There was a brand new face at practice this morning! 8 days after the Habs said they were giving Domi more time to decide whether he would join in phase 3, he appeared on the ice this morning. This is definitely good news for Montreal since the team hasn’t got the best depth. Since it’s Domi’s first practice, we cannot know which line he’ll play on in the end as Julien was clearly breaking him in slowly today. According to John Lu, these were the lines and pairings at practice:
Tatar - Weal - Gallagher Drouin - Suzuki - Armia Lehkonen - Kotkaniemi - Byron Hudon - Evans - Weise Dauphin - Domi - Belzile
Chiarot - Weber Olofsson - Petry Juulsen/Brook - Folin
Price Lindgren McNiven
The Habs are scheduled to travel to Toronto on July 26th so that’s potentially 5 practices left before then. There should also be some scrimmage this week which will give us a better idea of what the line-up will look like.
Regardez qui est de retour.
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) July 20, 2020
Look who's back.#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/Z13jpPDIlM
The Penguins held a scrimmage this morning and broadcasted it live online, still no Crosby since he left the practice on Saturday. Don’t panic though, it’s just normal that they should err on the side of caution with their superstar, if someone can afford to skip a few practices, it’s Crosby.
While we wait for more news, what would your line-up look like with Domi back? Do you trust the youngsters and put him on the wing? And if so, where? Does he deserve to be on the 2nd line? Would he be better as the 3rd line centre than Kotkaniemi? KK looks like he just got his confidence back, this could hurt him... Decisions, decisions....
Oh and the verdict is out, the play-in round will be broadcasted on TVA Sports as well as the playoffs... Guess I’ll be watching it all in English.
Guess McNiven must have been somewhat scared on this one, you know when a Weber slap shot goes through your mask?
Video of the incident. pic.twitter.com/zQPAivA7LK
— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) July 20, 2020