The Montreal Canadiens delighted their fans on Sunday when they held their annual skills competition with a few guests from the Montreal Victoire.
While Nick Suzuki was competing in the gold medal game with Team Canada on Sunday, his Montreal Canadiens teammates were taking part in the team’s annual skills competition. For a second year in a row, the organization had also invited some Montreal Victoire players to take part in the event. With Marie-Philip Poulin, Laura Stacey, and Ann-Renee Desbiens still being in Italy, the fans got to see some new faces this time around in Maureen Murphy, Alexandra Labelle, Nicole Gosling, and Jade Downie-Landry.
The event kicked off with the fastest skater competition, which Alex Newhook won last year in 13.5 seconds. Joe Veleno (14.37), Zachary Bolduc (13.85), and Lane Hutson (13.624) won the event. A young fan, Romeo Blackman, had won a contest to take part and recorded a 19.6 time, before Mike Matheson’s son, Hutson Matheson, did his own lap, and while he needed his dad there like last year, the blueliner was much further away from him, and he did it in 29.7 seconds, compared to 37 seconds a year ago. Then, Philip-Edouard Danault, Philip Danault’s son, also competed and completed his lap in 23.669 seconds.
The second event was a relay race. Team Red, represented by Cole Caufield, Joe Veleno, and Gosling, finished second, while Team White, who won the race, included Danault, Lane Hutson, and Downie-Landry. Then, Hutson and Ivan Demidov faced off in a one-on-one race, which the Russian rookie won. Gosling and Downie-Landry then faced off, with the Quebecer crossing the line first.
Next up was the accuracy shooting. Brendan Gallagher for Team White got three of the four targets in 26.3 seconds, and then Kirby Dach, for Team Red, took 44 seconds to hit all four targets. Needless to say, it wasn’t the veterans’ finest hour. Josh Anderson was next up for Team White, hitting all four targets in just 10.752 seconds. Alexandre Carrier then got a turn for Team Red, needing 18.7 seconds to hit the four targets. Jake Evans was next up for Team Red and only needed 7.757 seconds to destroy the four targets. Caufield tried to beat his time but came up short with 9.164 seconds. Labelle from the Victoire then did it in 22.423 seconds, while Murphy only took 12.357 seconds, easily winning the duel.
Jakub Dobes and Samuel Montembeault then faced off; the Czech goalie needed 38.4 seconds to hit all targets, while the Quebecer did it in 23.969 seconds. It looked much easier for Montembeault, who seems much more likely to score an empty netter than Dobes right now.
The fourth event was the hardest shot competition, which featured Matheson (100.3 mph), Jayden Struble (102.2 mph), Kaiden Guhle (96 mph), Arber Xhekaj (102.4 mph), and Noah Dobson (95.2 mph). While Xhekaj had already won the event, he insisted on taking another shot, which clocked in at 107.3 mph, a new personal best for the defenseman who really should try to use that shot more in game situations.
Photo credit: Matt Garies Club de Hockey Canadien inc. Finally, Demidov won the continuous shooting event, but it was Struble who surprised the crowd with a very special move. Downie-Landry and Gosling both beat the goalie, as Murphy and Labelle couldn’t.
Once again, this year, the Bell Centre was packed for the event, and, as there was no glass around the rink, the players skated around, signing autographs for fans lucky enough to get tickets right by the boards. The Canadiens have a day off on Monday and will be back in Brossard on Tuesday morning, as the NHL resumes play soon.
Photo credit: Matt Garies Club de Hockey Canadien inc. Follow Karine on X @KarineHains Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social and Threads @karinehains.
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