Montreal Canadiens Are Back On The Ice Today!

The Montreal Canadiens offseason is officially over today. Technically, it ended yesterday when the players reported for training camp but all they did was meet some medical professionals and chat with some media members.

Today, the Montreal Canadiens will actually be one the ice! Line combinations will be tweeted out! Pucks will be shot. Carey Price will save everything and we will see newcomers like Mike Hoffman, Christian Dvorak and David Savard in Habs gear for the first time.

The shortest offseason in the history of the Canadiens franchise is now over.

With the league running a late, albeit shortened 2021 season, and the Canadiens making a run to the Stanley Cup Finals, they were last on the ice in July. Their final game was played in Tampa Bay on July 7. Eleven weeks later, they arrived in Montreal for training camp 2021.

Today, we will see the 70 players that are in camp split into three groups. We don’t know how the first two groups will be split up yet, but 30 forwards, 17 defensemen and five goaltenders will be divided into Red and White Groups. The Red Group will skate at 10:00 AM EST while the White Group hits the ice at 12:00 PM EST.

Group C consists of 10 forwards, six defenders and two goalies, is made up of mostly younger players that will soon head back to Junior like Joshua Roy, or players likely headed for Trois-Rivieres of the ECHL. This group will skate at 12:30 PM EST.

The three groups are scheduled to skate again on Friday, with the two earlier groups switching time slots and then again on Saturday.

The Canadiens first preseason game will be Saturday night when they face the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto. Sunday will be the annual Red vs White game which is a scrimmage of Habs prospects and then the Habs host the Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre on Monday night.

Training camp is scheduled to run until October 11 and the team will play its first regular season game on October 12 against the Maple Leafs.