Montreal Canadiens: What to Look for During the Pre-season

Now that training camp is over for the Montreal Canadiens, it’s time for the pre-season, and there will be some interesting things to look out for.

Every week the excitement around the new NHL season becomes greater and greater. Now that training camp is done for most teams, including the Montreal Canadiens, it’s time to see what the players can do.

We actually learned a lot this training camp. Some things more surprising than others. With all the negativity and pessimism about the Habs going around, it’s nice to see a couple of elements that can help the team now and for the foreseeable future.

In total, the Canadiens will play eight preseason games in total:

Monday September 18th vs Boston Bruins (Away)
Wednesday September 20th vs Washington Capitals (Home)
Thursday September 21st vs New Jersey Devils (Home)
Saturday September 23rd vs Ottawa Senators (Away)
Monday September 25th vs Toronto Maple Leafs (Away)
Friday September 29th vs Florida Panthers (Home)
Saturday September 30th vs Ottawa Senators (Home)

The games in the latter half are going to be the more exciting ones. At that point there’ll be more cuts, and the line-up will look similar to or already be the one to dress in the season opener.

Here are some things Habs fans should pay attention to the next couple of weeks.

Weber’s D- Partner

We still don’t know for sure who will be Shea Weber‘s defence partner for this season. There’s been a few experiments so far. For the most part, 19-year-old Victor Mete has been pairing up with the veteran. That stayed the same for Sunday’s scrimmage game as well.

It looks like Claude Julien and the rest of Canadiens management are giving the young defenceman a legitimate chance to make the team. Unfortunately, this wasn’t something seen as much in Michel Therrien’s time. The next big test will be to see how well Mete fairs against other team’s top talent, because if he does make the team playing with Weber, that’s who he will see.

If not Mete, then there are other options as well, just not as jaw dropping. Jordie Benn may be the next likely to play with Weber, but perhaps David Schlemko could be an option as well.

Dro-Patch Formation

After it’s been assumed and hinted at all summer, we’re finally seeing what Jonathan Drouin and Max Pacioretty can do together. The two have been on the same line for practices and the scrimmage games and have displayed some early chemistry.

It makes sense. The two have spent a lot of time off-ice training and going to events. If you remember back to June, they co-hosted the Just For Laughs Gala in Montreal together. You can get the feeling that they’re actual buddies, and it looks like that’s contributing to their on-ice play.

Pacioretty on Drouin during his hit on 690 today: pic.twitter.com/pztEww9rCX
— Mike (@HabsLaughs) September 5, 2017

Similar to Mete, we’ll have to see how this holds up against NHL talent. More for Drouin though. He’s put a significant amount of muscle this summer which will aid him when playing the center ice. It’s his commitment to defence that will determine how this goes. Alex Galchenyuk‘s big critique was that he didn’t have a good enough two-way game to play down the middle. If Drouin has the same criticisms in training camp, then it may be difficult for him to stay the course.

Now that training camp is over for the Montreal Canadiens, it’s time for the pre-season, and there will be some interesting things to look out for.

Weber’s D- Partner

Dro-Patch Formation

Hudon-e With the AHL