Montreal Canadiens: Standouts from the 2018 Rookie Tournament

Coach Bouchard

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For the second time that weekend, Bouchard had to watch something no coach ever wants to see: his player having to be stretchered off the ice. The Montreal Canadiens were getting dominated at that point of the game, but everything changed to start the second. They came out flying laying out hit after hit while Michael Pezzetta had a fun chat with Leafs Andrew Nielsen.

The team responded, and they responded well, taking control of the match after falling down 2-0 quickly. Afterwards, Bouchard made it clear that the players who were on the ice when Tyszka was hit and didn’t respond were benched. That included Bitten, Fleury, Aleksi Katerinakis, and Allan McShane. Apparently, the players were warned after little response was seen when Jake Evans was forced off the ice as well.

This is what the young Habs prospects need. Skill training is an essential element to the game, but to have a coach holding his players accountable no matter the degree of the competition is what’s going to make Bouchard a special person within the organization.

He may not have done anything out there with a stick and skates, but Bouchard is just as responsible for what happened in the rest of that game as the players were.

Now things transition to Habs training camp. It’ll be interesting to see if those who stood out continue that trend. As I mentioned before, not many were talking about Vejdemo and his chance of playing for Montreal. If he keeps up what he did over the weekend, then he’ll have all the room to do it.