Perhaps one day we will have to find a nickname for the current second trio of the Canadiens, but in the meantime, we can perhaps dare to suggest this: the Trio of guys who have things to prove.
Because Alex Newhook, Kirby Dach and Patrik Laine, the three members of this trio at the moment, all have things to prove.
Newhook is coming off an up-and-down season, where he had 34 points in 55 games. An injured Dach has only played two games in 2023-24, and Laine has only played 18 games with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
That’s starting to make quite a few players who should have the proverbial knife between their teeth when the 2024-2025 season begins.
“Kirby missed most of last season and Patrik wants to be a different player,” Newhook said Friday in Brossard. “I know I have to continue the work I did last season. For Kirby and Patrik, it’s like a new beginning, so it’s exciting. I think all three of us are very motivated, we all have things to prove.”
We have things to prove to ourselves, but also to the team and the rest of the league.
Alex Newhook
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Alex Newhook
Like the other two, Kirby Dach must also deal with the rather enormous expectations placed on him at the start of this next season.
I don’t really hear what people say about me, but I know what kind of player I can be. It’s up to me to go out there and prove it every night and help my teammates get a win.
Kirby Dach
By putting these three together in the middle of camp, coach Martin St-Louis reminds us, perhaps unintentionally, that these three players were all drafted in the first round in the past because of their enormous offensive potential.
Newhook had been a 16e The 2019 draft pick was the third overall pick, Dach was the third overall pick in the same draft, and Laine was the second overall pick in the 2016 draft.
Like all of Quebec, Newhook sees a little of what his coach is trying to do with this combination.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Canadiens head coach Martin St-Louis
“Patrik is a guy who wants to score goals all the time, and then also, like Kirby, he has this skating move that surprises you,” noted the former Colorado Avalanche player. “These are players who are faster than you would think when you simply watch them skate. They know who they are, and they also know the type of player they want to become.”
So there you have it. The greatest thinkers have written many times that to be successful in ice hockey, you have to score more goals than your opponent, and if the Canadiens really want to get close to that elusive “mix” that they contemplate from afar, it’s going to take goals, more goals, and it’s going to take a second line that’s on the attack in order to also take some pressure off the first line.
Alex Newhook understands this very well.
I don’t know what the future holds and everything can change, but I think we’ll have a pretty dangerous second line. Another threatening line, that the other team will also have to watch closely.
Alex Newhook
Everything is possible, according to Martin St-Louis
This training camp began Wednesday in Brossard, and we quickly noticed that Martin St-Louis was laying his cards on the table and designating his trios. So, for now, the first trio of Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky is of course intact, and then, it looks like this: Alex Newhook, Kirby Dach and Patrik Laine on the second, Brendan Gallagher, Jake Evans and Joel Armia on the third, as well as Christian Dvorak, Josh Anderson and Joshua Roy on the fourth. “Anything is possible, we evaluate our players,” explained the Montreal pilot. “The more we move forward, the more we’ll get answers… Laine and Dach didn’t play much last season, and the NHL is not an easy league. When you have to be away, it’s hard to come back. These are players who have their own expectations, very high. You have to manage them and make them understand that everything will fall into place with time.”