Montreal Canadiens: Jesperi Kotkaniemi shines in preseason debut

The Montreal Canadiens kicked off their 2018-19 preseason with a 3-1 win over the New Jersey Devils, and Jesperi Kotkaniem was a star.

What a way to kick off the kick off the new season. It only took three minutes (92 seconds) for the Montreal Canadiens to save the world and win the game sending the Bell Centre into a flurry of screams and cheers.

Considering last year’s preseason stretch wasn’t as favourable as the Habs would’ve liked, it was great to see the new players (young and old) make an impact, and older players (you may have to wrinkle your nose at this one) show tremendous growth.

I know what you’re thinking, “Calm down, it’s only the preseason,” and you’d be right to have that in your head. However, preseason or not, some of the things that took place on the ice is fundamental for the evaluation of some of the players on the Montreal Canadiens and others who hope to be there once October hits.

The game itself was a Habs dominating one as far as possession goes, but the Devils had their moments of scoring chances, mostly in the first period. Montreal was very particular defensively and fell into last year’s trap of getting scoring chances without any actual pucks going into the net. The usual suspects of Artturi Lehkonen and Charles Hudon fell into that trap early on.

However, a wild third period gave the Montreal Canadiens the offence they needed to put the game away.

Now it’s one preseason game down, one more to go. The next challenger is the Florida Panthers, and we can expect to see the other squad from training camp highlighted by the Max Domi centred line with Jonathan Drouin and Joel Armia in action.

What Happened?

The game started out fairly strong for the Montreal Canadiens. The Philip Danault, Brendan Gallagher, and Tomas Tatar line was out there, to begin with resulting in Tatar getting two solid scoring chances in the span of 30 seconds. The first was a quick shot from the slot which was stopped by Eddie Lack.

Afterwards, an odd situation saw Danault against to New Jersey Devils defencemen down low. A pass to his partner missed target and went to the side of the net instead. Danault raced to the puck which bounced off his skate to the front of the net which a streaking Tatar pounced on. Lack stopped that as well, but the new Hab had some pep to his step throughout the game.

The shots were even in the period, but the Devils had more control of the game 5v5 with an on-ice 60% CF. Montreal was put on the power play a few times as well, and although it looked improved with Victor Mete at the point on one of the units, not many shots made it to the goalie. It was reminiscent of how the man advantage looked early last season with many quick passes and not too many many shots.

But what looked improved was the penalty kill. The Montreal Canadiens did a great job in suppressing shots when the Devils were on the power play. It was an aggressive style of execution that forced the opposition to make less than ideal moves. The only blunder was a turnover on the blueline after a backhand pass from Simon Desprès led to a Blake Speers breakaway and a goal past Antti Niemi.

The Winning Habit

Not going to start with Kotkaniemi yet. Two standouts were easily Mete and Noah Juulsen. I wasn’t sure whether Claude Julien was going to give the idea of playing the two young defencemen together would be a long-term idea, but it worked. Mete was flying out there, making so many quick turns and pivots to evade players and always keeping his head up, especially on the PP when manning the point.

Juulsen displayed some confidence as well activating from the blue line when he could. One moment stood out in the final minutes of the first. The 21-year-old activates from the point and skates with the puck from behind the net to the other side of the ice but remains low. He gets the puck back on the right side and takes a few strides before getting a shot from the circle quickly getting back to the blue line after.

It was fascinating to see Mete and Juulsen take turns playing down low while the other remained high in case anything happened. Usually with two mobile defencemen, one plays their usual role while the other succumbs to being the anchor. But seeing them communicate well and allow both to use their skills as great.

Tatar with Danault and Gallagher is still looking good as they have a fiery undertone to their play. None of them give up on the play, and it’s important to have that relentlessness spread throughout the line considering how well Gallagher is at not backing down.

I also think Desprès responded well after his first-period blunder. He settled down a bit not trying to do anything too extravagant, not saying a backhand pass is.

Now back to Kotkaniemi. The kid can play. The goal was great, but he made several defensive plays with his stick and positioning that’s going to take him a long way if he keeps it up. Being in the right places to provide outlets for his teammates leading to pucks out of the zone, as well as, using his stick to disrupt plays and tie up others players are the kinds of things Julien looks for in a centre.

Final Thoughts

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It was a good Montreal Canadiens debut for the season. I forgot to mention this, but Tomas Plekanec didn’t look too bad either and in fact, set up Hunter Shinkaruk for a few scoring chances.

Hudon jumping up to the Kotkaniemi line after Nicolas Deslauriers was forced out of the game complemented both players well. Having two pure shooters with a hockey IQ’d centre can only spell good things for the future. Of course, repetition leads to success so we’ll have to see more of what these three can accomplish together.

The game surely added a quarter to the ‘Will Kotkaniemi make the team?’, jar. I’m still of the belief that the Habs will give him that nine-game audition to start the season and watch to see how he progresses. Claude Julien seemed to imply after the game that Kotkaniemi’s skill, IQ, and vision have already warranted play in the NHL at some point this season.

But he still needs to prove that he can handle the physical grind of an 82-game campaign preferably at centre. Kotkaniemi is the only one in charge of that, and it’ll take the rest of preseason to show it. A close eye is going to be kept on the third-overall pick to see if his play dwindles as more games fall to him. Creating offensively might come and go, but that defensive execution has to remain consistent for him to stick around.

Good start for him and the Habs overall. Let’s see what the B squad can do.