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Montreal Canadiens' Lars Eller is congratulated by teammate Sergei Gonchar following a goal past St. Louis Blues goalie Jake Allen during third period NHL hockey action Thursday, November 20, 2014 in Montreal.Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press

Maybe it helps to think about this as a photo in which the composition emphasizes not what is shown but what's missing.

While the Montreal Canadiens bestride the NHL's Eastern Conference, there is a sense of low-grade, did-I-leave-the-stove-on dread about this club.

No, the Canadiens aren't entirely happy with their play either.

Trust Habs centre Lars Eller, an analytical thinker, to burrow into the whys and wherefores.

He sees a few trouble spots, here's the main one: managing the positional push-and-pull between forwards and defencemen to consistently create the right spacing, particularly in the neutral zone.

"The gap between the forwards and defencemen is too big a lot of the time," said the Danish forward, who is arguably Montreal's best centre in even-strength situations this season (his 1.25 goals per 60 minutes of ice time trail only top scorer Max Pacioretty).

There will be a temptation, in these overheated times, to paint Eller's words as a broadside against coach Michel Therrien's system. It's an unfair interpretation.

The 25-year-old is principally preoccupied – as are his teammates – with carrying out their mandates more effectively; in hockey argot, "execution."

"It's about supporting [the defence] a little better so they have time to make those [breakout] plays. They have players coming in their face and all they see is numbers on our forwards because they've blown the zone," he said. "I do believe that good defence is going to create good offence. Sometimes the [defencemen] have a bad gap [on opponents], but the forward isn't doing his push-back right."

Why it matters: The Habs' game is fuelled by turnovers and quick transitions through the neutral zone.

If forwards don't do their part, bad things happen and frailties are exposed – it's no accident management has sought to solidify a fragile-seeming blueline.

It's tied to one of the more maddening buzz phrases in hockey, "puck management," which like all successful morsels of newspeak manages to mean both lots of things and nothing.

In Eller's mind, it signifies this: "Make the play you know is going to work most of the time, the game-plan play, and not [committing] turnovers."

At the bottom, Montreal's game-plan – love it or hate it – is about risk-minimization.

When Eller was asked if it's fun to play that way, he said: "It's not always, but it's fun winning."

This shouldn't be misconstrued as a dig at Therrien, although it indirectly raises an interesting question: How would this team and its best player, P.K. Subban, do under a coach who prized swashbuckling attacking play?

Expanding on his thought, Eller said, "It doesn't mean you have to take creativity away, but instead of the sexy pass in the neutral zone that's going to work 50 per cent of the time, it's better to make the play that's going to work 90 per cent of the time."

That way, he concluded, you generate more or less the same offence while limiting mistakes, particularly near the bluelines.

There's a popular conception the Habs rely too much on low-percentage stretch passes – the club must surely lead the league in icing calls – and they dump and chase far more than a team this skilled should. Maybe, but the other guys are trying too.

"No team is going to just let you have a clean [zone] entry. I think we've done a good job putting pucks in behind [defencemen], especially early in games, because that's what teams will give you," centre David Desharnais said. "But Plan A is to carry the puck in."

Advanced stats support the obvious point – controlled entries create more scoring chances than dump-ins – and Montreal clearly wants to improve in that area.

Maybe it will address the team's dual personality disorder: The Canadiens tend to either dominate or get smoked (they have been outscored 30-3 in their seven losses).

Losing heavily is not unusual among other top teams in the East (Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay and the New York Islanders have all been badly outscored in their losses) and it doesn't seem to bother Montreal unduly.

"The morale doesn't change. A loss is a loss, you have the same feeling whether it's 1-0 or 5-0, it's upsetting," winger Brendan Gallagher said. "You go to the drawing board and find a solution. We've been good at correcting our mistakes this year. Nothing is unfixable."

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