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After a day off the Canadiens were back in Brossard yesterday. While Julien said at the start of camp that no final decisions had been made line-up wise, the lines and pairings haven’t changed since the start of camp. The only difference is that Romanov is now the third pairing d-man who plays on his off-side. According to Julien as long as the young Russian is paired up with Kulak, he’ll play on that side since he’s been playing both sides for years. Should he play with a righty, he’d move to the left.
As per usual, after the practice a couple of players and the coach had a Zoom call with the media. It was Philip Danault and Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s turn to field the press’ questions yesterday. It took less than 7 minutes for a journalist to ask Danault if he was at peace with his contractual situation. He replied with no hesitation whatsoever: “I am at peace with it, I have to be to be able to perform at my fair value”. He didn’t say to play my best, he said to perform at my fair value. Clearly, Danault intends to prove once more what he’s worth this season and get a pay day at the end of it. He mentions that his situation is expected, it’s part of the business and the GM cannot sign every player. He wants to focus on his job on the ice and let the negotiations to his agents, but there have been no further contract talks.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom though, when asked if any of the new guys had caught his eye and why, Danault proceeded to list them all and what he noticed about them. When he spoke about Josh Anderson, he said he was big and had quite a good shot stopping just short of swearing to say just how good his shot was. Now the elder statesman at centre, he’s more than willing to help out the kids and give them some pointers when it comes to faceoffs. He had some nice words to say about Kotkaniemi and expects him to be an important player for the team. He’s still young but he now realizes that it’s a serious job and you have to work hard on the ice, once that’s done, you can go back to having fun.
As for Kotkaniemi, nothing has changed, he’s still focused on having the best season of career yet and doesn’t want to talk about what happened last year or what lessons, if any, he’s taken from that rollercoaster of a year. When asked about Danault, he said he’s become like a mentor for the young centres and is giving them a lot of tricks of the trade, he refused to reveal which tricks though since they’ll be used against other teams. He described Toffoli like a very good addition to their line, he’s got a good shot, he’s really skilled, and always in the right spots in the offensive zone. As a number of his teammates and the coach have been saying since the start of camp, he is aware that he needs to shoot more, and intends to do it this year.
Julien didn’t have much to say about Danault’s situation just that he’s a very good player, that he’ll have another contract, there’s no point in overthinking this and besides, to him, Danault seems comfortable and focused on the upcoming season. He’s glad to be able to rely on him to pass on his experience and knowledge to the youngsters. On Kotkaniemi, the coach hopes that he’ll be in the right mindset to take more shots and that he’ll be using every available weapon, be it a hard shot or a quick wrister. Julien is confident that his veterans will be able to tell him that he’s got a good shot and he should be using it.
I know I’ve said it before, but I strongly believe that the Canadiens need to retain Philip Danault. Their young centres have improved, but they’re not done learning yet and letting go of Danault would be like taking a couple of steps backwards after progressing so well in the last year. It’s understandable that Danault would like to get a big pay day, but at the same time, in the current situation, there isn’t a lot of money on the market and judging by Danault’s comments he’s aware that the team has improved by leaps and bounds and gives him an opportunity to win. As the saying goes, where there’s a will, there’s a way, I truly hope that Marc Bergevin has that will and that he’ll find a way. There you have it, tune in on RDS 2 at 7:00 PM tonight to see the scrimmage or if you are outside of Québec, the Habs will also be streaming it online.
Before we get to the scrimmage though, the Habs put 9 players on waivers this morning, there is no doubt, the season is fast approaching. It will be interesting to see if they all clear waivers in the current circumstances. I would hate to lose Juulsen like this, hopefully his health will scare teams off… And if the Habs were to lose Lindgren, that could also be a problem. Of course, Price and Allen are the numbers 1 and 2 but the Habs do need to keep a goaltender on the taxi squad.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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