Montreal Canadiens: Gritty performances at the World Hockey Championships
By Omar L
Jacob de La Rose and Markus Eisenschmid have been the two main representatives from the Montreal Canadiens at the World Hockey Championships.
The 2018 World Hockey Championships in Denmark is now five days old. Similar to last year’s tournament, the Montreal Canadiens didn’t have many representatives for fans to look into. Only three Habs players were named to a team in Jacob de La Rose, Markus Eisenschmid, prospect playing for the Laval Rocket, and Charlie Lindgren. However, the newly signed Habs goaltender has been caught in a goalie dam behind Scott Darling and Keith Kinkaid on Team USA.
Although Lindgren has yet to play, he’s still part of the top team in Group B as the US is undefeated. Sweden is doing good for themselves as well in Group A winning all of their games so far in regulation. Germany isn’t having the same level of success unfortunately as they have yet to win a game at the Worlds.
Eisenschmid and de La Rose are being used in similar roles on their respective teams. The Swedish centre didn’t bring too much offence to an, at times, offensively depleted team, but his play away from the puck took the biggest stride. That’s been de La Rose’s objective in the tournament so far seeing about 14 minutes a game to keep the puck out of his team’s net.
It would be nice to see the 2013 second round pick rack up a point or two considering he’s on a team tied for the third most goals in the tournament. At the same time, de La Rose is lined up with Magnus Paajarvi and Johan Larsson who have also struggled offensively in their careers.
The same goes for Eisenschmid who is also pointless in his three games with Germany. Although the 23-year-old had a career year with the Laval Rocket, 10 goals and 6 assists don’t move the needle. But Eisenchmid has brought his skating and defensive play to a Germany team with limited professional experience in North America in the last season. Things may be even worse for them if not for Leon Draisaitl who has 1 goal and 4 assists.
Both de La Rose and Eisenschmid are restricted free agents with the Montreal Canadiens. The former has done enough to get at least a ‘prove it’ deal for the 2018-19 season, but it’s up in the air as to whether the latter has a future in the organization.
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There looks to be a significant amount of turnover as far as Laval’s forward lines go which could have Eisenschmid on the outside looking in. Perhaps he brings something to the table in the last remaining games to change that as the Habs are definitely watching.