It would be easy to look at the game summary of the gutsy Canadiens 3-2 shootout win in Washington on Tuesday night and assume that captain Brian Gionta made all the difference.

In fact, it would be hard to come to a different conclusion.

Gionta broke out of a horrible slump with two goals, plus the winner in the shootout, but more importantly he registered seven shots on net. Amazingly, he hit the target on all of his attempts.

Over the previous 10 games, Gionta had only gotten 31 shots on goal, scoring just twice with no assists in that span. And it was the 3.1 shots per game that were a bigger cause for concern than the goal total, because everyone will go through slumps where you can't bury chances. If you're not getting those chances to begin with, that's when you need to worry.

One would have to imagine Gionta was plenty worried as he took some time off for the All-Star break, but another one who was clearly thinking about his captain's lack of production was Jacques Martin.

He knows full well that his team can't get anywhere without Gionta serving as a consistent source of offence, and the solution Martin found was to go back to old reliable, the magic slump breaker, Tomas Plekanec.

All season, or at least most of it, whoever Plekanec has played with has thrived. That trend began to show some faults as Martin's most versatile player began to show some wear and tear as the season wore on, what with his predominant role in all three phases of the game.

Again Tuesday night, Plekanec's line was the most used on the power play, his forward pairing with Travis Moen was the most used on the penalty kill, and his line was the most used at even strength. Despite that, in my eyes at least, Plekanec was the most energetic forward on the ice for either team.

I keep telling myself I won't let this guy surprise me anymore, but he did it again on Tuesday.

A CBC/NHLPA poll of 318 NHL players put Plekanec fifth in terms of who his peers felt was the most underrated player in the league.

His performance Tuesday night – 22:47 of ice time, four shots on goal, a team-high 10 shots attempts and a plus-1 – leads me to believe that Plekanec benefitted from the rest the All-Star break afforded him, even though an argument could easily be made he belonged in Raleigh himself.

But I wonder if a more long-term view may not be useful with Plekanec, because we all know how much more important his role becomes come playoff time. It's not often a team's leading scorer is willing to sacrifice his own offence to serve a primarily defensive role, but that's what Plekanec does in the playoffs.

Still, one would have to imagine that if he had fresher legs come April, perhaps he could maintain his regular season cadence offensively while still using the bulk of his energy keeping the Ovechkins and Crosbys of the world off the scoresheet.

I'm not saying Martin should have held back on Plekanec's tough minutes in this game in Washington, because they were needed to get the point and to allow for a chance at the bonus point. But as the schedule rolls on, it might not be a bad idea to find games where others can pick up some slack.

Because we saw what a rested Plekanec can do at both ends of the ice Tuesday, it would just be nice to see it in the playoffs as well.