The infirmary begins to empty at the Montreal Canadiens and the competition will therefore be even fiercer internally during the last week of training camp.
Jonathan Drouin is expected to play his first preseason game Saturday, when the Habs visit the Ottawa Senators. Sean Monahan and Josh Anderson practiced unrestricted Friday morning, while captain Nick Suzuki had to avoid contact.
Drouin was replaced by Juraj Slafkovsky in Wednesday’s lineup against the Toronto Maple Leafs due to a virus. The Quebec forward has not played a full season since the 2018-19 campaign. In particular, he had surgery on both wrists during this period.
“My only goal is to play 82 games,” Drouin said Friday.
His injury last season deprived him of time to develop an affinity with head coach Martin St-Louis. He took office on February 9. Drouin only played two games under St-Louis.
“I see that he has what it takes to get into our concepts, absorb them and carry them out,” said St-Louis. But I haven’t seen enough rehearsals of Drouin to tell him to come see this or that.
“The sample is too small to say what I should attack with Jonathan. »
Drouin, who is 27, is spending the last year on his contract. He has scored 46 goals and 111 assists in 263 games since joining the Canadiens on June 15, 2017.
He repeated that he did not put pressure on his shoulders despite his contractual situation and simply wanted to stay healthy during the season.
A mysterious bite
Suzuki and Anderson were on the sidelines from the start of camp and didn’t have to suffer with their teammates on the intense first day on ice, September 22.
A few days earlier, Suzuki had been injured in a silly collision on ice with Joel Edmundson. The Manitoba defenseman suffered a lower back injury – the same injury that limited him to 24 games last season – and he still hasn’t been seen on the Bell Sports Complex rink.
For his part, Anderson was the victim of a bite, possibly from an insect or a spider.
“I woke up one morning and my hand was swollen and I couldn’t move it,” Anderson said. I had to take antibiotics. It’s a strange incident. »
Anderson laughed that he didn’t gain any superpowers from the bite. He’s been able to keep in shape and can’t wait to get going, especially since the competition is tough for offensive positions.
“It’s very healthy because you can never afford to be too comfortable in this league,” Anderson said. There is a difference between being confident and comfortable. You have to show up every day with the intention of working because there is always someone knocking at the door to take your place. »
Anderson practiced to the right of Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki on Friday. For his part, Drouin played with Monahan and Joel Armia.
St. Louis insisted that the composition of the lines had time to change several times between now and the start of the season.
“Today was a more relaxed training, noted St-Louis, who also let his assistants lead him. Usually, our training requires players to be very engaged physically and mentally. Today was more traditional and they had fewer decisions to make. »
Defenders Madison Bowey (lower body) and Logan Mailloux (shoulder) also participated in Friday’s practices wearing a jersey indicating that they should avoid contact.