Montreal Canadiens: Six Interesting Line Combinations During Inter-squad Games

Guhle-Reinbacher

It was a very small sample size, and I wholeheartedly hope that there will be more time to watch these two play together. Kaiden Guhle and David Reinbacher skate beautifully, they think the game well and they have the physical attributes to be a matchup nightmare. They defend well, using their long reach and great positional awareness to break up plays.

Their edgework and playmaking abilities are underrated, and after a bigger sample size playing together, they will show just how valuable they are for the Canadiens. Along with Logan Mailloux, Lane Hutson and Adam Engstrom, the Canadiens have some incredible young defenders coming through the pipeline, and these high-potential pairings will emerge over the next couple of training camps.

These two can be a great pair in any situation; penalty kill, powerplay, to start the game and to close out games. Ideally, you would want to put a more offensive guy with each of these two, balancing out the strong defending amongst two pairings, which is where Mailloux and Hutson’s names draw into the conversation. These two former first-round picks have all the tools to be a shutdown penalty-killing pair, with an overlooked offensive touch, because their defensive play is so strong.

Bisson-Mailloux

I was a little disappointed to see Logan Mailloux playing with Tobie Bisson because he projects to be a top-four guy, and during the first day of inter-squad scrimmages, you would hope he would have a defence partner with higher NHL potential. No offence to Bisson, but he just doesn’t sit high on the list of defenders who might get some playing time with the Canadiens this year. It wasn’t all negatives though, because Bisson added some experience to the pairing, something that Mailloux will only gain from.

Mailloux skated well and played the way we all expected him to, and Bisson was a nice stable presence. I don’t love the pairing, but I do understand why management decided to slot the two defenders together. Mailloux is very new and likely to take chances to help out on offence, and having a steady defensive veteran presence to help stabilize the pair is great for Mailloux to learn on the fly.

I don’t think it’s likely that these two will remain together in Laval, simply because I feel Mailloux will sit at the top of the pecking order, possibly alongside William Trudeau. Any chance to watch Mailloux is a treat, but I was largely disappointed by the partner that Mailloux was given, even if I understood the decision. It was a bit of a surprise pair for me, and while I enjoyed watching Mailloux, Bisson doesn’t exactly garner the same level of interest for me.

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