Noah Dobson's absence has forced Montreal Canadiens' coach Martin St-Louis to work on different pairings ahead of the postseason start, and it remains to be seen which combination he'll settle for.
On Saturday morning, before taking off for Florida, the Montreal Canadiens held one last practice ahead of the puck drop on their series against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday afternoon.
Martin St-Louis stuck to the same lineup as Friday up front, meaning that his first line was untouched, Alex Newhook was centring the second line, flanked by Alexandre Texier and Ivan Demidov, Oliver Kapanen was the pivot of the third line with Zachary Bolduc and Kirby Dach on his wings, while Phillip Danault was on the fourth line with Jake Evans and Josh Anderson.
It did make some changes on the blueline, however, with Lane Hutson going back to the right alongside Kaiden Guhle and Alexandre Carrier being paired with Mike Matheson. The only pairing that remained the same was the third one, featuring Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj.
That’s an interesting move considering how many minutes Matheson plays a game and how likely he is to be surtaxed in Noah Dobson’s absence. With all due respect to Carrier, playing him for more than 20 minutes a night hardly appears like a recipe for success, especially in the playoffs. Last year, he averaged 20:44 of ice time in the postseason, and he was rocked by big hits several times, including that one hit from Tom Wilson that was one of the defining moments of the series. All too often this season, he has been the target of hard hits that took him out of the play, leaving the Habs vulnerable. With the intensity being turned up a notch in the postseason, he’s likely to be targeted a lot.
Meanwhile, putting Hutson back on his off-side is surprising. Generally, we’ve seen him have success there when paired up with Jayden Struble. In my mind, if you’re going to put him there, might as well have him play with Struble and leave Guhle with Matheson, putting Carrier on the bottom pairing with Xhekaj.
Though this is the playoffs, the time of the year when coaches are likely to play games and not want to show their hand. Perhaps Martin St-Louis is playing with us and intends to use other combinations as well. At this stage of the year, everyone on the team has played with everyone, and they don’t really need more reps. There could have been a need for it if he had intended to play David Reinbacher and Adam Engstrom, but it doesn’t look like it. Speaking of the two rookies, yesterday at practice, Matheson was giving them a skating lesson, yet another example of the important role the veteran plays on this team.
When the puck drops on Sunday afternoon, we’ll be keeping an eye on the Canadiens pairing. Not only to see who’s playing with whom, but also how stable they are. St-Louis might be tempted to use different players with Hutson depending on the circumstances. Whichever way you look at it, Dobson’s absence has left the coach with quite a puzzle on his hands…
Follow Karine on X @KarineHains Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social and Threads @karinehains.
Bookmark The Hockey News Canadiens' page for all the news and happenings around the Canadiens.
Join the discussion by signing up to the Canadiens' roundtable on The Hockey News.
Subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here.