It may have been only a preseason tilt, but for Saint-Boniface and Trois-Rivières, it must have felt like much more. To see the Montreal Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators play at the Colisée Vidéotron, the barn of the Habs’ ECHL affiliate, the Trois-Rivières Lions, must have felt surreal. The 4,500-seat arena was filled to the brim with hockey-crazed fans- or rather, Habs fans, I should say, as finding a Senators jersey was quite a challenge, but that was to be expected so deep in Canadiens’ territory. Holding the game in Saint-Boniface wouldn’t have made much sense with the arena so small, so they decided to play at Colisée Vidéotron, a 23-minute drive away. A bigger rink meant more fans could catch the action.
Still, the $250,000 Kraft Hockeyville prize money will go to the small arena; players’ dressing rooms and bathrooms will be improved, along with the boards, glass, and roof. According to Canadiens forward Zachary Bolduc, who played there in his youth, that will be money well spent. Saint-Boniface is the 18th Kraft Hockeyville winner since the program began in 2006.
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For a couple of Canadiens’ rookies, it was a big game for a different reason. After playing a great game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, David Reinbacher and Florian Xhekaj had earned the right to get another close look, this time with Martin St-Louis in the building, and neither of them disappointed.
On one of his first shifts, Reinbacher made a play that summed him up pretty well. With a Sens player skating at full speed toward him, the Austrian braced for impact and played the puck with poise, getting it to his forward safely for a zone exit. Safe and sound may not be the sexiest terms in hockey, but for a defensive defenseman, they are enviable traits.
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After the game, Lane Hutson had nothing but praise for his partner on the night:
Yeah, he looked good; he’s easy to read off of; he killed a lot of plays; I thought he played great. It was fun to watch him.
As for the youngest Xhekaj, he didn’t get an assist on Jayden Struble’s goal, but it was his big hit deep in the zone that led to the defenseman getting the puck on his stick in space. Unsurprisingly, that wasn’t his only big hit either; he’s great on the forecheck and fears absolutely no one. Evaluating the forward, Martin St-Louis commented:
You know what he brings; he’s consistent in what you know he brings. He played a physical game again tonight; he skated, and he’s got a presence when he’s on the ice.
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As for whether the sandpaper he brings might be something his team lacks, the coach agreed:
Of course, we always want to add sandpaper, and it’s not just one guy. Generally, I think we’re improving on that front; we’ll try to keep it up.
Asked if the youngster is able to walk the fine line between stepping up for his teammates and putting his team in trouble, the bench boss explained:
That’s part of playing a mature game, to not just be looking for that, but to be there, to be calculated. I think he does a good job of it, and Xhako (Arber Xhekaj) has improved a lot on that front. You’ve got to do the job, but without hurting the team.
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As for the man himself, he had this to say about walking that line:
Obviously that’s something I’ve wanted to get better at, and I think I’ve been doing a really good job of that, so that’s good.
It may only be the preseason, but in two games so far, the Canadiens have struggled in the middle frame. St-Louis today was talking about a lack of execution in the middle stanza, and he’s not wrong, but that’s something that plagued the Habs last season as well. Of course, consistency is one of the toughest things for a young team to achieve, but it has to come eventually.
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In his post-game comments, Hutson also mentioned that he liked how the team played with the puck in the first and third frame. The players know about that issue, and sooner rather than later, they need to fix it.
Taking your foot off the pedal for the middle frame only makes it tougher to get the result ultimately. In the playoffs, unnecessarily depleting your energy can be costly. Last year, in the Eastern Conference final, the Habs looked flat and out of energy, and having to play two 7-game series beforehand certainly didn’t help.
Kirby Dach is skating on thin ice. This summer, he was submitted a qualifying offer, but it was for a two-way contract, a way for the team to get him under contract for less than the four million his qualifying offer provided for. Kent Hughes’s decision to submit that kind of offer should have been a stern warning to the Albertan, but it doesn’t feel like it was.
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He finished his evening with no points, one shot and a puzzling level of implication. Dach has the size and skills to be an impact player, but he plays like he’s completely unaware of it. On the attack, when he gets closed up on the boards, he’s worryingly easy to dispossess, and he just doesn’t seem to have much fight. St-Louis has never been and will never be the kind of coach who will push one of his players under the proverbial bus, so it wasn’t a shock to hear him say that the Dach line gave him good hockey, that all three players were skating hard and that they had generally provided very good hockey.
However, at the start of training camp, St-Louis said he didn’t know what kind of role Dach would have on his team and that events would guide him. So far, looking at what has unfolded, it’s hard to see how the coach could believe a Dach who lacks engagement could be more useful to his team than, say, a Xhekaj (Florian) who plays with intensity for every second he spends on the ice.
The Canadiens now only have one game day left. On Saturday, they will take on the Senators again, but this time in a split-squad format, with one game in each city. It will be one last chance for players who still haven’t secured a roster spot to convince the coach they belong.
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