The Montreal Canadiens are set to begin training camp

The NHL has taken another step closer to the resumption of the 2019-20 season as the Montreal Canadiens begin training camp.

Usually, when we talk about training camp, the weather is slightly cooler (depending on where you live), and the calendar is on the September page instead of July. But that’s the reality we live in, and weeks ago, it didn’t seem possible to envision a scenario where the NHL could finish it’s 2019-20 season. It took a lot of negotiations and voting, yet now the Montreal Canadiens and the rest of the league can start getting ready to play again.

The Habs will get going this afternoon at noon, and we already know which players got the invite to attend. Montreal brought 33 players in total to camp: 17 forwards, 12 defencemen and 4 goaltenders. There’s a slight discrepancy on the team’s report as only 15 forwards as listed, but TSN’s John Lu confirmed that both Laurent Dauphin and Alex Belzile are attending as well.

Per the Return to Play Plan, teams can bring 30 skaters and an unlimited amount of goaltenders to training camp, but that’ll change once we reach Phase 4. Before the Montreal Canadiens head to Toronto, they’ll need to let go of one more goaltender and two more skaters.

Michael McNiven will likely get the pink slip in net, leaving Carey Price, Charlie Lindgren and Cayden Primeau as the three netminders to stay. Price is the starter while Lindgren and Primeau have NHL experience, so it makes the most sense. The other two cuts could occur from different angles.

Even though the Habs revealed that Max Domi is going to join training camp later, he’s still named to the training camp roster. Additionally, whether he joins the team at all is still up in the air. Domi being deemed unfit to participate docks them a forward and could leave the final cut to a defenceman.

Speaking of defenceman, Alexander Romanov is on the team. This likely hints at the Montreal Canadiens having his entry-level contract kick in this season, forcing him to burn a year on the deal. Even though Romanov can’t play in the Stanley Cup Qualifier and he’ll have to quarantine for two weeks upon returning from Russia, it’ll still be a worthwhile experience for him to be with the team.

With training camp, we’ll start to see a lot of those lineup conundrums begin to be answered. At the same time, we may get a hint of any kind of strategy Claude Julien has planned for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

It’s not 2015 anymore. The Montreal Canadiens can’t solely rely on Carey Price to steal the series for them. It’s going to take something out of the box for the Habs to catch the likes of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin off guard. But that’s what training camp is all about.

Morning Habits

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