Habs Players Getting A Head Start on Training Camp

There have been plenty of moments that have brought excitement for fans watching the practice live, such as a 1-on-1 between Lane Hutson and Ivan Demidov before anyone else was on the ice on Tuesday. This showed just how fierce competitors both players are in practice. It seems like they have met each other’s competitive and skills match, although it seems like the older Hutson has a slight advantage over Demidov in these one-on-one battles.

On Tuesday, 15 regular Habs players showed up for summertime practice, which included the return of Arber Xhekaj, Mike Matheson, Oliver Kapanen and Juraj Slafkovsky, who were on the ice in Brossard for the first time in weeks. Even newcomer Noah Dobson was already back on the ice in Brossard after just getting back from the Team Canada Olympic Training Camp from last week. It took captain Nick Suzuki an extra day before he returned to the ice in Brossard, and we have yet to see Samuel Montembeault at practice this week, although there hasn’t been much work for goaltenders to do with the players right now.

Just the fact that there were 15 players on the ice Tuesday is amazing to see, as all these players clearly want to improve aspects of their game. Of the 15 players on the ice, it includes Demidov, Kirby Dach and Patrik Laine, who seem to be running drills together as they are in peak training camp as a line. The three players have spent the last week skating together, after Dach joined the dynamic duo of Demidov and Laine, who have developed insane chemistry all summer long. Hopefully, this work makes the Canadiens finally have a competent 2nd line that can take the pressure off the top line for the first time since Phillip Danault and Tomas Tatar left the Canadiens as free agents in the summer of 2021.

There is still worry about Dach’s skating abilities when the real games start in the preseason, but it has looked decent so far as he’s keeping up with his potential linemates. Unfortunately, for Dach, Wednesday showed that faceoffs may still be a big issue.

Wednesday’s practice was surrounded by players working on their faceoffs along with faceoff specialist coach Marc Bureau. The players who were working on faceoffs were Suzuki, Slafkovsky, newcomer Zach Bolduc, Kapanen, Alex Newhook, Joe Veleno and Dach. 

For a winger, Slafkovsky did a good job in the faceoff dot, as he looked to have won half of his draws against Kapanen. Slafkovsky proved that he can be a reliable faceoff player on the left side of the ice.

Meanwhile, the captain dominated against Dach, as expected based on their faceoff numbers throughout the last few years. Then, Bolduc actually got the best of Suzuki in the draws, winning 5 of 6 faceoffs. Now, Suzuki isn’t the best faceoff man in the league, but he does win around 50% of his draws, which is the best on the current roster from last season. The fact that Bolduc can get the best of Suzuki shows that he could be a good centre in the NHL. 

This drill also showed that Dach may be best suited as a winger, given that there could be a better option for the 2nd line centre in the organization. Maybe Bolduc should also be running more drills with Laine and Demidov, so they could also be prepared to be a trio come training camp.

At the end of the day, it seems like the Canadiens have started their training camp before the actual thing has started.

Do you think Bolduc can be the centre between Demidov and Laine?

Credit to the videos goes to @PatouInfo on Twitter and MaiettaSportsMontreal on YouTube.