With heightened expectations come the heightened importance of questions surrounding the team those expectations are being heaped upon.
The Montreal Canadiens don’t have massive expectations for success this season, but they are heightened, which means the importance of the myriad questions surrounding this team as it begins the on-ice portion of training camp Thursday has been heightened as well.
The answers to those questions will go a long way toward determining whether those heightened expectations will be met.
There are far more than five questions surrounding this team, but here are what we consider to be the most important five, along with a shot at what the answers might be as we work our way through training camp.
What version of Kirby Dach will we get?
At the end of last season’s training camp, it was easy to argue that Dach looked like the Canadiens’ best forward. His skill set at his size was highly effective, and his ability to get back to that level despite missing practically an entire season of action will be perhaps the biggest determining factor in the Canadiens hitting their goal of being in the playoff conversation come April.
Since Dach’s last game, Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovský have taken massive steps and are both generating a good amount of buzz. Dach’s training camp last season is easy to forget in a way because it was relatively meaningless. But the way he looked in that camp, combined with the way he played over the second half of the previous season, made it at least seem like Dach was on the verge of becoming a cornerstone player for the Canadiens.
“It would help us a ton,” Suzuki said at the Canadiens’ golf tournament Monday. “He’s an amazing player, another good centreman for us.”
But there’s no way of knowing if this version of Dach will be that same amazing player until we see him in camp and, more importantly, in the regular season doing the same things we saw from him in camp last year.
There was a physical edge that Dach added to his game toward the end of the 2022-23 season that really accentuated how effective he could be at his size. He pushed back physically on opponents. He became a crushing forechecker. He dropped the gloves occasionally.
Will his injury create some doubt in his mind that he can continue playing that way, despite the fact that was when he was most effective?
“I’m sure there’s going to be some time to get going again, but that’s what training camp is all about and you manage each player case by case, what they’ve gone through and where they are,” coach Martin St. Louis said Wednesday. “I expect him to dive right in.”
Not to put too much pressure on him, but Dach’s ability to find the game he was displaying a year ago is extremely vital to what the Canadiens are trying to build here. Without him being an impact centre, as was his own stated goal Monday, the Canadiens have a massive hole to fill at that position.
But if Dach picks up where he left off, the Canadiens really have no massive holes at forward and can focus their attention elsewhere.
There is perhaps no more consequential player on the Canadiens’ training camp roster than Dach.
“We know what he’s capable of; it’s exciting,” St. Louis said Wednesday. “Last year after camp, he looked really good. And then obviously, that made that injury feel worse almost. So for us, it’s just day to day with him. He’ll be OK.”
What can the Canadiens get out of Patrik Laine?
Acquiring a 44-goal scorer in the NHL should be seen as a slam-dunk win. But a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since Laine did that in his second NHL season in 2017-18. He has had physical limitations and mental roadblocks to his continued ascension in his career.
Entering the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program is not easy, but it appears to have done Laine a world of good, which makes this gamble seem less risky than it might appear when simply looking at his stat sheet.
Former teammates have said how much he loves the game and how much pressure he puts on himself, but Laine seems to have gained some perspective on that love, which might just allow him to find the proper balance that will allow him to thrive in Montreal.
“It’s not like that’s really changed, I’m still going to be demanding and always wanting to be the best,” Laine said Monday at the golf tournament. “But I think it’s just a game. We get to play this game that we love for our work, and obviously every day we want to get better, and we want to win. But it’s just a game and you can’t be too hard on yourself. You have a bad game, don’t dwell on it. There’s always another game, always another opportunity to get better and get another win. But it’ll be a good test, this year, to test my new skills mentally.”
St. Louis wants to reinfuse Laine with his love for the game in a healthy way, and if he can connect with him on a cerebral level, the reward could be great. We don’t know if that will happen, but the circumstances seem to be aligned for Laine to get the most out of his tremendous talent in Montreal.
“I think we play a good team game; I don’t think there’s a lot of teams that play the game the way we do, the way we can transition,” Dach said of the Canadiens’ chances this season. “Everybody’s a year older, a little more mature, a little more experience, and then we add Patty Laine. Honestly, it’s one of the best shots I’ve ever seen, his release, and that’s going to add a little more skill and talent up front. Hopefully we just continue to take steps and get to those meaningful games down the stretch.”
What will the Canadiens do with Lane Hutson?
I’ve already made my feelings known about how the Canadiens should play this coming out of camp, but two things said by St. Louis and director of player development Rob Ramage on Wednesday further reinforced the belief they should start the season with Hutson on the roster.
First, I asked St. Louis if, as an undersized forward, he would be in a good position to help an undersized defenceman learn how to survive in the NHL.
“Yeah, definitely,” St. Louis responded. “I mean, I know I didn’t play defence, but similar size and probably a guy that, coming into the pros, my college career I kind of had the puck a lot. And now, you’re going to get to the NHL, you’re probably going to have it a little less. So the game off the puck, whether you’re a defenceman or a forward, there’s principles on how you’re going to play that, and I think I can help him with that. And that’s usually one of my, I think, strengths and focus, is I don’t really coach the puck.”
Sounds like someone preparing himself to coach Hutson, no?
And then I asked Ramage if there are certain players, more cerebral players, who are better suited to develop in the NHL than the AHL, making it clear I was thinking of Hutson. Again, a pretty telling response.
“Without a doubt, there’s a difference between the two leagues,” Ramage said. “Obviously, the talent level, but it’s a heavier league. So to answer your question, yeah, (the AHL) suits some guys better than others.”
When you combine those comments with how Laval Rocket coach Pascal Vincent spoke at the prospects challenge over the weekend as though he would not be coaching Hutson this season, it is difficult not to see an overall plan revealing itself slowly.
We’ll see how Hutson does in training camp, but it would appear he will not be fighting for a job — he’ll be fighting to keep a job.
How will the battle on defence play out?
If Hutson were to win a job in Montreal out of camp — and that still remains to be determined — that would leave essentially two jobs to be won by Jayden Struble, Logan Mailloux, David Reinbacher and Adam Engström — one of those jobs being the seventh defenceman. This is taking for granted that the Canadiens would not be willing to lose Justin Barron on waivers and that even if Arber Xhekaj is not quite waiver eligible, he still has a solid line on a roster spot because that need for waivers is coming up very soon.
The reality of waiver eligibility as a determining factor in deciding on a season-opening roster does not appear to be lost on St. Louis.
“I don’t think it bothers me,” he said. “Being in the game so long, I understand that’s just the way it works. So, for me, it’s not something that I can control, so why would I let it bother me?”
I think we can safely assume that barring an extraordinary camp from either of them — which is entirely possible — Reinbacher and Engström are most likely bound for Laval. Which leaves a rather tidy ability to have Mailloux and Struble make the team alongside Mike Matheson, David Savard, Kaiden Guhle, Xhekaj, Barron and Hutson.
What happens with the opening night lineup is more difficult to ascertain. Having Struble or Barron or Hutson or perhaps even Xhekaj sitting for extended periods is far from ideal, and having so many young defencemen in the lineup does not exactly run concurrent to the Canadiens’ stated goal of being in the playoff mix.
Is Sam Montembeault ready to be a No. 1 goalie?
This is the first time Montembeault has entered a training camp in a position where the No. 1 goalie job is his to lose. That represents a completely different mindset for a goalie. How will Montembeault handle it?
“I’m not usually someone that really overthinks anything or over-stresses anything,” he said Monday at the golf tournament. “Obviously, it’s a lot of pressure, but it’s something I’m trying not to think about too much. It’s something I don’t want to take for granted because it’s something that you can lose really fast, so I don’t want to think too far. So I want to think one game at a time, give my team a chance to win that game. And obviously, if I play a lot more I need to take care of myself off the ice. I’m really excited for the season.”
Montembeault’s importance to the Canadiens’ ability to compete for a playoff spot cannot be overstated. His number of goals saved was the biggest reason why the Canadiens were roughly middle of the pack when it came to goals against at five-on-five per 60 minutes of ice time.
And in addition to the desire to prove himself as a No. 1 goalie and to keep the Canadiens in the playoff race as long as possible, there is another carrot hanging off a stick in front of Monteabeault: the 4 Nations Face-Off in Montreal and Boston in February.
“Obviously it would be a goal for me because most of the players who will make that tournament will be the ones that go to the Olympics. It’s almost like a training camp for that,” Montembeault said. “So that’s going to be in the back of my mind. I don’t want to think about it too much, but obviously I would be really proud to go represent my country, so it will be important for me to have a good start to the season.”
Montembeault spent the summer working on his balance and spatial awareness in a zero-gravity machine to improve his ability to re-centre and find his bearings more quickly. He’s aware he needs to still improve despite being one of the top goalies in the league last season in preventing expected goals.
But spinning around on a zero-gravity machine is not the only way Montembeault wants to improve.
“I think I need to try to play a little deeper in my crease, try to beat the pass, because now they play so fast, especially on the power play or on zone entries,” he said. “If they do two or three passes and I’m playing too high I’m going to start chasing the puck.”
(Top photo of Kirby Dach: David Kirouac / Imagn Images)
