Canadiens Notebook: Gallagher wholesome however different accidents emerge

BROSSARD, Que. — Caution: This shouldn’t be an article about Juraj Slafkovsky.

On Day 1 of his very first Montreal Canadiens coaching camp, the first-overall choose within the 2022 NHL Draft would’ve made for a layup of a fundamental story. Instead, shortly after arriving on the workforce’s south shore apply facility, we within the media have been knowledgeable of accidents to 4 of probably the most safe gamers scheduled to take part in camp and, with respect to Slafkovsky, the child was relegated to footnote standing.

Considering that none of those gamers have been listed as injured previous to submitting to Wednesday’s physicals, the information despatched shockwaves all through the room — after which the fanbase, which responded hyperbolically on social media.

The first replace was that newly minted Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki is out two weeks with a lower-body damage.

Josh Anderson and Jake Evans have been additionally each listed as “day-to-day” with upper-body accidents.

And then the largest shocker was that Joel Edmundson was listed as out indefinitely with a lower-body damage.

He missed all of final yr’s coaching camp and was restricted to simply 24 video games on account of a again damage that was initially categorized as a lower-body damage and Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis was unable to say on Thursday whether or not or not the damage he’s coping with now could be associated.

“We don’t have enough details,” St. Louis mentioned in a press release that was later added to by government vice-president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton, in an interview with TSN Radio, by which he mentioned Suzuki and Edmundson had collided throughout a casual skate roughly every week in the past, leaving Edmundson with a again damage.

If he misses a major time period, the Canadiens don’t have anybody to interchange him.

The 29-year-old, who was named an alternate captain on Sept. 12, has assumed an enormous function with the Canadiens. The six-foot-five, 224-pound defenceman additionally takes up a variety of area within the room, and much more of it on the ice, the place he combines attain, physicality and an unheralded puck-moving means that none of Montreal’s different confirmed defencemen can present.

Edmundson’s potential long-term loss would exacerbate the workforce’s largest concern — not desirous to rush the event of a number of younger defencemen vying for full-time jobs in Montreal.

The Canadiens have been solely relying on Edmundson, David Savard, Mike Matheson and Chris Wideman because the veterans on the blue line, and that was going to necessitate trusting at the least a few these younger gamers in additional elevated roles than they may’ve in any other case been prepared for. And now, at the least a kind of younger gamers should transfer up and show they might help fill the void.

It’s lots to ask.

“For sure, sometimes you accelerate things a little and sometimes those players aren’t ready for that acceleration,” mentioned St. Louis. “But we’ll have more information in seeing how those players handle that in the way they play. Not having Eddy today, or this week, we’ll focus on the other guys and see what they show us.”

We don’t know what Suzuki will have the ability to present us earlier than the season begins.

The 23-year-old is scheduled to return every week earlier than camp wraps however, as is at all times the case with accidents, timelines aren’t mounted.

St. Louis mentioned Suzuki was injured in his preparation for the season.

The excellent news Gorton confirmed in his radio interview is that Suzuki’s damage shouldn’t impression his means to begin the common season on time.

But one would suppose beginning late in camp isn’t very best for a participant who’s coming into Year 1 of an eight-year, $63-million contract and trying to take a giant step ahead as captain of the Canadiens.

Should we learn a lot into Evans collaborating in Thursday’s conditioning drills and Anderson abstaining? Perhaps not by way of the severity of their accidents.

But it does recommend that Evans’ upper-body damage didn’t prohibit him from taking part within the onerous skating classes, whereas Anderson’s did.

The drills have been bodily demanding, “and even more mentally demanding,” mentioned St. Louis.

But none of them concerned pucks.

If that they had, we’d have extra to report on Slafkovsky’s first official on-ice session at an NHL camp.

With full practices and scrimmages scheduled for Friday, anticipate all eyes to be on him — from the place he traces as much as what he does along with his first massive alternative to indicate what he can do.

And sure, we’ll probably spill a variety of ink about all of it thereafter.

Line(s) of the day

One got here from a very good buddy, who referred to as shortly after we arrived in Brossard and requested, “What are you doing there? Just watching these guys skate in circles?”

Ironically, that’s precisely what we have been doing.

A participant that caught our consideration throughout all of this was Matheson, who’s identified for his skating.

The 28-year-old Montrealer, who got here to the Canadiens within the commerce that despatched Jeff Petry to Pittsburgh this summer time, may even be identified right here for his speaking earlier than lengthy.

This snippet from Matheson actually caught our consideration, and colleague Marc-Antoine Godin of The Athletic completely encapsulated why after we have been speaking to him about Matheson following the media availability:

“I think what I (was) able to do in Pittsburgh was just find a bit more of a groove where I was playing well defensively and not trying to push offence and just letting it come to me but also just using my abilities to generate,” Matheson mentioned. “So, not just taking my foot off the gas pedal completely, but I think I’ve learned to pick my spots a lot better. Nobody wants a hit-or-miss player out there where it’s, ‘Oh that was awesome, and then not so much the next time.’ That’s such a big part of being a defenceman, and it’s not easy and I’m not saying I’m perfect at it either, but it’s a constant thing to keep getting better at.”

He was minus-25 over his ultimate two seasons with the Florida Panthers, after which he was plus-21 over two rebound years with the Penguins.

Matheson additionally set profession highs in objectives (11) and assists (20) in 74 video games with Pittsburgh final season.

“He reminds me of Petry when Petry first got here in 2015,” mentioned Godin after we requested him his opinion.

It was precisely what we have been pondering as we listened to Matheson describe his sport.

Petry struggled mightily to search out the precise steadiness between his offensive and defensive talents and duties as a younger participant with the Edmonton Oilers however was on the verge of placing it when he was acquired by the Canadiens.

Then, from 26 to 32 years previous, Petry blossomed and authored profession yr after profession yr.

As Godin appropriately identified, Matheson matches the identical profile as a participant and seems poised to do the identical factor — and he’ll be counted on to do it instantly by the Canadiens.

“Obviously, he’s going to be counted on for a lot of minutes, I’m sure,” affirmed St. Louis. “And I believe he’s a man that may play a variety of minutes (with) the way in which he skates. So, by way of how I see the place does he go from right here? I believe he’s going to have a possibility right here to essentially take his sport to a different degree — one with positively his taking part in time, and two with the model that we wish to play. I believe it actually matches him.

“So, how much growth he gets from here? It’s going to be up to him. But we’re going to support him to grow as much as he can.”

Matheson mentioned the muse of his development will rely upon discovering consistency in “being more rock solid and dependable back there.”

There’s extra to it than simply that, although.

“I’d like to get a bit more sophisticated offensively,” Matheson added. “Hoping that I’ll have a bit more of a role to do that here, be able to generate a little bit more offensively without adding a bunch of risk either.”

He mentioned the important thing shall be getting the correct quantity of repetition to search out the poise wanted to make the precise strikes skating the puck up the ice, and to make the precise performs straddling the offensive blue line to permit his pure creativity to shine by way of.

Again, the parallel with Petry is straightforward to see.

Speaking of right-handed defencemen, Wideman delivered the final memorable line of the day when he was requested if he lastly discovered a spot to stay in Montreal after admitting earlier it wasn’t a simple course of.

“I was staying at Cole (Caufield’s) place in the guest bedroom, so it was like being at home taking care of my son,” he mentioned. “But my son sleeps more. He’s nine months, and he sleeps more.”

Gallagher wholesome for the primary time in a very long time

With the exception of a reduce on his nostril, suffered when Wideman by chance punched him within the face giving him a hug, Brendan Gallagher is 100 per cent wholesome.

Last season, he was struggling a lot he couldn’t stroll up the three steps to the rostrum on the Bell Centre and not using a noticeable limp.

On Thursday, Gallagher virtually leapt onto the riser he was given for his prolonged media scrum.

“Last season was a grind from the start,” he mentioned. “Hopefully put that behind us all and kind of move on. It was a good summer for me — I was able to get back to the regular routine I was used to. Body feels good, feels ready to hopefully be in there for 82 games and be that guy that your teammates can rely on.”

Knowing Gallagher, not with the ability to do this by way of a season that noticed him solely produce seven objectives and 24 factors and solely seem in 56 video games was most likely much more painful to him than what he was coping with bodily.

He comes into this season out for redemption most individuals don’t suppose he can obtain.

“(Being doubted is) part of being a professional athlete,” the 30-year-old alternate captain mentioned. “There’s been folks doubting me for the final decade. There is likely to be extra (now), however, on the similar time, for me, it doesn’t actually encourage me or it doesn’t actually add a chip on my shoulder or any of that stuff.

“I’ve always played for people that have supported me along the way, and I have so many people that are in my corner as well and have pushed me along and those are the people that you want to prove right. When you come to the rink every day with a positive attitude, it goes a long way. For me, it’s simplifying the mindset and having an idea of what type of player I’ve always been and just knowing that I’ll be able to go out there and produce on the same level I always had and be a good player and be accountable and reliable to my teammates is really all I want to do.”

He’ll have to attain extra objectives, too.

One of the issues Gallagher mentioned he targeted on throughout his on-ice summer time coaching was his shot, with St. Louis offering pointers for the way he may do it, and that might show very helpful within the technique of lighting the lamp extra usually.

“It’s not changing the way you shoot; it’s adding different types of shots,” he mentioned. “If you’ll be able to take five-to-10 minutes on the finish of a skate to work on stuff like that, it simply provides to what you will have as a participant.”

There’s extra Gallagher has been engaged on — a lot of it to be unveiled as we transfer alongside.

“There’s a lot of things that Marty talked about towards the end of last year, and you’re able to reflect on it over the summer, and now it feels a little bit more natural, feels a little bit more comfortable,” he mentioned. “I’m definitely looking forward to a full season… Getting to work with him for a full season is going to do a lot for our games.”

Don’t sleep on Dadonov

There’s a lot to uncover in regards to the soft-spoken Russian who got here to the Canadiens within the commerce that despatched Shea Weber to the Vegas Golden Knights over the summer time.

However, Matheson, who was teammates with Evgenii Dadonov in Florida, supplied an fascinating spoiler.

“I think he’s a very underrated player, to be honest,” the defenceman mentioned. “Even in Florida, he was on a line with (superstars Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau) and was always kind of the forgotten one of the three, and I think his value is underrated in that sense. I think he does so much down low to keep cycles alive, to create space for his linemates, and then obviously on the power play I think he’s one of the best bumper guys in the league. He’s so good at just being where he needs to be to support the play and keep the play alive. You see a lot of power plays be one and done, and I think he’s a huge reason why a power play isn’t that.”

Of the 124 objectives Dadonov has scored within the NHL, 31 of them have come on the ability play. And 26 of his 141 NHL assists have additionally come on the man-advantage.

Given these numbers — and the little particulars Matheson was referencing to explain what makes him so efficient in one of many hardest power-play roles to excel at — the Canadiens ought to most likely be utilizing Dadonov on this capability.

With 20 objectives and 43 factors in 78 video games with the Golden Knights final season, Dadonov will probably show helpful in different capacities, too.