Claude Julien may feel that the Montreal Canadiens must play safe hockey have against the Pittsburgh Penguins, but the opposite may be the way to go.
This year’s road to the Stanley Cup Playoffs is going to be different for several reasons. Clearly, the format and the fact that most if not all teams involved are going to be as close to 100% healthy as usual stick out the most. But there’s also the fact that teams have had a lot more time to prepare for their opponent than usual. So even though training camp has been going on for three days, the Montreal Canadiens have been preparing for the Pittsburgh Penguins for longer than that.
Sure, everything was voted for and finalized last week, but we’ve known for the longest time which team the Habs were facing. Claude Julien and his coaching staff were likely sitting at home with notepads and video of previous game tape getting ready for that behemoth of a competition weeks before Phase 3 began.
So far in camp, there haven’t been many surprises.
The top line of Philip Danault, Brendan Gallagher and Tomas Tatar is still intact and will likely get those assignments against Sidney Crosby. Jesperi Kotknaiemi has returned to his usual third line spot with Paul Byron and Artturi Lehkonen while the top-four of Shea Weber, Ben Chiarot, Victor Mete and Jeff Petry has remained.
Changes have come via absences in training camp starting with Max Domi, who’s participation in Phases 3 and 4 is still up in the air. Nick Suzuki has gotten that second-line centre spot in his stead with Jonathan Drouin and Joel Armia on his wings. There’s also a battle on the bottom pair with Brett Kulak and Xavier Ouellet having missed the last two practices leaving room for one of Noah Juulsen, Cale Fleury or Josh Brook to crack the lineup.