Habs News: Montreal Canadiens, NHL, Brendan Gallagher, Shea Weber, Nick Suzuki, Tyler Toffoli, Daniil Sobolev, Jesperi Kotkaniemi

Brendan Gallagher (Photo by Marco Campanozzi / La Presse)

ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | MONTREAL, QC. — This is your one-stop destination every week day for your Canadiens news capsule. Here are your Habs Headlines!

Gallagher Is At Camp

The Canadiens welcomed a familiar face to training camp as Brendan Gallagher joined his teammates for on-ice practice. Gallagher has been absent from training camp for family reasons. With Cole Caufield sidelined for a week with an upper body injury, Gallagher joined the top line of Nick Suzuki and Tyler Toffoli.

When the topic turned to leadership, Gallagher said that he is ready to take on a bigger role. But quickly turned the focus to Shea Weber who is not expected to play this season due to numerous injuries.

Gallagher on Weber

“I think the thing that made Weby so special was there wasn’t a day where he didn’t do the right thing,” Gallagher added. “If you want a perfect example to learn from and look at, it was him and the fact that he would just stay true to who he was as a person, but he was always aware of what the right thing to do was. He was always aware young guys were looking at him and watching him and he was just a really good role model in that sense that he just did everything proper.”

Gallagher then spoke about his admiration for Weber. “You have a pretty good understanding of, first of all, what he went through in his career,” said Gallagher. “You completely understand and respect what he’s done and looking back how much he was able to help me personally and pretty much every player on our team that got the chance to play with him. You just learn so much.”

HHOF for Weber?

But Gallagher didn’t stop there in his praise for Weber. “There’s everything that you know that he handles on the ice that I think are going to make him a Hall of Famer — which is a pretty special thing to say,” Gallagher said. “You don’t say it lightly, but I fully believe that. But it’s more so what he did away from the rink when the cameras were off, how he carried himself, how he treated his teammates, how he treated the staff going back to his days in Nashville and the respect he had for every single one of his teammates and how he brought it every single night. So there’s a lot to learn from getting the chance to play with a guy like that. It’s pretty special and it doesn’t come by often. I think we’re all pretty fortunate to get that opportunity.”

Forward Lines and Defence Pairings

On Tuesday morning, Team B – White practiced at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard. These were the forward lines and defence pairings:

Tyler Toffoli – Nick Suzuki – Brendan Gallagher
Artturi Lehkonen – Ryan Poehling – Laurent Dauphin
Mathieu Perreault – Cedric Paquette – Alex Belzile
Brandon Baddock – J-C Beaudin – Lukas Vejdemo

Alexander Romanov – Jeff Petry
Brett Kulak – Gianni Fairbrother
Tobie Bisson – Arber Xhekaj
Xavier Ouellet – Louie Belpedio

Camp Cuts: Sobolev

The Montreal Canadiens have cut Daniil Sobolev from training camp. The 18-year-old defenceman was a fifth round draft pick (142nd overall) at the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. Sobolev is expected to play for the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL this season.

Strong Start for Kotkaniemi

Playing in his first pre-season game as a Hurricane, Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored Carolina’s first goal, a power-play marker, against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The former Canadiens forward also had an assist on the Hurricanes game-winning goal, also on the power-play, as Carolina beat the Lighting 3-1. Kotkaniemi played on the Hurricanes top line with Vincent Trocheck and Teuvo Teravainen.

“I’ve always felt that I can be a good guy on the power play so it was nice to get a couple of goals,” said Kotkaniemi.

Head coach Rod Brind’Amour agreed. “I think [the power-play is] where he may make the most contributions in a way. He’s a very intelligent hockey player. You can see it in the way he thinks the game and his skillset. He can shoot. He’s got a great shot. So those are all power-play type skillsets. You can’t have enough of that, that’s for sure.”

Not Returning Calls

The Montreal Canadiens have claimed that they weren’t upset by the Hurricanes offer sheet that successfully snatched the third overall pick from the 2018 NHL Entry Draft from their roster. If so, why isn’t Geoff Molson returning the phone calls of Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon?

In a piece by Pierre LeBrun, the reporter wrote:

“I asked the Carolina Hurricanes owner if he had talked yet with his counterpart Geoff Molson since the Aug. 28 offer sheet of Jesperi Kotkaniemi.
“I haven’t talked to him — I’d be happy to — but I haven’t talked to him about it,” Dundon told The Athletic.
Did he reach out to Molson?
“Yeah, I made a call. But I haven’t talked to him though,” Dundon said.”

Canadiens Connection podcast

Current Habs topics were discussed on this week’s episode of the Canadiens Connection podcast. Listen, share and subscribe!