First Canadiens scrimmage of training camp answers two important questions

It's important to not look too deep into the first scrimmage of the Canadiens' training camp. The players have been skating together for over a week, so the coaches felt it'd be fine to throw them into a scrimmage on the first day of on-ice activities. Plenty of things can change before the end of training camp, but for now, here are three questions that were answered after the intrasquad matchup.

How does Martin St. Louis intend the top six to look?

The massive question being thrown around since the Patrik Laine acquisition was who he'd have for linemates. The armchair general managers and coaches believed it'd make sense to keep the Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Juraj Slafkovsky trio together, which proved right on the camp's first day. If those three were playing together, the next question was whether they'd try to space out the depth amongst the next three lines. For now, that doesn't seem to be the case, as St. Louis had Laine playing with Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook.

The question amongst the fanbase was whether Joshua Roy could sneak into the top six. There's still plenty of time for him to do it, but Newhook is the early favorite to earn the role out of training camp.

Is Oliver Kapanen ready for the NHL?

Oliver Kapanen's head coach in Europe Olli Jokinen believed that he was going to North America to stay after he left for training camp. The team is preparing for life without Kapanen, but you couldn't guarantee that he'd adapt to the NHL level that quickly.

The hype is building around Kapanen already, as every post on X for the early portion of the scrimmage was about how good he looked. Points in an intrasquad scrimmage mean nothing, but Kapanen's first period certainly made some people excited. He scored the red team's first two goals, speeding up the hype train and making fans dream about life with him on the roster.

Ivan Demidov's four-point day and Kapanen's scrimmage domination were happening simultaneously, which led to a fun narrative on X about what number Kapanen was going to switch to next season when Demidov came to North America. I thought Canadiens fans were going to show some patience this training camp and not get too far ahead of themselves about the success of the rebuild, but that ended after just one scrimmage period.