The Canadiens opened the doors of the Bell Centre rather early today, while the scrimmage was only scheduled to start at 13:00, the doors opened at 8:00 AM and fans were invited to go backstage at the Bell Centre. The press gallery, the former player lounge, even the Habs locker room could be seen and the fans sure looked like they enjoyed it. The main reason why they made the trip though was to see 43 players split into two teams take on one another. Although it's still early at camp, two players are already injured; Karl Alzner is reportedly dealing with a groin injury while Noah Juulsen was suffering from an headache yesterday and did not practice. While the Canadiens did stress the fact that it was an headache and not a concussion related issue, it's hard not to worry considering the serious injury the youngster sustained last season.
The teams were pretty evenly split with rookies and vets a-plenty on both sides. Of the 6 goalies at camp, only four took part considering that the scrimmage was 2 periods of 30 minutes, 5 minutes of 3 on 3 and a shootout session. Price, Primeau, Lindgren and Kinkaid were on hand while McNiven and Connor Lacouvée were surplus to requirements. While there's hardly any contact during that kind of game, it was still quite enjoyable to watch. Here's what caught my attention:
Paul Byron: It might have only been a scrimmage but Byron is a professional and takes it seriously. Quite rare to see someone break their stick out of frustration in that kind of game.
Ben Chiarot: This is not the ideal setting for a new player who is known as a big hitter. While this is not the right place to go on a hitting rampage, he still dished a few hits although he did try to keep them somewhat tamed.
Charles Hudon: He really did look like he was giving it his all and had an assist on Weal's goal that gave team white a 4-3 lead at the end of the 2 30 minutes periods. I hope things go well for Hudon this season but I really struggle to see where he will fit in. I'll admit that I was rather surprised when they signed him to a new deal.
Max Domi: He scored a goal early on and came ready to play. He served Jeff Petry with his first coffee cup of the season so to speak. The d-man did not take kindly to that and did shove his teammate.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi: The added weight did not slow him down. He looked good out there and received two penalty shots. Price saved his first attempt but he scored on the second one. Did Price let him score? That's what KK said...
Keith Kinkaid: in his first outing wearing the bleu, blanc, rouge he looked calm and composed and faced a lot of shots. Of course, it's hard to be stressed for a scrimmage but it was still in front of a full house at the Bell Centre.
Josh Brook: He ended up playing alongside Brett Kulak in what would have been Juulsen's spot and managed to get himself a goal as well by jumping on a remote.
In the end, the white team was leading 4-3 at the end of the 60 minutes, the red team tied it up during the 3 on 3 before winning it in the shootout. Now that this is out of the way, the Canadiens will play their first preseason game tomorrow against the Devils at the Bell Centre. As this is the first one, we can expect to see plenty of youngsters in the line-up but Claude Julien has yet to release the list, when he does, I'll update this blog.
And just in, here are the line-ups for Monday:
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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