Montreal Canadiens: Three Players To Focus On In Preseason Opener

The Montreal Canadiens begin their lengthy preseason tonight with a contest in Toronto against the Maple Leafs.

The two teams of course met in the opening round of the 2021 postseason with the Canadiens shutting the Maple Leafs down in Game 7 and advancing all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.

Now we switch our focus to the upcoming season, and the battles for the final lineup spots really heats up with the exhibition games starting. Teams don’t usually put a star studded lineup together for their first preseason game, especially on the road, but the Canadiens have a handful of key players playing tonight.

Their top line throughout most of the playoffs was Tyler Toffoli, Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. That trio will be in the lineup tonight, but with their spot in the lineup guaranteed, they won’t be focus tonight. I’d rather keep a close on a few players that are battling for a lineup spot, or trying to take on a bigger role this season.

The Canadiens lineup tonight looks like this:

Toffoli Suzuki Caufield

Lehkonen Poehling Dauphin

Perreault Paquette Belzile

Baddock Beaudin Vejdemo

Romanov Petry

Kulak Fairbrother

Ouellet Xhekaj

Primeau

McNiven

Keeping in mind that we know Jeff Petry has his top pairing spot locked up and we don’t need to focus in on his every shift, here are three players I’ll be keeping a close eye on tonight.

Alexander Romanov

After playing nearly every regular season game last year, we know that Romanov has a roster spot locked up this season. But he suited up for just four postseason games, so where does he fit in the lineup to start the regular season?

Well, he is starting the preseason next to Petry on what would have to be considered the team’s top pairing if they played a regular season game together. I don’t know if Romanov will remain there when Joel Edmundson returns, but we don’t know how soon that will be and we don’t know how the coaching staff envisions the pairings with Shea Weber gone and David Savard in his place.

Romanov will definitely work his way back into the lineup, but can he jump right into the top four on opening night? That’s a question that will be answered in the preseason.

Mathieu Perreault

Perreault signed a modest (by NHL standards) contract of $950,000 for the upcoming season. The 33 year old is a veteran of nearly 700 NHL games so there shouldn’t be much unknown about the player. So, why keep a close eye on him heading into the first preseason game of the year?

As a local product and a replacement at the bottom of the lineup for Corey Perry who provided tremendous value and became a fan favourite, Perreault is going to have a fair bit of pressure on him this season considering he is a depth piece.

Perreault is a gritty, scrappy depth forward with a fair bit of offence to his game as well. He should step right in and replace Corey Perry, and I will be keeping a close eye on him to see if he matches that description.

Ryan Poehling

The Canadiens will eventually announce a 23 man roster to begin the season and anyone could guess 21 of them today and probably get 22 of them right. The biggest decision for that 23rd spot will be whether or not Ryan Poehling is ready to start the season at the NHL level.

He has already played 28 career games in the NHL, but was in the AHL all of last season. The 22 year old had a great season for the Laval Rocket, leading the team with 25 points in just 28 games and he was as good defensively as he was offensively.

The Habs are deep on their wings but might need a little more help down the middle. If Poehling isn’t ready, we are looking at Nick Suzuki, Christian Dvorak, Jake Evans and Cedric Paquette at centre to begin the year. That’s not bad, but it would be a lot better if Poehling wins a job and pushes Paquette out of the lineup.

Whether he can earn that spot or not is what I’ll be watching closest in tonight’s contest.