The Montreal Canadiens had been in a position to squeeze some solutions out of their last pre-season sport in Ottawa on Saturday evening.
They weren’t prone to get a lot else in not dressing most of their core gamers towards a Senators aspect lacking top-enders Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Claude Giroux and David Perron.
Absolutely, Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis would’ve appreciated to have seen his full lineup take one gown rehearsal earlier than the large present will get underway on the Bell Centre Wednesday. He’d have actually appreciated getting an thought of how cohesive his crew would possibly seem earlier than placing it out towards the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins in back-to-back video games to open the common season.
However as St. Louis mentioned previous to bringing a blended bag of NHL and AHL expertise from Mont-Tremblant Que., to Ottawa, “The best way issues have gone thus far within the league in pre-season, I feel there are various groups who would additionally take much less threat, and that’s what we’re doing.”
With a rash of great accidents suffered by established NHLers in each conferences over the previous two weeks, who can blame them for leaving their stars at residence?
Well being was the precedence for each groups on this final sport — particularly after shedding Patrik Laine and David Reinbacher to the long-term harm checklist inside the span of 5 minutes of a previous meaningless sport — and each the Senators and Canadiens preserved that on this evening.
The visiting crew would’ve taken way more than that at Canadian Tire Centre, however no less than it obtained that and a little bit of readability forward of getting to finalize its choices for the common season.
Even in a 4-2 loss that introduced them to 2-4-0 within the pre-season, the Canadiens discovered what they wanted to be taught.
The result — of each this sport and the exhibition schedule — means nothing. The Canadiens discovering that Kaiden Guhle can be able to play at full capability when the puck drops in an upcoming sport of significance means rather a lot.
The defenceman was showing in his first contest on Saturday after present process an appendectomy firstly of camp and he didn’t seem even a beat out of rhythm. Guhle was quick, bodily, and in the kind of kind he must be in to renew his position because the crew’s main shutdown defenceman.
Extra was revealed to the Canadiens, with Adam Engstrom proving he may be an possibility for the crew sooner or later this season.
The Swedish defenceman, who was drafted 92nd total by the Canadiens in 2022, is probably not beginning within the NHL this October, however he took one more step in direction of having a vibrant future on this league over his 19:59 towards the Senators.
The administration crew thought Engstrom can be a participant when he arrived forward of camp, and now that it’s over they know he’ll be one. Particularly after watching him play brilliantly with the puck — not solely on the play to arrange Christian Dvorak’s objective however on the whole — and block three photographs with out it.
By no means thoughts that Engstrom was minus-three on this sport. Two of the Senators targets got here on turnovers that had nothing to do with him, he had his man coated on one other Michael Amadio potted with a high-slot tip, and he solely lent credence to the notion he’ll fare properly on this league sometime quickly.
The Canadiens know they’ve an NHLer in 2021 first-rounder Logan Mailloux however in all probability discovered over the course of this camp one thing that was solely strengthened on this last exhibition sport — that he additionally wants seasoning within the American Hockey League earlier than taking a full-time spot of their lineup.
One participant who appears to be like able to be within the NHL proper now’s Emil Heineman.
The 22-year-old was arguably Montreal’s finest participant on this sport, and that was after already leaving a robust impression over the primary 15 days of camp.
“I feel he’s proper in there,” St. Louis mentioned on Saturday morning, after he was requested about Heineman’s standing within the race to a roster spot. “I feel he’s taken a step. The best way he strikes on the ice, all the things simply appears to be like higher than earlier than. I feel it’s the maturity, the one yr underneath his belt in North America. You noticed his instruments final yr, however I really feel like all the things is extra linked with how he’s utilizing his instruments. So, to me, that’s simply maturity.”
It’s what Heineman wanted to indicate to pressure the brass right into a troublesome resolution — to doubtlessly maintain him over a extra skilled participant like Alex Barré-Boulet, who (not like Heineman) must move by way of waivers to be despatched down.
What the Canadiens noticed on Saturday from a participant of theirs who can solely keep or be despatched to Sweden additionally offered some readability. As a result of even when Oliver Kapanen didn’t issue into the targets his crew scored, he used his smarts, his sturdy positioning and his fast palms and ft to proceed leaving the identical sturdy impression he has since first arriving in Montreal two weeks in the past.
“He’s proven that he can do a whole lot of various things on the ice, and I really feel like he’s obtained a reasonably good basis of being a 200-foot participant,” St. Louis instructed reporters who attended Saturday’s sport. “I feel he’s proven that fairly persistently by way of camp.”
Inconsistency of sure different gamers would possibly muddy the method a bit for St. Louis, government vice-president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton and common supervisor Kent Hughes over the subsequent 24 hours.
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Arber Xhekaj was having an up and (largely) down camp earlier than scoring a objective, decisively profitable a struggle over Zack McEwen and taking part in a very sturdy sport on Saturday. Jayden Struble began a bit slowly within the first week however performed a superb sport Wednesday towards the Senators. And Justin Barron in all probability had his least spectacular efficiency in Ottawa after stringing collectively a number of strong ones.
St. Louis, Gorton and Hughes are going to have a tricky time deciding which two of the three gown towards the Leafs in Recreation 1 of the season.
They’ll even have to determine whether or not they need to be involved about what they’ve seen from Joshua Roy — the sophomore who had a formidable rookie season and adopted it up with an abnormal camp that ended poorly towards the Senators.
We wouldn’t have put Roy in a race with Kapanen, Heineman and Barré-Boulet, however he might have performed himself into one together with his efficiency.
We received’t have to attend lengthy to seek out out.
“Camp is over,” mentioned St. Louis. “We’re going to make our choices and get going Monday.”
The Canadiens will then have 48 hours to type out another issues. Like particular groups.
Their energy play went 0-for-30 and minus-1 in pre-season, and the penalty kill struggled mightily as properly.
Granted, we by no means actually noticed all of the elements of the Canadiens’ items play in a sport, so there’s solely a lot inventory we are able to put into all of that. However they clearly have some riddles to resolve in each departments earlier than the puck drops on Wednesday.
That day can’t come quickly sufficient.
“It was a reasonably turbulent pre-season, and never simply right here however throughout the league,” mentioned St. Louis. “I’m blissful it’s over and we’re beginning for actual.”