Preseason game # 2 - Canadiens vs. Capitals and Ovechkin Tonight (Habs)

Habs

Preseason game # 2 - Canadiens vs. Capitals and Ovechkin Tonight

By Jennifer B Cutler

Sep 24, 2015 • 7:36 am

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Montreal Canadiens fans will get their first real taste of the newly formed Lars Eller-Alex Galchenyuk-Alex Semin line tonight as the Habs face the Washington Capitals in their second preseason match at the Bell Centre. Judging by the lines at the Capitals practice, this should be a very good test for the line, and the Canadiens as a group. The Capitals are bringing a very strong team to Montreal for this preseason tilt:

While Montreal is countering with:

Jarred Tinordi, Michael McCarron, Sven Andrighetto and Christian Thomas are all getting another opportunity to play tonight, even though they played in the first preseason game against Toronto. Albeit, they are probably playing for different reasons. As head coach Michel Therrien said, Tinordi was “alright… against Toronto. That is not exactly a ringing endorsement. The Canadiens are probably going to give Tinordi as many opportunities as possible to show that he is ready. They already know what they have with Nathan Beaulieu and Greg Pateryn (who was rock solid against Toronto). This training camp is make or break in so many ways with Tinordi. Tonight he will play with Tom Gilbert, which seems kind of odd as they are written as the 3rd pairing on the list. Meanwhile, Nathan Beaulieu who finished last season and started camp playing with Gilbert, is playing with rookie Brett Lernout who stood out during the rookie tournament. Beaulieu has looked quite good in camp so far and so I’m really not sure what to make of this move. Are the Habs giving Tinordi the chance to play with an NHL pro so that he won’t feel pressured to do too much? Are they rewarding Lernout for his strong camp? I can’t see this as a demotion for Beaulieu.

McCarron on the other hand is most likely being rewarded for his strong game and effort against the Maple Leafs, not to mention scoring his first professional goal when he drove to net.. He was certainly one of the few bright spots for the Habs on Tuesday night as he and his linemates Daniel Carr and Devante Smith-Pelly were aggressive and pressured the Leafs. McCarron can also be counted to penalty kill, a plus that works in his favour. Andrighetto played okay against Toronto but I don’t think he stood out in the same way that McCarron did. Tonight he will get an opportunity to play with Charles Hudon and Brian Flynn. Perhaps being reunited with Hudon, his linemate from last season will spark Andrighetto. Christian Thomas played 10 unremarkable minutes on Tuesday. He is often the forgotten man this training camp. My question is if and when rookie Nikita Scherbak will get a chance to get in a preseason game? Hopefully tomorrow night against Chicago.

Tonight, I am most intrigued by who Therrien will use to match lines. Will Therrien match power for power and put Galchenyuk up against Ovechkin? Eller has experience defending him and Semin is obviously familiar to Ovechkin from their days together in Washington. Fleischmann-Desharnais-Weise look more like a 3rd line than a second line. Desharnais has never been known as a defensive forward, how will he really do in his new role as the eventual 3rd line center? I would be most surprised to see Hudon’s line out there against Ovechkin. If McCarron had stronger linemates I could see him getting a chance to defend the Capitals top line but with Connor Crisp and Thomas, I don’t see how that is possible… It has to be either Galchenyuk or Desharnais with Subban and Markov on the backend.

Yesterday, the Canadiens announced that Assistant Coaches J.J. Daigneault and Dan Lacroix have swapped special team assignments and Daigneault will now handle the powerplay while Lacroix will look after the penalty kill. Coaching consultant Craig Ramsay will advise on the powerplay and 5-on-5 play. The Habs can’t do any worse than last year and hopefully the switch will be a positive one. Subban had some interesting thoughts on how the powerplay and how it could improve this year with Semin:

“With JJ, I know that he’s excited about the opportunity, but it’s not just him, we all share that. [We have] the opportunity of making our power play better than last year. I don’t think it was good enough and, I know that we all have to be better to make sure that it is better this year.…

“Having another righty too is a good thing to have. People underestimate how important it is to have the right handed shot in certain situations. I think we missed that a little bit last year.…

First, this shows that the players are behind Daigneault and are willing to give him a chance and work with him. Secondly, it highlights that having another right shot threat is a real advantage to the Canadiens especially as Subban is a righty. The opposing team will have to respect Semin and that should give Subban a little more space. The Canadiens haven’t had a right handed threat since Mike Cammalleri, which was pretty much the last time the Canadiens powerplay was truly dangerous. Don’t expect any miracles tonight though. The Habs practiced the powerplay this morning and they had Fleischmann-Desharnais-Weise out there as a 2nd unit:

Dustin Tokarski and Mike Condon will backstop the Habs tonight while the Capitals are countering with Braden Holtby and Dan Ellis. I imagine this will be a high scoring game for at least one team tonight…

Perhaps the best news from the morning skate today was:

Game time is 7:30pm.

Cheers & follow along!

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