The sun still rose in town after the Montreal Canadiens dropped a 7-2 preseason decision against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Center on Thursday night, and everyone was back at work in Brossard.
The three groups still at camp practiced and had meetings following the previous night’s disastrous performance. Although not everyone participated in the game, it remains a valuable learning experience for the entire group. What better way to make players wise up to the fact that a game is won on the ice and not on paper? The Habs’ effort was not sufficient last night, and as a result, they were crushed by a team that wasn’t as good on paper.
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The practice was nothing special, drills like we’ve seen so many since the start of camp, with Martin St-Louis telling his players to “take care of the puck”. It was essentially just another day at the office, as it should be. A preseason loss is not the end of the world, but it’s a stark warning that the level of effort cannot be dropped.
After practice, a few players and the coach spoke to the media.
Brendan Gallagher was one of the veterans who fielded questions. When asked if it was a good thing that Thursday’s meltdown happened when it did, he refused to say that it was. The alternate captain said that proud athletes never want to lose, whether it's summer pick-up games, preseason, or the season; there’s never a good time for a lack of effort.
He was asked about wearing a neck guard, a topic that has made the headlines since Juraj Slafkovsky took a skate to the face against the Philadelphia Flyers. The team’s oldest player replied:
I had it all summer too; it took a little bit of time to get used to, but it wasn’t that big of an adjustment. For me, it makes you feel a little bit safer, a little bit more protected, and obviously, when you’re on the ice playing, you don’t want to think about stuff like that, so if anything, it just blocks that out and you can play.- Gallagher on wearing a neck guard
The winger added that there seem to be more and more incidents, and considering that the protection is now available and it’s easy to do, it just makes sense, especially for a new dad.
Alexandre Carrier was asked about how he felt following the injuries sustained by Kaiden Guhle and Noah Dobson, and replied:
You hope it isn’t serious, and it looks like it isn’t, so that’s good. But yeah, following along yesterday, I told myself, well, we don’t have too many defensemen left on the bench. But I think it’s more precautionary than anything else.- Carrier on Guhle and Dobson's injuries
One player for whom it is serious, though, is David Reinbacher, the young blueliner, who cannot seem to catch a break, and the injuries keep plaguing his young career. For the first two seasons after being drafted, he was affected by lower-body injuries. He missed most of the campaign last year due to a knee injury and underwent surgery. The silver lining, if you want to see it, is that it’s not another knee injury, but he will still miss four weeks because of a broken bone in his hand. Asked about his frame of mind, his teammate Lane Hutson explained:
I mean, I think he has taken positive strides. Obviously, you want to stay healthy and playing, showing what you can do, but it’s just a bad bounce. Those things happen. He’s hungry as ever and motivated to come back even better.- Hutson on Reinbacher's frame of mind
The BU alums texted Reinbacher last night and said that while the Austrian was frustrated, he knows it’s out of his control, but he seems hungry and motivated to fight back and play again.
As for coach Martin St-Louis, he said that most of the players who featured in the 7-2 loss wouldn’t be playing tomorrow in Toronto, and it would be a new start. The goal will be to win the day, just like every day at camp. Unsurprisingly, he also added that the group of players at camp would be shrunk down after tomorrow’s game. That makes sense since Sunday is a day off and the Laval Rockets’ camp will open on September 30th.
The full lineup for Saturday’s game against the Leafs has yet to be revealed, but we’ll have that information when the playing group hits the ice for morning skate, which is scheduled for 11:20 AM.
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