Montreal Canadiens: Centre experiments and playing with speed

Day one of the on-ice sessions for the Montreal Canadiens passed with some interesting points and highlights that could carry on into the season.

The pictures and dramatic poses were put away on Friday as the Montreal Canadiens began their first set of on-ice sessions at training camp. There was some news that came out that day as well.

First off, Paul Byron looks good to go as he was taking part in one of the groups. Additionally, the Habs added another name to their training camp roster after signing Joel Ward to a professional tryout. Ward is the second tryout at camp but the only forward attending on that basis. Some fans were concerned that the Habs were going to sacrifice a young spot on the team for some veteran experience, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Montreal has seven preseason games, and it’ll be important to rest the players expected to be on the team to start the year. Ward fills a spot in those games and who knows, perhaps he shows something worth keeping for longer. And that doesn’t need to be in the NHL as the Laval Rocket wouldn’t be shy of adding a player of his calibre.

It helps Ward himself as other teams can watch him play and decide whether he could be an effective addition if there isn’t a role for him within the Montreal Canadiens organization. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.

Those are some of the things that took place in the early stages, the rest of the sessions had exciting notes to them.