MONTREAL - Our opinions of many things in our lives are based almost exclusively on our pre-conceived expectations; what could be seen as a disappointment to one person can be great news to another, depending entirely on what that person was expecting.

Such is the burden of Andrei Kostitsyn.

Most people see a player with the size, speed and talent to be an impact forward in the NHL. They look at his draft positioning in one of the deepest and most talented draft classes in NHL history, and they expect him to measure up to the Jeff Carters and Corey Perrys of the world.

Frankly, that is how it should be, because there are very few players in the NHL with Kostitsyn's high end skill. I would put his shot up against any forward in the league in terms of velocity and what goalies refer to as heaviness. His release, considering the velocity he generates, is quick.

And he has enough brawn and more than enough speed that he should be able to put himself in positions to get that shot off with great frequency, and from dangerous areas of the ice.

But, year after year, Canadiens fans are left disappointed with Kostitsyn's largely untapped potential, something that becomes all the more maddening when the team has trouble scoring goals, which seems to be every year.

This season is no different, as Kostitsyn's goal against the New York Rangers was his 12th of the season – good enough to place him second on the team – but only his second in his past 20 games. (UPDATE: Sorry for the brain cramp, but that was Kostitsyn's 11th of the season, placing him fourth on the team).

Yet, over the past few games, Kostitsyn has looked better, and that has coincided with him being placed on a checking line with Jeff Halpern and Travis Moen. While initially I have no doubt this was done by Jacques Martin to serve either as a wake-up call or as a punishment for Kostitsyn, I get the feeling Martin may be looking at it as an interesting development in the continued shaping of his team.

Draws compliments from the coach

After the Rangers game Martin spoke quite glowingly of Kostitsyn, not just for the goal he scored on a rocket slapper from the slot, but because of how he fared facing a physically demanding line centered by 6-foot-7 Brian Boyle, with 6-foot-2 Brandon Prust and 6-foot-1 Ruslan Fedotenko on either flank.

Then, after Sunday's team meeting in preparation for Monday's game against the Calgary Flames, Martin spoke of how Kostitsyn's presence on that line adds an offensive threat to a checking line that gives greater balance to his bench overall.

It got me thinking that perhaps Kostitsyn has been slightly miscast all these years, and that maybe it is his combination of size, talent and – wait for it – defensive awareness that makes him unique and effective.

Goals against Kostitsyn have been rare

I decided to look at some numbers and, admittedly, was pretty surprised with what I had found.

Firstly, it was somewhat ironic that Martin should be impressed with Kostitsyn's game without the puck against the Rangers because he was actually on the ice for one of the two even strength goals scored by New York in that game.

Not that it was necessarily his fault, but that goal against has been a relatively rare occurrence for Kostitsyn of late.

In fact, the 3-2 win against Boston on Jan. 8 put an end to a pretty remarkable stretch when Kostitsyn was one the ice for the Bruins second goal of the game, a Patrice Bergeron goal that was more the fault of Scott Gomez than it was Kostitsyn's.

Prior to that, the last time Kostitsyn was on the ice for an opposing even strength goal against dated back to a month earlier in a 4-2 loss in Detroit on Dec. 10, the start of a stretch where the Canadiens won only three out of 13 games.

Including the games in Detroit and the home win over Boston, Kostitsyn played in 13 of those 14 games, sitting out as a healthy scratch for a 5-2 beating in Dallas. Between a Nicklas Kronwall goal in the Detroit game and Bergeron's second of the game against Boston, the Canadiens allowed 25 even strength goals (not counting empty-netters) and Kostitsyn wasn't on the ice for a single one of them.

That would help explain why Kostitsyn leads the team with a plus-8 rating, but other factors could potentially come into play in explaining that stat, most notably ice time and quality of competition.

Defensive performance is no fluke

But his ice time was sufficiently high – Kostitsyn played just under 13 minutes a game over that stretch – to make it a non-factor.

His quality of competition number from the good people at behindthenet.ca shows that Kostitsyn has the fourth highest on the team among forwards for the season, largely because he has played most often on Tomas Plekanec's wing.

Another stat I looked at was Kostitsyn's even strength goals against per 60 minutes of ice time, and the team's even strength goals against per 60 minutes when he is off the ice, derived by comparing numbers available at behindthenet.ca.

There, Kostitsyn sits at plus-0.69, second among the team's forwards behind only Mathieu Darche (who is at a whopping plus-0.90), and ahead of his frequent linemate Michael Cammalleri (plus-0.42) sitting in third by a fair margin.

Considering that Brian Gionta (minus-0.31), Scott Gomez (minus-0.23), Max Pacioretty (minus-0.39) and Benoit Pouliot (minus-0.44) were all on the negative side of that ledger, it makes Kostitsyn's mark pretty impressive.

A new role is born?

Kostitsyn says he had a chat with Martin after Friday's practice to ask what he needs to do to get back in his good graces, which is already an encouraging sign that he is willing to take responsibility for his own ice time.

But it's entirely possible that in trying to punish him and coax a more consistent performance out of Kostitsyn, Martin may have accidently found the role he was best suited for all along.