Everybody Loves Ivan Demidov

Zachary Bolduc mentioned in his interview on the golf course that Demidov is probably the most skilled player he has ever played with and against (during summer practices). The two players seemed to have spent a lot of time playing together. He mentioned how you need to be ready to receive a pass when playing with him. When playing against him, you need to be careful because he doesn’t steal the puck from you.

Another newcomer, Noah Dobson, mentioned how amazing he already is at his age, and the fact that he’ll continue to improve is scary. It’s clear that Demidov is loved by everyone he plays with on the Habs, and it’s nice to see how accepting this team is of having a young rookie be the main talk before he has even played a total of 15 NHL games.

Despite only being 19 years old, Demidov seems to already be inspiring his teammates to work harder so that they can compete with him in practice. 

Other popular topics that came up during the golf tournament were how close a team that the Habs players are and how they just genuinely love spending time together, improving on their games. Those practices in Brossard were a chance for Noah Dobson, Bolduc and Joe Veleno to get more acquainted with their new teammates. Most players need to wait for the start of Training Camp to get to start building chemistry with their new teammates, but in Montreal, with the new culture instilled here, they get to start a few weeks earlier. 

For goaltender Samuel Montembeault, he is excited to have Dobson on the team, as he sees that the Canadiens got a very good mobile defenseman. He particularly mentioned how, when he used to play against him, he noticed that Dobson was good at pointing his shots through open space to avoid getting blocked. 

It will be interesting to see if that leads to more goal scoring as a whole in Montreal this upcoming season, as the Habs now have two star mobile defensemen on their blueline.

1. Everyone seems to be in good spirits and has high hopes for the upcoming season. Expectations are also higher than they have been over the last 4 years, so it’s officially time to see how this young Habs team will look when they are no longer underestimated by the league. Click here to watch all the interviews from yesterday.

What are your expectations for the Habs this upcoming season?