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In Hainsight: Quotes and Happenings on Day Two |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
Both the schedule and the line-ups were the same as they were yesterday in Brossard. The players who stole the show weren’t the same though as Jared Davidson scored a hat trick in the morning session, Mike Matheson dominated in the afternoon session while Logan Mailloux played a strong overall game and Joshua Roy kept shinning alongside Dach and Monahan. For a second day in a row, Harvey-Pinard and Gallagher were a nightmare for the opposition, something that didn’t go unnoticed by the coaches.
When head coach Martin St-Louis spoke to the media, his motivation for giving youngsters a shot on Caufield and Suzuki’s wing became clear. The Canadiens’ bench boss explained that when he was just starting out in the NHL, he attended Ottawa’s training camp and he didn’t get a contract, at first, he thought he had failed, but in the end, he understood that he had learnt and that the experience made him a better player, it pulled him up in a way. Now that he’s the guy in charge, he wants to give young guys a chance because, as he said himself, “you never know who you’re going to pull up”.
A few players who hit the ice in the morning were made available to the media at lunch time and here are my takeaways from those interviews. Rafael Harvey-Pinard explained that he worked hard on his skating this summer in private session with a specialized coach and he felt like it made a difference to both his speed and explosion. Asked about playing with Brendan Gallagher, the former seventh round pick said that he really enjoyed it and that they were both starting to know where the other one would be on the ice. As for the possibility of playing on the top line with Suzuki and Caufield, he mentioned that he proved he could play on an offensive line, but he’d gladly play on whichever line the coaches told him to play on.
Owen Beck who’s been centering Gallagher and Harvey-Pinard for a couple of days now has also been facing a big challenge, matching up against the team’s first line center Nick Suzuki, while it wasn’t an easy feat, he said that the team captain did give him a little tap on his pads when he made a good play. Those are the little things that may go unnoticed by the media, but that do make a difference from a leadership perspective in training camp.
The funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time was David Reinbacher speaking to the media when he was asked how he wanted the media to pronounce his name he said “ Reinbacher...I guess?” saying it as if the “ch” in it sounded like a “ck”. We were miles away from Patrick Roy teaching the Denver media how to properly pronounce his name. Another journalist then said shouldn’t it be pronounced in another way? “Well yeah, it should be pronounced like it is in German, but I don’t know if you guys can say that”. In other words, the Canadiens prospect cares very little how the media pronounce Reinbacher, he’s much more interested on making a name for himself on the ice, as he should be really. Coach Martin St-Louis also praised him today, saying that his decision making on the ice as an 18-year-old is elite.
The Canadiens also released the updated training camp roster, confirming that Juraj Slafkovsky is now somewhat leaner at 230 lbs, as the youngster had mentioned it earlier this month during the team’s golf tournament. The young Slovak had a pretty good game today playing on Alex Newhook’s wing along with Josh Anderson. So far, this line has showed potential, and it could be an interesting option later on when preseason games start.
Finally, the Canadiens announced that after a distinguished 60-year career, team doctor David Mulder was officially retiring. The Head Team Physician will now be Dr. Dan Deckelbaum while Dr. Thierry Pauyo will now be the Head Orthopedic Surgeon. These changes complete the changes that had been made to the medical staff earlier in the year, along with a couple of other hires and promotion in the department. If the injury ninja once again strikes the Habs this season, it won’t be because the team didn’t try to do everything humanely possible to keeps its players health.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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