The Montreal Canadiens will be without their star defenseman P.K. Subban for at least the next two games as they take on the Florida Panthers tonight at the Bell Centre. Before going down to an injury on last Thursday against the Buffalo Sabres when he crashed into his teammate Alexei Emelin, Subban had played in 274 consecutive games. While the injury is not of a serious nor a long-term nature, his presence was definitely missed against the Minnesota Wild last Saturday. Thankfully, Mark Barberio continued to build upon an impressive season with his steady and confident style of play alongside Andrei Markov. While Barberio might not have the potential to play on a top defensive pairing, he scored a goal on his only shot of the game and looks to earn himself a permanent spot on the roster for next season. In my opinion, he already belongs on this team and could fill in nicely on the bottom pairing in 2016-2017. It should be noted that Subban has not yet begun practicing.
In other news, Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports has reported that head coach Michel Therrien will continue to be at the helm of the Habs next season as the organization has seemingly given him a vote of confidence. As my readers know, I have no problems with that decision as I’ve never felt that the players had given up on their coach this season. At times, it looked as though they were disinterested in playing- discouraged even, yet they continued to battle hard despite the results not always reflecting their output. Lately, Therrien’s looking like a genius in maximizing Alex Galchenyuk’s potential. While most would argue that the player should have been put on the top line from the start of the season as Max Pacioretty’s center, now’s as good a time as ever to run a few experiments with the young guns. That has been Therrien’s mandate, and he finally allowed Galchenyuk to let loose and, it should be said, successfully flourish as the 22-year-old
With regulars Nathan Beaulieu, P.K. Subban, Jeff Petry, Tom Gilbert, Brendan Gallagher, Brian Flynn, David Desharnais and Daniel Carr still missing in action, it comes as no surprise then that the team will continue to evaluate just how much progress the players called up from St. John’s Ice Caps have made. Players such as Charles Hudon and Sven Andrighetto, who should both be given permanent spots on the top two lines as opposed to filling in on a 3rd- or 4th-line, will look to find their scoring touch on a regular basis. Micheal McCarron has not looked out of place on a single shift, while Lucas Lessio and defenseman Darren Dietz will likely be the first players to be sent down as soon as veterans return. Trade deadline acquisitions Phillip Danault, Stefan Matteau and Mike Brown will be offered the opportunity to prove themselves to the organization, although I’d be very surprised if Brown is with the big club next year.
With that in mind, Therrien has excelled in getting the team to play within and respect his system. When I speak to fans of all kinds about this season, they often tell me that they’ve lost the will to watch the remaining 13 games. It’s hard to contest that at times, considering Therrien’s system can at times be mundane and arguably too defensively-oriented to please hockey fans. However, at least for tonight, it’ll be exciting to watch the Aleksander Barkov, Joanathan Huberdeau, Aaron Ekblad, and Nick Bjugstad youth movement of the Florida Panthers, complimented by the veteran presence of the ageless Jaromir Jagr, Roberto Luongo, Brian Campbell, Jussi Jokinen and Jiri Hudler.