The Montreal Canadiens start their season in five days and still need to answer a few big questions, but Martin St-Louis isn't feeling any pressure.
It was scrimmage day in Brossard, so the Montreal Canadiens once again shuffled their practice groups to keep an NHL group from playing an AHL group. For those who were hoping to see Lane Hutson and David Reinbacher paired up, it was a disappointing day, as the two blueliners were in different groups. There was worse news than that, though: Ivan Demidov was once again nowhere to be seen, making it two therapy days in a row for the Russian wonder, although since the Habs were off on Tuesday, that might have been three days without ice time for him, which doesn’t necessarily bode well. However, during the post-scrimmage presser, Chantal Machabee said there was nothing to it and that they expected Demidov to skate on Friday.
Who was taking Demidov’s spot on the second line? Kirby Dach. While the big forward has the tools to be a top-six forward on paper, he rarely displays them on the ice, and based on the training camp so far, that was a surprising choice. Perhaps it’s an attempt to get solid effort from him; one has to wonder what Alex Newhook thought of that move, as he was put in Dach’s place between Alexandre Texier and Zachary Bolduc. After all, Newhook did very well last season playing alongside Demidov and Kapanen.
Before the scrimmage, though, they had a regular practice, and Martin St-Louis wasn’t pleased with what he saw on the ice, so he made his players skate a few laps. At 11:30, the puck dropped on the Red vs. White game. The Red Team featured the Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Chris Kreider line; the Josh Anderson, Phillip Danault, and Jake Evans line up front; and the Lane Hutson and Alexandre Carrier and Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj pairings on defense. As for the White squad, it included the other two NHL lines, meaning Dach, Oliver Kapanen, and Juraj Slafkovsky with the Zach Bolduc, Alex Newhook, and Alexandre Texier lines up front; on the back end, the Mike Matheson and Noah Dobson duo was intact, while Adam Engstrom and David Reinbacher were reunited.
In the end, the big guns didn't get on the board, though. Team Red signed a 3-0 win, thanks to a Struble breakaway goal, a Tyler Thorpe one-timer and an Aderson empty-netter. Samuel Montembeault was the only goaltender who gave up goals, surrendering the first two.
Speaking after the scrimmage, the coach refused to say that the die was cast when it came to his lines:
Honestly, I don’t know, and I’m not preoccupied with finding all the answers for the first game. That does not preoccupy me. We have a season to play, and we’ll be guided in a certain direction. The camp may take us down one path, and then two or three games later, we may be taken in another direction. I know I have good options, and we’ll work to solve the puzzle. That puzzle often changes.
After seeing Dach on the second line, there were again quite a few questions about him and what he needed to do to stand out and grab a role in the lineup. St-Louis eventually said:
It’s just day-to-day stuff, you know: evaluate in drill, evaluate in scrimmage, evaluate in a game. I’m not looking for one specific thing. I expect him to push and find his place, like everybody else- like Flo, same thing, like Beck. Then we’re going to try to make the best decision we can when it’s all said and done. We’re trying to move along in this camp and be organized, with some purpose for each and every day. Sometimes we get the group in certain situations just so we can have good rhythm and flow, not necessarily, like, you know, demotion, promotion, whatever it is; we’re just trying to be organized. […] Production doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re playing well, you know, so we’re evaluating how they play the game, not necessarily production.
While what St-Louis said is understandable, generally speaking, the average fan will look for top-six players to bring lots of production and for the bottom-six players to contribute in other ways. Looking at Dach this camp, it’s hard to see how he does contribute. He’s not getting on the scoreboard, but he’s not winning battles by the boards either; he’s not making the opponent’s life harder with physicality, and he’s not quick on the forecheck; it’s almost as if he sees himself as a top-six player whose job is to provide offense and he won’t try to contribute in other ways. When asked if he believes he can play a top-six role on the team, Dach explained:
Yeah, I feel confident in whatever role the coaching staff deems fit for me. I feel like I can adapt and play in any kind of position or role up front. I think there’s urgency every year. I think as a group we’re striving to achieve a goal of winning a Stanley Cup; you win one by being urgent. You can’t win one without being urgent.
When prompted to explain how he approaches the balance he has to find between the desire to stand out and the need to take care of the little details and play his game, he answered:
I think you just kind of focus on what’s being asked of you by the coaching staff, and, like you said, the details of the game, playing the game the right way. You get rewarded down the line if you keep doing the right things away from the puck, stay responsible defensively, and have good details all over the ice.
Dach evaluated his camp in the following words when asked:
I feel good; I feel like I’ve played well in the games. I’ve tried to make sure I’m doing the little things right, the details correctly, and what the coaching staff has asked of us, and to continue to just take a step forward each and every day.
In Brossard on Thursday, playing on the second line with Slafkovsky and Kapanen, he didn’t get on the scoreboard, but he at least looked more combative on the ice, winning some puck battles rather than being dispossessed. Reading between the lines, though, Dach’s presence on the second line today shouldn’t necessarily be seen as a promotion; it might have been the Habs trying “to be organized.” Maybe they wanted to see how Bolduc and Texier would do without Dach and with Newhook? It might also mean Dach is now the 13th forward and becomes the odd man out when Demidov returns. Who knows…One thing’s for certain, though: soon enough, St-Louis will need at least some temporary answers about who to ice when the Canadiens kick off their season against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.
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