Montreal Canadiens: Three Players Who Took Advantage of Unlikely Opportunity

The Montreal Canadiens went through an incredible month of December. Maybe ridiculous is a better word than incredible to describe what we witnessed last month.

The team was battling an extremely high number of injuries as regulars like Carey Price, Shea Weber, Paul Byron and Joel Edmundson have not played all season and Jeff Petry, Mike Hoffman, Tyler Toffoli, Joel Armia, Brendan Gallagher, Jonathan Drouin and Josh Anderson joined them on the injured list.

That was before the Covid breakout in the Habs dressing room that has now affected 20 players.

Somehow, the team managed to complete a three game road trip in the southern United States on January 1st. They of course lost all three games to the Tampa Bay Lightning, Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers, but they managed to scrape together a lineup. Well, most of a lineup. In that last game on New Year’s day, the Canadiens only had five defensemen and 11 forwards available.

In sports, teams must continue to move ahead even with a few injuries. Most teams don’t have to deal with as many injuries and illnesses as the Canadiens did last month. In fact, many teams had less severe cases of Covid outbreaks and had their games postponed. Some of the Habs games would be postponed, but that three game road trip with a skeleton crew of a roster was an odd sight.

The lines looked more like an early preseason contest and less like a middle of the regular season roster.

It led to three straight losses, but the Canadiens are now 7-23-4 so it is unlikely they would have won no matter who was playing. While the results in the standings haven’t been good, all of these injuries have opened doors for players who were not expected to play in the NHL this season.

One player’s injury is another player’s opportunity and these three players really took advantage of that unlikely chance and made a name for themselves in December.

Laurent Dauphin

Laurent Dauphin was a second round pick of the Arizona Coyotes in the 2013 NHL Draft. He would play 35 NHL games for the Coyotes, scoring three total goals over parts of four seasons.

Dauphin spent most of his pro hockey career in that organization with their AHL affiliate but during the 2019-20 season he was traded to the Canadiens organization for Michael McCarron who was a first round pick of the Habs in 2013.

Dauphin finished that 2019-20 season with the Laval Rocket and scored seven goals and 15 points in 25 games. Last season, he scored five goals and 16 points in 21 games for the Rocket and he began this season on fire. The 26 year old was among the leading goal scorers in the AHL when he sniped 11 goals in 18 games to begin this season with the Rocket.

Dauphin was called up to the NHL and made his Canadiens debut on December 7th against the Tampa Bay Lightning. After two games he had just one shot on net and was a -3.

He continued playing between 15-17 minutes per game, but became a much more dangerous offensive player after his first two games. Dauphin would have a point in three consecutive games, including his first NHL goal in just over five years.

Then, as should be expected for a Canadiens player last month, Dauphin tested positive for Covid and was taken out of the lineup for the rest of the month. Even the replacement players need to be replaced, but Dauphin showed he can keep up at the NHL level.

Corey Schueneman

Corey Schueneman was one of the most pleasant surprises on the Laval Rocket last season. He came as a fairly unheralded free agent signing to the Canadiens AHL affiliate, but he quickly became a key member of their strong team.

The Laval Rocket had a great season in 2020-21, finishing the shortened, Canada-only schedule with a 23-9-4 record. They finished first in the Canadian Division and were crowned champions of that division since there was no postseason for most of the AHL last year.

Schueneman scored three goals and 12 points in 36 games while moving up the lineup into a top four role. He showed to be a smooth skater and smart defensive player. He isn’t a flashy offensive defenceman, but he knows when to jump into the play offensively and can skate the puck into the zone and create offensive chances with his speed, skill and vision.

When the Canadiens lost a handful of defencemen to the Covid list, they called up Schueneman.

Schueneman played all three games on the team’s recent road trip and increased his ice time from 11:36 in game one to 18:25 in the third game of the trip. Some of that was made necessary by the lack of available defencemen, but Schueneman certainly earned it with his play.

The 26 year old left shooting defenceman had one assist in those three games, and looked more comfortable at both ends of the ice as each game went along. He showed he could fit in and play big minutes against some of the best teams in the NHL.