With Patrik Laine's acquisition, the Montreal Canadiens have got options, will they use them?
As Juraj Slafkovsky noticed yesterday, there are fewer players at the Montreal Canadiens training camp this season than there were in the last couple of years, and the veterans are happy to see that.
It's not because they don't want other players to have a chance, but rather because it took some time for the lines to sort themselves out in the last couple of years and for the coaching staff to stop doing experiments.
In a season where the Canadiens want to "be in the mix" (as we've heard about a thousand times so far), Martin St-Louis seems eager to get down to business and get his NHL lines firing on all cylinders.
He put his top line in Team 1, his second line in Team 2, and his bottom six in Team 3. On the latter, during training, the colors worn by the players seemed to indicate that Brendan Gallagher, Jake Evans, and Joel Armia would form a line, while Christian Dvorak, Josh Anderson, and Joshua Roy would form another.
Can the bench boss immediately strike gold with these combinations and leave them at that? It's possible but far from guaranteed. Each unit's performance in the next three scrimmages will give us (and St-Louis) a better idea of if he's on to something.
So far, the proposed second line hasn't clicked yet, but they've only been skating together for a single scrimmage, and both Laine and Dach have some rust to shake off. Hopefully, the coach will give them the time to do it before shuffling the deck.
However, St-Louis might have to return to the drawing board if some youngsters force his hand. Oliver Kapanen looked very sharp yesterday, and Owen Beck has also been impressive since the start of rookie camp. Who said there would only be a battle for spots on the blueline?
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