“It’s been a pretty hectic season. When you think about it, it looks like we just lived three years in one year. »
Those words of wisdom came from Jake Allen’s mouth. On the eve of the game against the Ottawa Senators at the Bell Centre, the Canadiens held their second and final official team photo opportunity yesterday.
Allen is among the survivors. The goalkeeper from New Brunswick was present for the first draft. CH have used 45 players since the start of the campaign. Jordan Harris is the latest in line, having made his NHL debut on Saturday against the Lightning in Tampa Bay.
Should Carey Price return to play, the Habs will climb to 46 active players, which would equal the mark of the team, which has held since 2000-2001. That season, Oleg Petrov shared the roster’s top scorer with Saku Koivu. Both players finished with 47 points. There was also Andrei Markov who was a rookie.
“We’ve been through a lot of cycles over the past few months,” winger Brendan Gallagher said. There was bad and good. We will have to learn. We will place this photo on the wall. I looked at our photo from last year. You have good memories of each team. We won’t play in the playoffs, but we had fun. »
Relaxed atmosphere
Some pleasure. It’s a key word. Despite ranking 32nd overall in the NHL, the Habs players took part in this last shot in a good mood.
Carey Price had fun with Cole Caufield, Kent Hughes, Jeff Gorton and Geoff Molson chatted with the majority of the players who entered the ice, as much the oldest as the youngest like Harris or Justin Barron. Joel Armia had the same serious face as usual, taking the second row several seconds before everyone else.
Obvious contrast
At the start of the year, the CH found itself in a completely different context. Marc Bergevin, still general manager at that time, had practically not spoken with its president and owner, Mr. Molson. There was a heaviness in the air.
There were 29 players present for the team photo. Injured, Jonathan Drouin was not there.
Of this group, there were 17 new faces compared to the finalist formation of the last campaign. On the last row, yesterday, it was all new with Harris, Barron, Corey Schueneman, Jesse Ylönen and others.
Pride
Even if the club has begun a youth turn, a reconstruction in a more precise language, Martin St-Louis, Hughes and Gorton have won their bet for now. They are not just looking for an identity for this new team, they have given a sense of pride to the players who wear this jersey.
The Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Alexander Romanov, Rem Pitlick, Josh Anderson, Justin Barron and Jordan Harris will be at the heart of this rebuild.
Photo QMI Agency, Joël Lemay
1- Samuel Montembeault
2- Jake Allen
3- Luke Richardson
4- Kent Hughes
5- Jeff Gorton
6- Joel Edmundson
7- Brendan Gallagher
8- Paul Byron
9- Nick Suzuki
10- Geoff Molson
11- Martin St Louis
12- Carey Price
13- Mario LeBlanc
14- Alex Burrows
15- Trevor Letowski
16- Josh Anderson
17- Jake Evans
18- Jeff Petry
19- Cole Caufield
20- David Savard
21- Alexander Romanov
22- Joel Armia
23- Eric Raymond
24- Adam Douglas
25- Graham Rynbend
26- Pierre Gervais
27- Michael Pezzetta
28- Chris Wideman
29- Ryan Poehling
30- Christian Dvorak
31- Rem Pitlick
32- Tyler Pitlick
33- Mike Hoffman
34- Mathieu Perreault
35- Pierre Ouellette
36- Patrick Langlois
37- Matthew Romano
38- Donald Balmforth
39- Dale Lablans
40- Jordan Harris
41- Justin Barron
42- Jesse Ylonen
43- Corey Schueneman
44- Laurent Dauphin
45- Kale Clague
46- William Lagesson
47- Pierre Leclair
48- Claude Theriault
49- Eric Gravel
In the team photo taken yesterday (above), there are 24 new faces (in blue) compared to the snapshot taken on June 24 (below), when the Canadian won the semi-final against Vegas . Of the new players, seven will be at the heart of the club’s reconstruction (circled in yellow). Also, empty spots belong to Jonathan Drouin (COVID-19) and Andrew Molson, who will be added to the infographic.
Among the departures, we should also note those of Marc Bergevin and Dominique Ducharme.
DEPARTURES
AT- Brett Kulak
B- Michael Frolik
VS- Jesperi Kotkaniemi
D- Jon Merrill
E- Erik Gustafsson
F- Fleury hold
G- Shea Weber
H- Ben Chiarot
I- Eric Staal
J- Corey Perry
K- Artturi Lehkonen
I- Tyler Toffoli
M- Phillip Danault
NOT- Tomas Tatar