Montreal Canadiens: Centre experiments and playing with speed

Suzuki At Centre

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It looks like Nick Suzuki may get an opportunity to impress the coaching staff. The 2017 first-round pick was playing in between Byron and Nikita Scherbak on day one. It’s a similar situation to Kotkanimei playing with Lehkonen.

Suzuki’s hockey IQ is through the roof. He’s undersized sure at 5’11” and 183 pounds, but the amount of dynamic ability he has as both a playmaker and goal scorer is phenomenal to watch. Suzuki is also capable of playing on the wing which adds another possible name to the forward competition as training camp continues.

He and Kotkaniemi are in similar positions here. The easiest option would be to send them both back to their respective teams in Owen Sound and Ässät. However, if they show they can handle the grind of the NHL, then why not keep them both.

Having Byron and Scherbak who both play with speed can only do wonders for the execution that can come from them. Speaking of speed, Julien mentioned that’s going to be a focus for the Montreal Canadiens. He brought this up at the press conference after the sessions at Bell Sports Complex saying:

"I’d like to see us play fast with our speed. With the size of our team, which is balanced, we got some good-size players, we also have some smaller players. I think our speed is important, but at the same time it’s about closing quick. The smaller guys have that speed to get on the opposition quickly, the bigger guys can do a good job of getting there and separating them with their strength. So I think playing fast, closing quick and having a good pace to our game I think is going to be key for us this year."

The Montreal Canadiens do have some speedsters on the team already. However, if speed and using that speed throughout the lineup is going to be a focus for the season, perhaps more of those young guys get an opportunity than we initially thought.