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In Hainsight: Another Loss Against the Light Version of the Leafs |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
We thought Toronto would use a stronger squad on Saturday night at the Bell Centre, but they didn’t, the biggest names of their lineup were star defenseman Morgan Rielly, veteran goaltender Martin Jones and rookie Matthew Knies. Meanwhile, the Canadiens had their dynamic duo Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki on a line completed by Alex Newhook, second center Kirby Dach flanked by Juraj Slafkovsky and Rafael Harvey-Pinard and a bottom six formed by prospects. On the blue line, Kaiden Guhle, Jonathan Kovacevic, Justin Barron, William Trudeau, Mattias Norlinder and William Trudeau were St-Louis’ chosen men.
On paper, this Montreal line-up should have been able to handle a roster made up mainly of AHL players, even if the Canadiens are a rebuilding team. The Habs started the game well, shooting on Jones 14 times in the opening frame, but it was Toronto that went back to the locker-room with a 1-0 lead thanks to a Knies wraparound goal which Samuel Montembeault would probably like to have back. The Leafs doubled their lead early in the second and had two goals on seven shots by the point, it felt like the Canadiens were doing everything but scoring while the Leafs were doing nothing but scoring. Then, in the dying seconds of the period, a wide Slafkovsky shot on the power play ended up being a perfect feed for Nick Robertson who was coming out of the box, 3-0 Leafs after 40 minutes. The Canadiens managed to get a goal back through Kaiden Guhle on a set play off a faceoff while shorthanded, but it was too little, too late, final score Toronto 3 Montreal 1.
Now, I know this is only a preseason game and results do not really matter, but you’ve got to wonder how this Canadiens’ lineup would have fared against a more potent Toronto roster. I guess we’ll probably get the answer on Monday as the Habs will be facing the Leafs one last time, perhaps with a more mature line-up considering there were a couple of waves of cuts yesterday, but still, I believe this game was concerning.
Cole Caufield had quite a few opportunities to score, but often, his shots missed the target, perhaps it was a rare off night for the sniper. Alex Newhook didn’t look out of place on the top line, but I preferred seeing Suzuki and Caufield with Sean Monahan, purely for developmental reasons. Everybody knows that Monahan is a good center, but since he’s probably not in the team’s long-term plans, I’d rather have Newhook as a third-line center so that he can get used to the role in the NHL. Besides, the Newhook-Anderson pair looked very good the other night, and until Dvorak comes back sometime in November, the Habs have a golden opportunity to try Newhook in the middle.
Watching the game, I couldn’t help but notice how slow Justin Barron’s decision making was. I feel like he has regressed compared to how he played last year when he took part in 39 NHL tilts thanks to the many injuries that decimated the Canadiens’ blue line. He’s hesitant, he doesn’t know when to shoot or pass, in short, he was a mess out there for a second game in a row. After playing 10 games for Canada at the World Championships and gathering three assists on his way to a gold medal, I thought he would show up to camp bursting with confidence, but it really hasn’t been the case. I’m not ready to give up on him yet though, he’s only 21 and that’s still very young for a defenseman.
Another player was quite noticeable last night, but for the right reasons, Emil Heineman played his best game so far. He was everywhere on the ice, dishing out four hits and taking a couple of shots on net. Coach Martin St-Louis agreed that he had just played his best game yet and that’s probably why he avoided the second wave of cuts of the day. Furthermore, he’s older than both Owen Beck and Joshua Roy, which probably gave him a bit of an edge to earn a stay of execution so to speak.
Yesterday afternoon, four players were placed on waivers in order to assign them to the Laval Rocket today: Lucas Condotta, Mitchell Stevens, Nicolas Beaudin and Brady Keeper. Then, prior to the game, the Canadiens further trimmed their roster to 38 players by sending 25 players (14 forwards, eight defensemen and three goaltenders) to the Rocket including Joshua Roy, Jared Davidson, Filip Mesar and Xavier Simoneau. As for Owen Beck, he was sent back to his junior team, the Peterborough Petes for one last season in the OHL. After the game, Riley Kidney, Sean Farrell, Jakub Dobes and William Trudeau were sent to Laval while David Reinbacher was loaned to HC Kloten in Switzerland.
To be fair, Reinbacher had a great camp and he looked wise beyond his years on the ice. He had poise and mobility, he never once looked like a deer in the headlight, which is an accomplishment in itself for an 18-year-old blueliner. There is no doubt in my mind that he played better than Justin Barron and Gustav Lindstrom, but at 18 years old, there is absolutely no reason to rush his development. For me, sending him back to Switzerland where he’ll get truckloads of ice-time was absolutely the right decision, especially since he didn’t seem to struggle on smaller north American ice.
I was surprised to see Joshua Roy cut, but the truth of the matter is that the Canadiens only have two preseason games left and it’s time to trim the roster down and have something that will resemble the start of season line-up. Unfortunately for Roy, there is very little room up front with the Canadiens and he’s younger than both Heineman, Ylonen and Harvey-Pinard.
Now, 33 players remain with the Habs including Lias Andersson, Emil Heineman, Philippe Maillet, Mattias Norlinder, Logan Mailloux, Justin Barron and Cayden Primeau. To this group of youngster, I’d add Joel Armia’s name. To me, he has done nothing to warrant keeping him in the line-up at the expense of a Ylonen or Heineman or worse, Harvey-Pinard for the sole reason that he doesn’t have to clear waivers. He’s still there because he already has a chair in the line-up as St-Louis would say, but his seatbelt isn’t fastened, and he looks like a crash test dummy to me these days.
The Canadiens have got a day off today before taking on the Leafs in Toronto tomorrow night. Then, they’ll have a couple of on-ice training sessions before heading to Mont-Tremblant for a team retreat on Wednesday. They’ll head to Ottawa for their last preseason game on Saturday and kick off the season on Wednesday October 11 with a game against the Leafs in Toronto. Can you smell what St-Louis’ cooking?
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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