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.

Possible Duos

The Montreal Canadiens were separated into two main groups and a smaller group on the side composed on Ryan Culkin, Phélix Martineau, Nikita Jevpalos, Morgan Adams-Moisan, and goaltender Samuel Harvey.

Group A got things started off:

Tatar – Danault – Gallagher
Deslauriers – Kotkaniemi – Lehkonen
Shinkaruk – Plekanec – Hudon
Chaput – de la Rose – Froese
Teasdale – Belzile – Bitten

Mete – Juulsen
Alzner – Schlemko
Despres – Sklenicka
Valiev – Lamarche
Melancon

I know it’s only training camp, but it’s not too early to start looking into some of these lines. Tomas Tatar and Phillip Danault always seemed like the likely duo after the Max Pacioretty trade took place. However, it’s more than Tatar seemingly being the Pacioretty replacement on the Montreal Canadiens.

His playing style could compliment Danault fairly well, especially in the slot. Both make the use of short passes in transition to advance the puck, and those tendencies should be effective if it can be brought into the offensive zone and used to enhance pressure in the slot and down low.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Arttrui Lehkonen are another pair that works. Kotkaniemi sees the ice very well, and Habs fans have seen his ability to set up his linemates for scoring chances. However, they haven’t been able to convert on them. Regardless of what happened last season, Lehkonen has that talent and generates a lot of shots on his own as it is.

The defence looks like a mixed bag. It would be interesting to see if Victor Mete and Noah Juulsen see minutes together in the preseason, but I think we all know who and where their destinies lie.

An Interesting Line

Drouin – Domi – Armia
Byron – Suzuki – Scherbak
Agostino – Peca – Grenier
Addison – McCarron – Alain
Audette – Vejdemo – Waked

Benn – Petry
Reilly – Lernout
Ouellet – Brook
Moravcik – Fleury
Plant

This is where things got interesting. For starters, a line of Max Domi, Jonathan Drouin, and Joel Armia could be very effective given each of their playing styles.

Drouin is excellent when the puck is on his stick and uses his skating to evade and side-step players. His vision is another asset that makes him a very reliable playmaker.

Domi is in a similar role, and we’ve seen him transition from being a speedy scorer to a playmaker, especially in being able to make passes from behind the net which has proved to be one of the better ways to set up a play.

Armia has size but can move as well. He gets a lot of shots across from the slot which could do wonders if he ends up having Domi and Drouin as linemates.

The initial line combination had Drouin as the centre, but then it changed to Domi. Both were working on their faceoffs which could imply the Montreal Canadiens are going to look at either avenue and decide what will work better long-term.

Domi saw time at centre for portions of the 2017-18 season and was praised by his coach Rick Tocchet for his play away from the puck. Defensive play is something Julien looks for in his centres, and the 23-year-old already has that working in his favour.

Whoever ends up getting the job, the Habs have a very versatile line in their ranks.