The Canadiens clear weakness in recent years has been their inability to score goals when playing 5-on-5, which is a serious concern seeing as that is by far the most common game situation you can have.

Jacques Martin clearly identified this as something that required improvement last season, and there was compared to his first year behind the bench.

But it wasn't enough.

In the playoffs, the Canadiens glaring weakness was fully exposed by the Boston Bruins, who were by far the best 5-on-5 team in the NHL in both the regular season and the playoffs on their way to the Stanley Cup.

The Bruins scored 15 of their 17 goals in the series against the Canadiens at 5-on-5, with one other coming at 4-on-4 and one going into an empty net.

However, the Canadiens in 2010-11 snapped a streak of two straight seasons where the team had a negative ratio of 5-on-5 goals for and against, though they did so only by a hair with a 1.01 figure last season to finish 16th in the league.

Still, that was a significant improvement from the season prior when the Canadiens tied for 22nd in the NHL in 2009-10 by scoring 0.9 goals at 5-on-5 for every goal they allowed.

In terms of 5-on-5 goals for, the first year of the Martin regime saw the Canadiens finish dead last in the NHL, but the club managed a subtle climb up to 26th last season.

That upward movement will need to become a trend this season if Montreal hopes to truly thrust itself into the Eastern Conference elite.

Lesser competition could mean more production

The signing of Erik Cole was likely done with that weakness in mind, seeing as he was a beast at even strength last season for the Hurricanes.

But that signing has the added possibility of making another even strength performer even more effective – Andrei Kostitsyn.

Going on the assumption that Kostitsyn would be the one bumped out of the top-six due to Cole's arrival – and it's a big assumption – the upcoming season would mark the first time in his career Kostitsyn would be in a role where he could face lesser competition.

With all the criticism he's faced over his four full seasons in Montreal, Kostitsyn has consistently played a top line role with the Canadiens – whether it was with Tomas Plekanec and Alex Kovalev, or Plekanec and Michael Cammalleri.

In each of his four full seasons Kostitsyn has had a positive quality of competition rating, meaning he has faced the opposing team's top players shift after shift, year after year.

If indeed he were to be bumped down to a third line role with the Canadiens this season, it may very well allow Kostitsyn to thrive even more than he has at even strength thus far in his career.

Kostitsyn was second on the team last season in even strength points, both on a total basis (34) and a per game basis (0.42).

In the three seasons prior, Kostitsyn finished fifth, fourth and second in even strength points – doing so facing the best the Canadiens opponents had to offer.

Over the course of his career, Kostitsyn has been extremely consistent when it comes to his production at season's end. His points per game the last three seasons are carbon copies of each other – 0.55 in 08-09, 0.56 in 09-10 and 0.56 in 10-11.

But that consistency risks being adjusted upwards if Kostitsyn is given a chance to face third and fourth forward lines and third defence pairings on a regular basis for the first time in his career.

And that's an added ripple effect the arrival of Cole may very well produce.