Montreal Canadiens Roundtable: The state and future of the defence

Kamal Rehman: I liked what I saw. He logged big minutes, got some Weber bombs away, and picked up an assist. I’m sure he was running on adrenaline and probably felt his timing was a bit off, but that’s completely normal for being away for almost a year. It should be a couple more weeks before he starts to feel closer to where he wants to be. All good news for the Montreal Canadiens though. I do wonder though how Weber feels about his revolving D partners though. Ah well, all the more fun for Habs fans to speculate and debate who it should be.

Omar White: What stood out the most to me was the feeling around the Montreal Canadiens that game. They had more than enough reason to come out strong against Carolina having lost their last four games in a row, but knowing they would have their captain in the lineup turned the dial-up to another scale. You couldn’t help but smile seeing Weber get the rocket ready from the point, and it was fitting that his first point of the season would be from it.

I thought Weber handled himself fairly well at even strength and on special teams. Additionally, the opposition wasn’t as comfortable with heading down the middle of the ice with the veteran staring down at them.

I’m interested to see how his impact on the team continues, especially when it comes to clearing bodies from in front of the net. The Hurricane’s first goal of the game could’ve used Weber out there to move Jaccob Slavin out of a position to deflect the shot, or at the very least, tie up his stick. With Weber getting his game out of the way, Claude Julien is likely going to rely on him even more for those key defensive situations, and that can do nothing but good for the Montreal Canadiens moving forward.