Back in 2017, Drouin announced that he'd raise $500,000 a year for 10 years for the University of Montreal Hospital and he's since held a golf tournament every season as part of his fundraising effort. Prior to playing golf though, he was in familiar territory fielding questions from the Montreal media, a taste of what will be a daily routine in about 2 weeks.
The media scrum only lasted 9 minutes but it was enough for us to be able to draw some interesting conclusions. Firstly, Drouin said that his dreadful end to the season was not a conditioning issue and unlike at the exit interview, he did not say that he was hindered by a physical issue (broken nose as we found out a couple of weeks later). Secondly, he mentioned that this summer, he added something new to his training; an in-depth video post-mortem of his season orchestrated by Habs assistant coach Dominique Ducharme. Lastly, and this is my favourite part, this video autopsy of a season gone wrong was Drouin's own idea.
So, what do we take away from this? Drouin is finally owning up to his issues and he is ready and willing to work on them without being forced to do so. Now that, is a big, big step forward. What can we expect from number 92? Well, he's expressed an intention to simplify his game meaning that perhaps, instead of trying to flashy play that could land him on the highlights reel, he'll go for the effective one which may not be spectacular but could end up putting the puck in the back of the net.
Right now, the Ducharme hire looks even better. Maybe Drouin felt more comfortable reaching out to his former Moosehead coach than he would have done asking Claude Julien's help. Besides, Ducharme is known to have a knack with youngsters and while Drouin is not 20 years old anymore, he certainly seems to be a young 24 year old, one that could use some growing up and perhaps this acknowledgment of things gone wrong is the first step in the right direction. One can only hope...
Jonathan Drouin traverse la patinoire pour marquer le but gagnant 3-contre-3 @EASportsNHL.
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) February 3, 2019
Jonathan Drouin goes coast to coast to provide the @EASportsNHL 3-on-3 winner. #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/KqsORFNlnl