3 Montreal Canadiens who built serious momentum to begin preseason

The Montreal Canadiens kicked off their preseason with two games against the Toronto Maple Leafs, with one game in each city. The good news for the Canadiens was that they came away with a win in both games, with a 4-1 victory in Toronto and a 4-3 overtime win in front of their fans.

Across both games, the Canadiens got some notable performances, and these are three players in particular who stood out.

Samuel Montembeault

The Canadiens had four goalies take the ice across the two games, but Samuel Montembeault was the only one to not allow a goal. The veteran goalie played about half the game and faced 13 shots, including two short-handed shots, and stopped all of them.

This stat line is even more impressive when considering he was playing the better group of forwards the Maple Leafs have, with Auston Matthews, Gavin McKenna, Matthew Knies, and William Nylander playing against him.

For the Canadiens, as well as Montembeault, it was great to see him get off to a fast start. He lost not only the starting job but also the backup job over the course of last season. The Canadiens elected not to move him, and the thought is that they hope a fast start this season could help improve his trade value.

It is a decision that might pay off if Montembeault continues to play like this.

Florian Xhekaj

Florian Xhekaj is fighting for a roster spot on the Montreal Canadiens and took that literally with the way he played. He did not shy away from any physicality, whether it was in front of the net clearing Auston Matthews or dropping the gloves with Marshall Rifai.

The news of the fight even made it all the way back to Montreal, where brother Arber Xhekaj couldn't wait until the end of his game to watch and saw it in the penalty box.

Florian finished the game with one assist and a team-leading four hits. He is hoping to win one of the final roster spots out of training camp, and a game like this certainly helps his case.

Lane Hutson

One player who isn't concerned about his place on this team is Lane Hutson; however, that didn't stop him from getting off to a fast start this preseason. The Canadiens' top defenseman finished the game with one goal and two assists to help them secure that overtime win with a final score of 4-3.

Really the only question for the Montreal Canadiens when it comes to Hutson is who he will be paired with. The Canadiens probably would love to have Noah Dobson be that player but they need to take into account balancing their entire blueline.

In this game, it was Alexandre Carrier who spent a majority of the game with Hutson, but it is something worth watching throughout the remainder of the preseason to see who the coaching staff pairs with their star defenseman.

The Canadiens next game is on Monday night at home against the Ottawa Senators and is the only night this preseason that they don't split their squad.

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