Finally, for the first time in 140 days, there was a Montreal Canadiens game to watch. The Habs played well at five on five, but special teams held them back in this one. With the power play going 0/6 and allowing two shorthanded goals, the Canadiens dropped their tune-up game by a score of 4-2.
Scoring goals has been a challenge for the Habs in recent years and this one was no exception. They only managed to be tied for 18th in the league in goals which isn’t much cause for optimism heading into their series against Pittsburgh. Nevertheless, there are a few things to watch for offensively from Montreal.
The Habs have made their final two cuts to finalize their roster for the upcoming series against Pittsburgh and any playoff games after that.
If the forward group leans heavily in favour of the Penguins and the goaltending leans in favour of the Habs, the defensive matchup is a bit more even between the two clubs.
Although goaltenders have not been the dominant position in recent seasons for Stanley Cup-winning teams, netminders are still a very important position for every NHL team to win hockey’s Holy Grail.
There is certainly some risk in having a player make his NHL debut in a must-win series to get to the playoffs but in the case of the Habs and Alex Belzile, it’s one that may very well be worth taking.
Before the Habs revealed their training camp roster last weekend, they had announced that Max Domi wouldn’t be there right away and instead would wait 7-10 days to make a decision. It appears that he has made his choice as he was at practice with the team on Monday.
Several Hall of Famers highlighted Montreal’s top Ontario line. Even more weren’t selected but some of them were voted onto their second unit. Here’s who made the cut.
Geoff Molson has been adamant that change isn’t needed in Montreal’s front office. However, changes, or even some form of additions, need to be made.
While the expectation was that Montreal would unveil their training camp roster on Monday, they instead released it late Sunday. A total of 33 players will be attending camp which begins on Monday.