Montreal Canadiens: The best spot for Nikita Scherbak
By Omar L
The Montreal Canadiens are adding youth to their lineup with Nikita Scherbak, but the question is where Claude Julien will choose to play him.
The decision to call Nikita Scherbak up from the Laval Rocket was well received among Montreal Canadiens fans. It’s safe to say that the team’s recent games have been a little low tempo, but adding a young player with hopes to be a significant piece of the program is a good way to generate interest.
The thing about prospects is that they constantly try to prove why once getting called up that they should never be sent back down. They weren’t necessarily prospects, but Daniel Carr and Nicolas Deslauriers are two prime examples of this. Not to mention rookie defenceman Victor Mete who no one had even sniffing the NHL this year.
We know that Scherbak will be playing later this afternoon against the Anaheim Ducks. What we don’t know for sure is where exactly the 22-year-old will be. The easiest, but far from the best, place to have him is the fourth line. In that case, Logan Shaw gets the healthy scratch pin, and we see what Scherbak can do with Byron Froese and Jacob de La Rose. Or Julien could twist the knife and take out Carr again, and to that I say, please don’t.
If so, it wouldn’t be the first time Scherbak has played there. When he along with Michael McCarron were called up in October, they were the ‘fourth line’ with Alex Galchenyuk on the left. It made sense at the time since Scherbak and Galchenyuk had experience playing together and having skill with skill is never a bad move.
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Keeping that in mind, why not try it again? The hope is to have Scherbak be a top-six option for the Habs in the future so let’s see what he can do there. I don’t know about you, but a line of Jonathan Drouin, Galchenyuk, and Scherbak on the right sounds pretty good to me.
Deslauriers has done a lot of good things for the team, so he’s not really deserving of the demotion, but the amount of skill and speed the Habs can get from that line is scary. Regardless of their goal totals this season, in each player, you have someone who can make a play, or finish one.
It won’t be until the game for the lines and pairings to come out. Even if Julien chooses to start Scherbak on the fourth line, not trying that combination would be disappointing. However, I’m not the coach; it’s just a suggestion I’m sure a lot of other fans have in their heads as well.
Next: A Step in the Right Direction
Do you think Julien will go with a Galchenyuk-Drouin-Scherbak line? What kind of things could they do for the Habs? Let us know in the comments.