MONT TREMBLANT | Martin St-Louis and his players will leave Mont-Tremblant on Saturday morning after admiring the colors of the Laurentians for almost three days. With a sense of achievement, the group will travel to Ottawa to hold their final preparation meeting. However, several questions remain a few days before the opening game of the season, scheduled for Wednesday in Toronto.
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“I knew we would have to make difficult decisions. But that’s exactly what we want. “If these are easy decisions, that means you lack depth,” the Canadian coach said as he left another practice session in the middle of an arena packed to the brim.
The question at the top of the list concerns the identity of the winger who will play to the right of Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki. Sean Monahan seems to have a head start, but let’s not forget that Kirby Dach had some excellent moments with the dynamic duo last season. However, we also know that St-Louis and his assistants want to further develop Badger’s centering qualities.
“We have several options. Some of them have been playing with Cole and Suzie since camp began. And they all did it well, emphasized the Laval resident. I have to analyze what impact this decision will have on the rest of the training. Everything has to be calculated. »
“We’ll come up with something for Toronto. But who knows how long it will last? », added St-Louis.
Emil Heimeman, Tanner Pearson, Josh Anderson, Alex Newhook, Monahan and Dach have taken turns in this chair in recent weeks. If Suzuki has his preference, he has been careful not to reveal it.
“There are many good candidates. We had a lot of fun playing with each of them. It will be Martin’s decision, but whether it’s Mony, Newy or Andy, they are excellent players,” said the Canadian captain.
When asked to clarify his assessment of Monahan, Suzuki praised his intelligence.
“He’s been in this league for a long time. No matter where he is on the ice, he knows what he has to do. He described how he could both shoot and pass. Additionally, having another center for the same trio is beneficial. »
A partner of Guhle
Photo Martin Chevalier
There appear to be duos cast in concrete on the blue line. Mike Matheson and David Savard, Jordan Harris and Johnathan Kovacevic. This leaves Kaiden Guhle with a mysterious partner for the time being.
“When you’re in the top four, you play a lot. So it takes consistency, said St-Louis. What also impresses me about Guhle is his consistency. We need to build on that and see if there is someone capable of taking on this role. »
Last year, the rookie was put on the ice for just over 20 minutes per game. Although he was limited to 44 games due to injury, Guhle appears to have gained experience. In addition to his regular duties, he will undoubtedly be one of St. Louis’ stalwarts in the area of numerical punishment. The Sn usage time should therefore be extended by at least one minute.
Who will have the honor of playing with him? Arber Xhekaj, Justin Barron, Mattias Norlinder? Unless St-Louis decides to break up his last duo. Which wouldn’t be a bad idea, despite the complicity that seems to be developing between the two defenders.
Allen or Montembeault?
Finally, there is still the question of the starting goalkeeper. Since the start of camp, Jake Allen (90 minutes) and Samuel Montembeault (70 minutes) have received roughly equal playing time to get back into shape. Both delivered similar performances. Neither one nor the other grabbed the pole. What we can wonder is whether St-Louis wouldn’t prefer to start the season with a substitution system before whoever proves to be the most stable scores the goal.
Saturday night’s game against the Senators could give us some answers.
Additionally, St-Louis confirmed that everyone is healthy for the Canadian with the exception of Chris Wideman (back injury) and Christian Dvorak, who is still recovering from knee surgery. Dvorak’s return to play is scheduled for November, but he’s already practicing with his teammates and his skating appears to be on point.