The Montreal Canadiens will soon be healthy, and that could give coach Martin St-Louis some headaches with a surplus of NHL players at his disposal.
While the Montreal Canadiens just put an end to the goaltending rotation by sending Jacob Fowler back to the Laval Rocket, they could be on the verge of starting yet another rotation, but this time, up front.
While GM Kent Hughes stayed evasive when he was asked about that possibility in his mid-year review, stating the Canadiens would be lucky if they did end up having to make some tough choices because injuries kept happening. A couple of weeks later, Jake Evans has already returned to the lineup, and both Kirby Dach and Patrik Laine are now practicing in regular jerseys, suggesting a return could be imminent.
After Saturday night’s game, Martin St-Louis was asked what the thinking was behind his lineup decisions (inserting Jake Evans by scratching Samuel Blais):
There wasn’t that much thought, I mean, I know Gally, and Andy played with D-vo [Christian Dvorak, who joined the Philadelphia Flyers as a free agent last summer] last year, lefty center, good on draws, can you find something out of that right? And then, I thought Jakey, Joey and Boldy gave us some good minutes, especially early, but you know, I know we’ve got guys coming back from injury, there’s probably going to be some juggling trying to figure out what’s going to stick. We started with that tonight.
In other words, nothing is set in stone, and we can expect a process of trial and error in the coming weeks. While Alexandre Texier is doing well on the first line with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, ideally, that’s not his chair, and the contract extension he signed reflects that reality. A first-line winger does have a $2.85 million cap hit on most teams.
Dach and Laine have first-line pedigree, but they can’t be thrown in the deep end right away. After such lengthy rehabilitations, they can’t be expected to hit the ground running and catch up to players who have been playing at the highest level for 49 games. They’ll need to be eased back in if St-Louis decides to play them.
Dach was having a pretty good start to the season, playing with Brendan Gallagher and Zachary Bolduc. Still, Phil Danault’s acquisition probably means that the former Chicago Blackhawks won’t be playing down the middle anymore. Since it’s been hard for Bolduc to find chemistry on a line so far, it could make sense to try Dach with Danault, and the Trois-Rivieres native.
That would mean moving Brendan Gallagher and Josh Anderson either to the fourth line or scratching them. Gallagher has played well with Evans in the past, and Anderson could likely fit in well with them, but that would mean scratching Joe Veleno. One of the Canadiens’ only two left-hand centers. He’s the Canadiens’ least productive player by far, with just four points in 44 games. His faceoff percentage stands at 51.5%, he’s third on the team behind Danault (56.7%) and Evans (54.2%), and just ahead of Suzuki (49.3%) and Oliver Kapanen (47.2%).
Still scratching him would be the easy choice for St-Louis, rather than telling a player who has bled red, white, and blue his whole career that he needs to sit a game out. As for Laine, given he wasn’t doing great when he was injured, I think he’ll have to wait his turn to get in the lineup, if he does indeed get a turn.
While I understand why the coach says there will be some juggling involved, with only 33 games left before the playoffs, there’s a need to find some stability as well. You do not want to get to the spring dance and have several of your players playing worried that they could lose their spot at any time. In an ideal world, you get to the playoffs with four solid lines that are clicking. St-Louis will need to balance the need to ease players in and the need for stability.
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