Jeff Gorton will have some interesting food for thought this week.
In three games, a bunch of unloved players, recalled by default, showed us more resentment and thirst to win than a majority of regulars.
In the absence of victories, we felt a more homogeneous group, more structured, more at ease, or at least, better listening to the game plan proposed by Dominique Ducharme.
Let’s not be fooled. The Canadian will not become a top club again with this group, although some will undoubtedly deserve a promotion.
But there are observations to be made. First, the speed. The mobility of some of these young promoted players, including Lukas Vejdemo and especially Jesse Ylönen, reminded us of the flagrant lack of speed of regular training.
Nick Suzuki, Brendan Gallagher, Tyler Toffoli, Christian Dvorak and Joel Armia all have undeniable attributes of their own, but they don’t stand out with their speed. Cole Caufield is lively, very agile on skates, but he would not win a speed contest.
We can count a few, obviously, but not six of the first nine forwards. Suzuki, among others, needs quick wingers.
During the off-season, Marc Bergevin hired Quebecers Cédric Paquette and Mathieu Perreault to complete the fourth line. Speed is not their strength.
A fourth trio made up of Vejdemo, Ylönen and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard to conclude the season, once some veterans have been sacrificed, would already be a step towards the new identity of the team.
And when the time comes to decide the fate of more important attackers, we will have to keep in mind this concern to improve the speed of the club and also, above all, to retain those who want to contribute to the revival of the Canadiens and to break their bones for the team and its trainer Dominique Ducharme.
In defense, we welcomed what came to hand in the absence of Jeff Petry, Ben Chiarot, Joel Edmundson, Chris Wideman and, more recently, Alexander Romanov.
Chance therefore landed in Montreal defenders more mobile and offensive, but a little less reliable in defense or in terms of strength: Kale Clague, Sami Niku and Corey Schueneman.
In a normal world, you need a better balance. Last year, the Canadiens relied on offensive juggernauts to protect Carey Price. The relaunch wasn’t the team’s strength, but that’s how this Stanley Cup finalist roster was built, let’s not forget.
But the uncertainty surrounding Price and the preferences of new hockey boss Jeff Gorton will undoubtedly lead to changes in this regard.
It will be necessary to keep defenders of a more defensive character, obviously, but the small offensive defenders will perhaps no longer be sidelined from the outset as we used to do before.
It will be interesting to see the fate of 23-year-old defenseman Kale Clague, a former member of the Canadian junior team under Dominique Ducharme, claimed on waivers at the beginning of December by Jeff Gorton, whose first acquisition was.
Clague played 27:34 against the Panthers on Saturday, a high for players from both teams. Only one Habs player has reached this peak this season, Ben Chiarot, twice.
CH may be left out of the playoffs. But a new boss, with new ideas, has just arrived. A general manager will be appointed shortly. And we will witness, in the coming weeks and months, the transformation of a team built by a man, Marc Bergevin, with a very different philosophy from that of Gorton.
Bergevin, 56, a supporting defensive back, played in the NHL for almost 20 years and built a club in his own way. Gorton, 53, from Massachusetts, with a college degree in physical education and a master’s degree in sports management, has never played in the National League and likes more offensive clubs.
If the lack of victories does not affect your morale too much, we will soon enter a very stimulating era at the CH, with veterans to trade, a draft pick in the top-4 and an imminent culture change.
But be warned, it may take a few years …
Zegras, employee of the month
Unsurprisingly, young Anaheim Ducks center Trevor Zegras was named NHL Rookie of the Month. The great friend of Cole Caufield, to whom he had also predicted a harvest of 40 goals at the dawn of the season, amassed 11 points in 9 games, to bring his total to 25 in 30 games. The 20-year-old is now firmly established in the center of the Ducks’ first line. However, Zegras started the season quietly with an assist in his first six games, but he has amassed 24 points in his last 24 meetings.
Eight players were drafted before Zegras in 2019: Jack Hughes (New Jersey), Kaapo Kakko (New York), Kirby Dach (Chicago), Alex Turcotte (Los Angeles), Moritz Seider (Detroit), Dylan Cozens (Buffalo) and Philip Broberg (Edmonton). Four or five of those chief recruiters must be starting to bite their thumbs.