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If we go back just one year, the Habs were in total disarray, watching the game every other day seemed like a lifetime sentence as every period was a lifeless affair with tons of mistakes as the players were struggling to fit into Ducharme’s system. Now, 12 months later, after a massive spring cleaning that saw part of the coaching staff and GM Marc Bergevin among others leave the organization, there is hope for this team. The new Habs brass has taken a long hard look at the team and with two cornerstones having to call time on their careers, they decided that it was time for a rebuild. No more patchwork going through the bargain bins and hoping to qualify for the Spring dance before praying for some Price miracles.
Now, the emphasis is on an attacking style of play and the emphasis is on youth. The Habs have got 4 rookie defensemen in their ranks this season and watching them play has been a joy. Their play is so different from what we’ve seen of late, the Bergevin era was marked with a lot of big tough defensemen, punishing defensemen as he called it, they might have been hard to play against, but they weren’t all that entertaining to watch. The young bucks patrolling the blue lines with now are far from being pushovers, Arber “Wifi” Xhekaj lands big hits and it afraid of no one when it comes to dropping the gloves, while Kaiden Guhle reminds us of Shea Weber at times but is more mobile and quicker at just 20 years old, he looks like he will be a number one d-man in the league. As a bonus, Lane Hutson is looking great in the exhibition games of the World Junior Championships and if you’ve got some time, make sure to check him out on Team USA.
Up front, Caufield and Suzuki are proving to be everything Bergevin had hoped for and it’s fair to say that his successor Kent Hughes must be pretty darn happy that the former GM grabbed them. Hughes first trades with the team have been paying off nicely, prospect Emil Heineman, which he got by flipping Toffoli to Calgary looked great in camp and he used the first round pick he received to draft Slovak forward Filip Mesar, the Ben Chiarot trade for which he got amongst other things an unprotected first round pick at the upcoming draft from the Panthers is looking better by the day as the Cats keep losing. The trade that rocked the draft is also looking pretty great, even those who loved Romanov’s big hits have all but forgotten hit thanks to Xhekaj and Guhle’s play, and everyone has been swept up their feet by Kirby Dach’s performance.
Things are looking up and clearly, Habs’ fans are on Santa’s nice list, they’ve not received any lump of coal this Christmas, just a young and exciting team to root for which is all it takes to make hockey fans happy. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing to celebrate this festive season, I hope you’re enjoying yourself and fear not, the Canadiens will soon be back to entertain us all. Before then though, the World Junior Championships will be kicking off tomorrow and you can feast your eyes on a great crop of Habs prospects; Hutson who I mentioned earlier, Joshua Roy with Team Canada, Mesar with Slovakia, Adam Engstrom with Sweden, Oliver Kapanen wearing the C for Sweden and Vinzenz Rohrer with Austria.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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