot more too. Max is on pace for a 173 shot season, that would be a career high. He has a very good shot and is getting plenty of opportunities from coach Julien so although his scoring should slow down he should easily surpass his career high of 18 and my pre-season prediction of 15. Oops.