A Winning Habit
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Montreal Canadiens: Positive things from a successful training camp

By Omar L

TORONTO, ON - SEPTEMBER 24: Montreal Canadiens Left Wing Artturi Lehkonen (62) celebrates after scoring a goal with Montreal Canadiens Center Jesperi Kotkaniemi (15) and Montreal Canadiens Left Wing Kenny Agostino (47) during the first period of the NHL preseason game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs on September 24, 2018, at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, ON, Canada. (Photograph by Julian Avram/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - SEPTEMBER 24: Montreal Canadiens Left Wing Artturi Lehkonen (62) celebrates after scoring a goal with Montreal Canadiens Center Jesperi Kotkaniemi (15) and Montreal Canadiens Left Wing Kenny Agostino (47) during the first period of the NHL preseason game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs on September 24, 2018, at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, ON, Canada. (Photograph by Julian Avram/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Montreal Canadiens
MONTREAL, QC – SEPTEMBER 26: Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Vincent Ethier/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

The Montreal Canadiens are days away from starting the 2018-19 season, and with it came an exciting training camp to start off a new era.

The calendar flipped over to July and August and the anticipation for the new season began. Free agency added more potential names in the basket of those who could help the Montreal Canadiens on their goal creating further buzz for the new players in the organization. But as much as interest does for you, nothing would be answered until September when training camp started. And what a training camp it was.

The Habs started off with 66 players at training camp including those who really needed to stand out. Michael McCarron was a member of that group, but it also came down to the likes of Jacob de La Rose, Matthew Peca, and of course, Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Max Domi would be a part of that as well as the coaching staff were going to allow him to play centre on the top line.

With days ahead of the regular season opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal still has 28 remaining players on its roster after Michael Chaput and Kenny Agostino were placed on waivers.

These two were another interesting thing to come out of training camp. They walked into the locker room as personal hopefuls to be on the Montreal Canadiens but expected key contributors for the Laval Rocket. Agostino has a very impressive AHL resume which started within the Calgary Flames organization and carried over to the St. Louis Blues and Boston Bruins. His vision has led to a decent amount of scoring in each of his seasons, and there’s no doubt as to whether he can continue that in Laval.

Chaput has the most NHL experience as he spent the majority of the 2016-17 season with the Vancouver Canucks. His big frame makes him a good fit within the bottom six of a roster, and he showed some of the benefits of that during the preseason. It’s a lot of things the Habs had Nicolas Deslauriers doing for them last year as his line was heavy using their speed and physicality to get to pucks first and win battles along the boards.

Despite not being able to crack a forward spot on the Montreal Canadiens, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Chaput as one of the first call-ups from the AHL when the time comes.

But that’s where we are now as far as the lineup goes. How did we get here?

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