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Pumping KK's Tires

July 15, 2020, 4:42 PM ET [667 Comments]
Karine Hains
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The major difference at practice today was the fact that Shea Weber was back on the ice after missing yesterday's group practice. When Julien was asked about his absence yesterday, all he could say was the only answer allowed by the league right now: he was unable to practice. Forget about the usual lower, upper body injury now, we just get a blanket statement. Apparently, the league is pretty serious about not disclosing who has Covid-19. While the players are allowed their privacy, this is a stark contract with the former injury policy.



For the last 2 days, Claude Julien was available to the media through Zoom and the main element I noticed in those 2 pressers, is the fact that the head coach seems to be very positive about Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Yesterday, he wasn't even asked about him but still started talking about how good he was looking out there. Today, when he was asked about KK he was more than happy to elaborate. In a nutshell, he's impressed with the way the youngster is skating and says that he's back to the level he was at prior to having a knee operation. He added that the said operation might have explained his slow start to the year. Right now though, he doesn't want to get in his face and tell him what to do all the time, he needs to skate and show what he can do.

On another youngster, Cale Fleury, he did say that he felt his game dipped a bit at one stage last season and according to Fleury, that might have been when he started feeling too comfortable. While he was asked about his young players, when a journalist asked him if he would tend to go with vets or with youth come playing time, he answered that he would ice the formation that would give him the best chance to win. Now, knowing Julien, that might mean an aging formation rather than a very young one... On the blue line at least because let's face it, aside from Philip Danault, the Canadiens are very young down the middle right now with Suzuki, Kotkaniemi and Evens sometimes centering the 4th line.

Speaking of Danault, the coach has admitted that he would love to be able to used him against Crosby but since the Habs will be the visiting team for the first 2 games, they will not have the last change. Chances are that Mike Sullivan is aware that Julien would love to have his first centre shadow Crosby and he'll do what he can to avoid that match-up. Julien was also quite vocal about how good Danault is and how proud he is to be a 2-way player. Apparently, when Julien first came aboard, Danault told him that he really admired Patrice Bergeron's game and it's no surprise that he progressed the way he did. While Danault is very reliable in his own end, he also centres the Habs most productive line and if the Canadiens are to have any chance of winning, they'll need their first line to have a big impact.

Julien had kind words for Joel Armia as well and said that he hopes he'll see the pre-injury Armia when the puck drop after this 4 months hiatus. Today, the lines were as follows:

FORWARDS

Tatar - Danault - Gallagher
Drouin - Suzuki - Armia
Byron - Kotkaniemi - Lehkonen
Weise - Weal - Evans
Hudon - Poehling - Dauphin/Belzile

DEFENSEMEN

Chiarot - Weber
Mete - Petry
Olofsson/Brook/Juulsen - Folin/Fleury

It will be interesting to see where Max Domi slides in, should he be available in the end. While one could think he'd centre the 3rd line, perhaps he'd be better used on the wing. He didn't exactly have a great season, but he can produce, we've seen it. Besides, a player with Domi's character is bound to raise his game during the playoffs, I for one would love to see him on Suzuki's wing.

Finally, funny moment in the presser, TVA Sports' Renaud Lavoie asked Julien if he was hopeful to see Alexander Radulov join phase 3 soon... Julien smiled and said: I know you mean Romanov and yes, as soon as he's here we'll be happy to use him. Speaking of TVA Sports, still no word on who will be broadcasting the play-in round. Of course, in French, they still have the exclusive contract for the playoffs, but the play-in round isn't quite the playoffs is it? Hopefully, we'll get a few more games on RDS come August...
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