The Montreal Canadiens' infirmary is now empty, which means it's decision time for Martin St. Louis and co., and that might not be as easy as it seems.
The Montreal Canadiens will finally be back in action on Thursday night when they host the New York Islanders at the Bell Centre. Judging by what we’ve seen in practice so far, everyone is now healthy, which means that decisions are looming for Martin St-Louis. While some would tell you that decisions will be easy to make, the reality is that while they may be easy on paper, those decisions have repercussions in the room and with the players.
As unfortunate as it is for Patrik Laine, there doesn’t seem to be room for him right now. Even though he’s got a great one-timer on the power play, the Canadiens are looking at the long term and seem to prefer using players who will be there in the future and who aren’t on their last miles with the team. Laine’s going to be a UFA this season, and given the fact he didn’t cost much to acquire, the Habs’ brass has no issue with letting him walk for nothing at the end of the year. If they absolutely needed to move him, he might have gotten in a few games to show interested teams that he was good to go, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.
The situation will be much different for Alex Newhook, however, and as soon as he feels ready to go, he’ll be inserted in the lineup. In just 17 games this season, playing on the wing of the second line with Ivan Demidov and Oliver Kapanen, he racked up 12 points and played a key role on the penalty kill. The Canadiens’ PK is currently 25th in the league, and it can use all the help it can get. Will he go back to playing with the two rookies? That’s unlikely.
That line just worked too well with Juraj Slafkovsky completing them, and besides, Newhook could use some time to get into the swing of things before being thrown in the deep end of top-six minutes. Putting him in the lineup probably means taking out Joe Veleno. That’s not a tough decision. Veleno was signed to play the 13th forward role, and given how little time on ice he gets, he won’t be shocked to come out of the lineup.
Before the Olympic break, Alexandre Texier was out of the lineup. Still, since he played for France during the Olympic tournament and has been practicing in a regular jersey with the team since returning, he’ll be ready to reintegrate the lineup. Will he land back on the top line along Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield? Perhaps, or if Kirby Dach gets more time on the top line, he’ll drop down to the bottom six, but in any case, someone will have to come out of the lineup to make way.
There seem to be two possibilities: Brendan Gallagher or Zachary Bolduc. Gallagher hasn’t had a very productive season with six goals and 13 assists for a total of 19 points in 57 games, but he’s still an important piece in this team because of his leadership, his devotion to the team, and his competitiveness. Furthermore, since Kent Hughes acquired Philip Danault, he has formed a very effective line with Josh Anderson and Gallagher. It was that line that stole the show in the last game before the break, allowing the Canadiens to score a 5-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets. Gallagher has three points in that game. Coming off a lengthy Olympic break, how could you justify sitting him? His line was clicking, he was performing, so it wouldn’t make much sense to pull the rug from under his feet. That might not go down well in the room either.
Which leaves us with Zachary Bolduc. When the Habs acquired him this summer, they were hoping to get an offensive winger who could provide some secondary scoring. That hasn’t really been the case so far. Whichever way you look at it, he only has 23 points in 57 games, that’s only four more than Gallagher, and it’s not because he’s getting older and slowing down.
He had some interesting chemistry with Dach and Gallagher earlier this season, but it looks like Dach will stay on the top line for now, while Gallagher’s line is effective and shouldn’t be broken up, at least not for now. The 23-year-old could be seen as the logical choice, even though he did put up five points in his last 10 games, but you must be careful not to destroy his confidence in the process. Thankfully, St-Louis has been there and will probably handle it the way he would have liked it to be handled when it happened to him.
At least for now, and until the coach feels a change is needed, it looks like Veleno and Bolduc will be the odd men out. It doesn’t mean that will be the case until the end of the season; things can change, fatigue may catch up to Gallagher, or injuries might happen, but Bolduc mustn’t see it as a failure on his part; rather, he should use it as motivation.
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