The Montreal Canadiens have released their starting lineup for the season opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Tomas Plekanec isn’t on it.
And here we have an example of a decision that made sense but is still surprising. The Montreal Canadiens settled on their 23-man roster for the 2018-19 season Tuesday afternoon ahead of the deadline after both Jacob de La Rose and Nicolas Deslauriers were placed on injured reserve. Including Shea Weber and David Schlemko, the Habs are carrying four injured players, but it worked out well and saved management from having to make further roster decisions.
The practice lines had Jesperi Kotkaniemi in his earned spot in between Jonathan Drouin and Joel Armia while Max Domi was left to centre the third line with Paul Byron and Artturi Lehkonen on the wing. Matthew Peca, however, slotted in at fourth line left wing.
Peca was playing down the middle for the entirety of training camp and brought an effective element of speed to his play. But having him on the wing was the only way to get everyone to fit. Or that’s what we thought.
The Montreal Canadiens announced their lineup for the opening game and Tomas Plekanec will be a healthy scratch for it. The fourth line will have Peca returning to centre with Charles Hudon and a recovered Andrew Shaw along the wall.
Now this is where the first sentence of this piece comes to play. Scratching Plekanec makes sense, but considering how much Claude Julien used the veteran while he was on the team, it is a little eyebrow raising. On the other hand, the Habs have preached the importance of speed, and that’s going to be an important attribute against this Leafs team.
Whether this is a reoccurring thing or not is still too early to tell. Julien may go back and forth between Peca and Plekanec and see who is the more reliable option. And don’t forget about de La Rose who could complicate things further once he’s ready to play.
All we know now is Plekanec’s 1000 games played celebration will have to be pushed back. If he played in tonight’s game, it would’ve lined up perfectly landing on the Habs home opener at the Bell Centre against the Los Angeles Kings. At the moment though, it looks like Peca is in control of when it takes place.