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After a pair of home wins to kick off the preseason, a youngster-filled Canadiens lineup travelled to Toronto on Thursday night. Facing a veteran-laden Maple Leafs roster, Jakub Dobes helped keep it close but Toronto picked up the 2-1 win.
The team lined up as follows:
Heineman – Dvorak – Newhook
Roy – Kapanen – Armia
Barre-Boulet – Beck – Kidney
Tuch – Gignac – Pezzetta
Hutson – Barron
Xhekaj – Engstrom
Struble – Reinbacher
Dobes
Hughes
(Players noted in italics are the ‘veterans’ in case you’re wondering how that group actually qualified as legal under exhibition rules.)
10 Thoughts
During the season, we focus these thoughts on the key points of the game. However, with the Habs going with more of a prospect-heavy group, I’m going to focus some of these on player performances outside of the 3 Stars so we can cover some more of the prospects.
1) Don’t think for a second that Montreal didn’t know that Toronto was running out its largely ‘A’ lineup before they made their selections of who to send over for the game. From an evaluation standpoint, this was the perfect spot to run out the youngsters where there wouldn’t be opportunities to shield them from going against top talent. Given that it’s preseason, it was sink or swim without any real risk aside from a few hours of hockey that was hard to watch at times.
2) I was encouraged by David Reinbacher’s first couple of shifts as he had a lot of puck touches and handled the pressure relatively well aside from a bad pass late in one. But his positioning or lack thereof on their first penalty kill wasn’t pretty. With Montreal’s forwards covering high, he went higher as well, almost in an umbrella. That’s not ideal with two forwards behind you. Jayden Struble didn’t do a great job communicating and the two never recovered, allowing John Tavares to comfortably slip behind them and bury the opening goal.
3) I saw some early adjustments from Jakub Dobes. For those who aren’t too familiar with him, he’s very aggressive for a goalie. Frankly, he’s still too aggressive. We saw that early and he was losing his posts at times, including on Montreal’s first power play which was essentially a penalty kill the way it went. But later in the period, he wasn’t quite as extreme with his pushes and he settled down nicely. He’s always going to be a goalie that needs to be reeled in at times, but identifying it early and trying to address it quickly was good to see.
4) Max Pacioretty tried his best to help his former team with a weak cross-ice pass that Morgan Reilly mishandled. Alex Barre-Boulet sent a quick feed to Christian Dvorak who made a nice move to beat Anthony Stolarz and tie the game. Barre-Boulet had some subtly good passes in this one. Not all of them clicked but the offensive awareness stood out in a game that didn’t have a whole lot of offensive awareness from the Habs.
5) Unfortunately, they didn’t have a lot of defensive awareness either. The second period was frustrating to see as player after player got caught flat-footed, leaving to all sorts of rush opportunities. Of course, this wasn’t unexpected when Arber Xhekaj was their most experienced blueliner on the night. Young defencemen make mistakes and, well, they made a lot of them.
6) One of them came from Adam Engstrom who was pick-pocketed by Nick Robertson. Engstrom then took a delayed penalty in response but it was negated when Robertson beat Dobes to restore the lead. To stick with the awareness theme, it didn’t even look like Engstrom was aware that Robertson was there. None of the blueliners showed particularly well defensively but this was a game where Engstrom hurt his admittedly outside chance of pushing for a spot. He needs some refinement time in Laval which, frankly, isn’t a surprise or a bad thing.
7) The third period wasn’t anything to write home about so let’s talk about some prospects. I know Luke Tuch took a bad tripping penalty but beyond that, he had the type of game that will help his recall fortunes. He had some good decisions with the puck, didn’t try anything too fancy, and didn’t shy away from playing physically. He’s not making the team but when the time comes when the Habs decide they want some extra grit, he’s positioning himself to be the one brought up into that role.
8) One of the battles to follow was Oliver Kapanen and Owen Beck as they battle for what might be one available spot (and even that’s iffy). Kapanen got destroyed at the faceoff dot (2/12) but I think looked a bit better overall than Beck. Kapanen is a year older and he showed some good poise in a game that saw Montreal run around a lot. Part of that could be attributed to having the better linemates (in Beck’s defence) but Beck didn’t stand out like he did in the camp two years ago.
9) I liked what I saw from Emil Heineman in this one. Granted, he had the benefit of having the best linemates but he complemented Christian Dvorak and Alex Newhook well. Martin St. Louis has talked about Heineman needing to consistently play with some intensity and brought that in this one. I’m not sure he’s really in a battle for a roster spot with someone like Joshua Roy but he helped his case for a recall as well.
10) Lane Hutson wasn’t bringing all sorts of fancy plays to the table but still stood out in a positive light compared to the rest of the blueliners. That will certainly help him as he looks to cement his roster spot. In a game featuring some depth defenders and a lot of guys battling for a spot, standing out amongst the crowd was the best-case outcome for him. He was rewarded with nearly 26 minutes of ice time.
HW Habs 3 Stars
1st Star: Jakub Dobes – I have to admit, I was worried for him in this one. It’s only preseason but he’s young and has a tendency to let things snowball on him and this game had a chance to go that way given the difference in talent level. That didn’t happen. As I noted earlier, he made some early adjustments and was sharp the rest of the way. This was a 2-1 game on paper but could have been a lot worse if he wasn’t on his game. This is probably his last preseason action and he’ll finish up on a high note.
Stats: 32 saves on 34 shots, 2.09 GAA, .941 SV%
2nd Star: Alex Newhook – With Montreal’s roster being, well, far from full, the few proven NHL players needed to stand out in a positive light. Newhook did that. He was arguably their most dangerous forward over the course of the game and that’s exactly what he should have been. In a game where not a lot went right at that end, that’s something.
Stats: 0 points, +1 rating, 2 shots, 2 hits, 19:34 TOI
3rd Star: Christian Dvorak – He also stood out and showed that he’s well above the level of Kapanen and Beck at this time (seriously, the suggestion that the Habs will move him to make room for one of them probably isn’t happening). Dvorak had the lone goal for the Canadiens in this one and led both teams in shots. Again, he should stand out when the lineup was that weak and he did. That’s all you can ask for.
Stats: 1 goal, +1 rating, 2 PIMS, 4 shots, 10/24 faceoffs, 20:17 TOI
