The Canadiens’ French Connection

Martin St-Louis still hasn't found a way to complete the Montreal Canadiens' attack puzzle without Ivan Demidov and Oliver Kapanen. Still, one line has stayed together for the last three games: Alexandre Texier, Phillip Danault, and Zachary Bolduc. The three players have one thing in common: they’ve got good chemistry, and they all speak French.

More than that though, they’ve become good friends off the ice: “It’s hard to create chemistry, but when you’ve created a friendship, you spend time with guys on the road…” said Bolduc. “You go out to dinner with the boys. You’re 100% right that we spend a lot of time together. On the road, we go out to dinner, spend afternoons together, and we’ve got solid chemistry off the ice that translates on the ice, and we’re happy with how it’s going.” As the Trois-Rivières native gave his take on the situation, his two linemates nodded in agreement.

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This chemistry comes at the right time, especially for Texier, who looked like a candidate for a healthy scratch at the start of the year, but for now, he looks like he has found a chair in which he belongs. When the Habs played with 11 forwards and seven defensemen, he wasn’t on the incomplete fourth line, which is good news for the Frenchman.

“Well, so far, they are committed to the small detail in the offensive zone, the forecheck; in the defensive zone, we connect on touches that aren’t easy, but we connect,” said Danault about the new look, French Connection. “It’s easy; we see each other everywhere on the ice. We work well; they care defensively, I do the dirty defensive job, and they have fun,” he added, chuckling. “We’re quick, we’re tenacious, we’re hungry, we want to make a difference every game, and we want to help the team win games.

The season is a marathon, and no one knows how long the line will stick together. Still, for now at least, the Canadiens have an all-French line, which the media has started calling the French Connection, even though the players didn’t approve, given the historical significance of the original French Connection with the Buffalo Sabres.

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