by Christopher Nardella, Staff Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine
BROSSARD, QC. — Day 1 of Canadiens training camp on Thursday consisted of medical exams and a media availability. For Habs fans, Friday, featuring the first on-ice sessions, was the day for which most had anxiously been waiting. Read below for my notes about the events of Day 2 of Canadiens training camp. I welcome your comments below.
Pre-scrimmage
Not only did the first appearance of the Canadiens on Brossard ice this fall live up to expectations, it also had a few magical moments.
As I set up my work area and was in the midst of sending out a tweet, I received an alert from the Canadiens announcing that Max Pacioretty would soon be named as the team’s 29th captain in franchise history. I immediately turned to my nearest fellow fan, whom I didn’t know, and told him (screamed) the news that many were expecting later in the camp. The news shortly spread down the line of people like a game of telephone and in mere minutes the room that was eager with anticipation to watch their favourite team suddenly wasn’t as focused about the on-ice product.
After I replicated the Marc Bergevin dance about the Pacioretty news, the players hit the ice. Zachary Fucale was the first to the boards to watch the Zamboni finish preparing the ice followed shortly after by Carey Price. When the Zamboni exited, Price and Fucale took to the ice. The two practiced with goalie coach Stéphane Waite for 25 minutes before the practice started. Brendan Gallagher was the first skater to touch the ice and the rest of the team followed.
The practice got underway with some line rushes that saw Tomas Plekanec flanked by Tomas Fleischmann and Brendan Gallagher, Michael McCarron centering Daniel Carr and Nikita Scherbak, Torrey Mitchell having Brian Flynn on his left and Zack Kassian on his right and finally Bud Holloway with Jérémy Grégoire and Angelo Miceli.
At one point Brian Flynn came in from the left side and ripped one off the bar over Carey Price’s shoulder. Carey stared him down up until he got in line again. On 2-on-1 drills Nikita Scherbak and Brian Flynn were passing it back and forth and at the last possible moment Scherbak slid it back across the crease. It was so perfect that it sent Price sprawling across his crease in a rare moment of vulnerability. Nikita Scherbak gave defenceman Dalton Thrower a shot from behind when the puck wasn’t even near and a jousting match ensued in front of the net. The first practice of the day ended with Brendan Gallagher leading the stretch in the middle of the ice.
The scrimmage
One of those aforementioned special moments manifested itself minutes after the Zamboni got off the ice before the scrimmage. Max Pacioretty, who was named captain no more than an hour before this, skated across the ice to get to the dressing room. As soon as his first skate touched the ice the fans, now seated in the stands, gave him an ovation that was topped off by the Zamboni driver honking his horn as the proverbial cherry on top. This was one of the coolest things that I’ve been a part of not only in hockey but in everyday life. He acknowledged the crowd and now it was time for the season to begin.
There was a collective sense of excitement when the fans saw the line of Lars Eller, Alex Galchenyuk and Alex Semin starting out the game for Team Red. Their excitement was justified once the game started. A couple shifts in, the line hemmed in their opponents for at least a minute, finding each other with slick passes (some of the dropped variety) that was reminiscent of three players that had spent seasons playing with each other.
Jacob De La Rose lined up with David Desharnais and Dale Weise, Sven Andrighetto, Charles Hudon and Devante Smith-Pelly formed a trio and Tim Bozon, Gabriel Dumont and Christian Thomas rounded out the Habs’ lines. Connor Crisp was the 13th forward. The first period saw Sven Andrighetto be one of the more prominent players out there, he created opportunities for his line mates and himself and was very impressive, by far the most out of players vying for a roster spot.
#Habs: Trios des Rouges…
Eller-Galchenyuk-Semin
DeLaRose-Desharnais-Weise
Andrighetto-Hudon-Smith-Pelly
Bozon-Dumont-Thomas(Crisp).— J-F Chaumont (@JFChaumontJDM) September 18, 2015
Trios Blancs:
Fleischmann – Plek – Gallagher
Kassian – Mitchell – Flynn
Scherbak – McCarron – Carr
Holloway – McNally – Grégoire#Ch #Habs— Jonathan Bernier (@JBernierJDM) September 18, 2015
The backhand saucer pass that Alex Galchenyuk found Alex Semin with was the only play that resulted in a goal in the first of two periods. The play was set up by the two Russian-speaking players performing a give-and-go to enter the offensive zone.
On a different shift, Lars Eller went on a one man mission into the offensive zone and was hip checked by Andrei Markov. When he bounced off it P.K. Subban went to hit him and Eller knocked the $72 million man down.
The second period was only a few minutes old when Nathan Beaulieu split the seas, dropped back and sent a saucer pass across the ice to Zack Kassian, who was wide open on the other side, and he promptly took the puck from his own blue line to the back of the opponents back to tie the game 1-1.
Nikita Scherbak, who was practically non-existent in the first period, started to create some more opportunities in the second and began to engage in some physical play.
Another bright spot for the Canadiens organization in the second period was the play of Jarred Tinordi with the puck. Although his touches were limited, he made a couple nice breakout passes, a couple more than he made last year. He seemed less anxious to get rid of the puck and at one point made a pass that went through someone’s legs and right to his teammate at centre ice.
Michael Bournival unfortunately didn’t play due to more concussion-like symptoms. Also on the injured list are Max Pacioretty (knee), Tom Gilbert (flu), Mark MacMillan (knee), Markus Eisenschmid (abdomen) and Noah Juulsen (concussion).
Regulation ended with the two teams deadlocked at one goal a piece and the game went to a shootout. First up for team white was Brian Flynn who made a nice forehand-backhand-forehand move to undress Mike Condon. Alex Galchenyuk made a lot of quick dekes in front of the net mesmerizing Zach Fucale before ringing it off the post. Despite not scoring, the move was a crowd pleaser with fans giving Galchenyuk a hand for his efforts. The game ended with Flynn’s goal being the only one in the shootout and Team White took it.
http://allhabs.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/TeamABC2015MAINCAMP18-09.pdf
Post scrimmage
With most of the fans scattered off to their houses to watch Max Pacioretty’s press conference, squad “B”, which consisted of most of the NHLers, hit the ice to practice. The most impressive thing I saw in this practice was Tim Bozon lose the puck on a 2-on-1, pick it up in the corner and somehow put it upstairs on Mike Condon who thought the play was dead.
The rough afternoon continued for Condon when Alex Semin came down the left wing, froze the former Hamilton Bulldog, and sniped the puck off the spot where the post and cross bar meet. Speaking of Semin, his compete level was pretty decent contrary to the usual narrative. The Canadiens did a drill where two players had to contain pressure with the puck on five players and Dale Weise and David Desharnais held pressure on Semin’s line for around a minute, by far the most by any pair.
The afternoon finished with a funny moment when David Desharnais scored a goal on who else but Mike Condon and Desharnais sarcastically threw his hands up in the air and acknowledged the crowd, and his lack of scoring ability.
The second scrimmage takes place on Saturday at Brossard with the traditional Red vs White game at the Bell Centre on Sunday.
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Andrei Markov
Tomas Plekanec