We can already prepare the plate with the number 21 and the name of Kaiden Guhle for the Canadian’s locker room. In a 4-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, the Canadiens’ 2020 first-round pick scored one goal, fired four shots and distributed seven hits.
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If there are more perilous predictions than that of offering Guhle a position on the CH blue line for the start of the season, David Savard corroborated this assertion by talking about his partner for this game against the Jets.
“You see his talent, he has really high potential, but you can already see his impact,” noted Savard. He has even more confidence than at camp last year. He makes good plays, he makes good passes and he plays with confidence. He’s not afraid to make games. He also made good checks. »
“On his goal, he quickly read the game and he never hesitated,” he continued. I find it nice to see him play. He might feel a lot of pressure on his shoulders, but he doesn’t. He plays like he’s still in the Junior West League because he’s so confident in himself. »
Since the start of this camp, Guhle is clearly one step ahead of the other young guns in the defensive squad.
bad luck
For a simple preparatory match and despite fairly bare stands, there was a good atmosphere in the third period. Brendan Gallagher and Cole Caufield alternately beat Arvid Holm to give the hosts a 3-2 lead.
But the Jets found a way to bounce back. They achieved this largely thanks to Evgenii Dadonov. The former Vegas Golden Knights messed up by losing the puck out of his territory on the tying goal of Brad Lambert, a first-round pick at the last auction.
Dadonov also found himself in the thick of the action for the winning goal. Nate Schmidt took a shot on the number 63 stick to beat Cayden Primeau. On this game, it was not a mistake on his part.
“Yeah, it was bad luck,” Dadonov said as he finished eating his banana in the Habs locker room. I wanted to make the right play, I put myself in the line of the shot, but the puck jumped to find its way. I broke my stick, it’s part of hockey. »
On offense, Caufield was once again very dynamic, especially on the power play. He already has two goals after two preparatory games.
The small number 22 obviously intends to continue its end-of-season momentum with Martin St-Louis behind the bench.
What we noticed…
BETTER AND BETTER
Quite shy at his first preparatory meeting under the colors of CH, Kirby Dach came out of his shell against the Jets. He got an assist on Kaiden Guhle’s first-half goal, but he especially enjoyed good crosses from Cole Caufield and Emil Heineman.
THE CALM OF TRUDEAU
William Trudeau has still not initialed a first professional contract with the Canadiens, but he is giving himself the arguments to get there. Very good at the rookie tournament in Buffalo, the fourth-round pick in the 2021 draft again played with aplomb in his first preseason game. At five against five, he found himself to the right of Mattias Norlinder.
EXPEDITIVE VISIT
Pierre-Luc Dubois probably didn’t get the right number. If the Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler, Nikolaj Ehlers, Kyle Connor, Josh Morrissey and Connor Hellebuyck were off, Dubois hit the trip to Montreal. The Jets traveled from Manitoba to Quebec the same day. And he was flying back to Winnipeg immediately after the game.
DVORAK GOES LION
It was a simple preparatory match, but Christian Dvorak passed his first exam. He won his face-offs (54%), he worked well in the center of Evgenii Dadonov and Brendan Gallagher and he participated in both powerplay goals in the third period.
First period
1-Mon: Kaiden Guhle (1) (Dach) 5:15
2-Wpg: Evan Polei (1) (Lambert, Stenlund) 11:05
Penalties: Heinola (Wpg) 3:10, Dubois (Wpg) 8:21, Polei (Wpg) 19:18
Second period
3-Wpg: Cole Maier (1) (Malott, Kovacevic) 14:26
Penalties: Capobianco (Wpg) 4:31, Heineman (Mon) 8:32, Trudeau (Mon) 11:52, Savard (Mon) 18:39
Third period
4-Mon: Brendan Gallagher (1) (Caufield, Dvorak) AN-10:08
5-Mon: Cole Caufield (2) (Gallagher, Dvorak) AN-11:48
6-Wpg: Brad Lambert (1) (Unassisted) 16:31
7-Wpg: Nate Schmidt (1) (Samberg, Reichel) 19:42
Penalties: Capobianco (Wpg) 3:30, Dach (Mon) 8:20, Stanley (Wpg) 8:20, Capobianco (Wpg) (doumin) 8:55, Polei (Wpg) 15:06, Guhle (Mon) 16 :00
Shoot to the net
Winnipeg 9 – 10 – 7 – 26 Montreal 5 – 5 – 16 – 26
Guardians:
Wpg: David Rittich and Arvid Holm (in 3rd period) (G, 1-0-0), Mon: Jake Allen and Cayden Primeau (at 10:35 of the 2nd period) (G, 0-2-0)
Numerical advantages:
Wpg: 0 in 4, Mon: 2 in 8
Referees:
Marc Joannette, Cody Beach
Linesmen:
Jonny Murray, Jonathan Deschamps
ASSISTANCE:
17,327