Canadiens Notes: Early Camp Takeaways

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The Montreal Canadiens are in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec on Monday to host the Ottawa Senators as part of Kraft Hockeyville. It will be the Senators first game of the preseason. Meanwhile, the Canadiens are coming off a sweep in Saturday’s split squad games.

Here are my early personal observations from training camp.

Forwards

The top six seems set with Chris Kreider moving in to complete the duo of Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. The second line reunites Juraj Slafkovsky with Oliver Kapanen and Ivan Demidov. The trio had success last season playing together. Martin St. Louis’ goal is to balance the offence over the two lines.
At the moment, the bottom six remains more fluid. Philip Danault and Josh Anderson are locks due to their respective roles. Danault handles important left side faceoffs and penalty kill minutes. Anderson recently named an alternate captain and works on the penalty kill.
That leaves four spots available among Zachary Bolduc, Kirby Dach, Jake Evans, Alex Newhook, Alexandre Texier. On Saturday, Florian Xhekaj got a chance to complete the Danault and Anderson duo in Toronto and turned some heads. During the first period, Xhekaj was on the ice at the same time as Auston Matthews, and made sure to play physical against the Maple Leafs superstar. Matthews retaliated a bit, but veteran Marshall Rifai dropped the gloves in a furious fight with the Habs forward. Without an injury or a transaction, it will be difficult for Xhekaj to start the year in Montreal, but he left a good first impression.
Kreider appears to fit in with his new club. He’s regularly working on deflections at the conclusion of the practices and there’s always a teammate accompanying him. All the players asked to comment on his arrival showered the veteran with compliments. Following Saturday’s victory at the Bell Centre, he joined Suzuki, Caufield, and Slafkovsky for the traditional circle of friendship celebration. He took the spot of Kirby Dach who was with the squad in Toronto.

Defensemen

In the split squad matches over the weekend, the six defensemen from last season were paired as follows: Mike Matheson – Noah Dobson, Lane Hutson – Alexandre Carrier, Jayden Struble – Arber Xhekaj.
Kaiden Guhle’s four-to-five week absence due to injury opens up a roster spot at the blue line. The two front runners for that job are Adam Engstrom and David Reinbacher. The two of them formed a duo in Toronto on Saturday. Derek Lalonde was the bench boss at Scotiabank Arena, while St. Louis led the troops on home ice. Lalonde praised Reinbacher who played 22:02, including 4:41 on the penalty kill.
Based on the pairings deployed against the Maple Leafs, the battle is on for right defence on the third pairing. Jayden Struble admitted after the contest that he didn’t have a good night. If he doesn’t turn things around this week, and Reinbacher continues to impress, Struble risks watching opening night from the press box.

Goaltending

At the Canadiens golf tournament, Kent Hughes clearly said that there will only be two goalies to start the regular season. Jakub Dobes is locked in and barring a catastrophe, he will be between the pipes on opening night.
The real question is for the backup spot between Samuel Montembeault and Jacob Fowler. In his first start since March 6th, Montembeault stopped all 13 shots he faced in 31:19 against Toronto’s ‘A’ squad, while Fowler allowed one goal on 10 shots at the Bell Centre. This week is important for Montembeault. His performance will either increase his NHL value in Montreal or elsewhere, or push him closer to the AHL.
Kaapo Kahkonen returned to the organization despite very little chance of playing for the Canadiens. He allowed one unlucky goal on Saturday on a shot that deflected off both Josh Anderson’s and Mike Matheson’s sticks before finding the back of the net. The veteran also robbed Auston Matthews with a glove save from point blank.