Canadiens Lineup

Juraj Slafkovsky – Rem Pitlick – Joel Armia

Emil Heineman – Jake Evans – Jesse Ylonen

Filip Mesar – Owen Beck – Mitchell Stephens

Lucas Condotta – Nate Schnarr – Gabriel Bourque

Corey Schueneman – Chris Wideman

Arber Xhekaj – Jordan Harris

Otto Leskinen – Justin Barron

Sam Montembeault – Kevin Poulin

Cole Caufield, Mike Hoffman, Kirby Dach, Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Anthony Richard, Michael Pezzetta, Jan Mysak, Joshua Roy, Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle, Gianni Fairbrother, Mattias Norlinder, Christian Dvorak, Brendan Gallagher, David Savard, Joel Teasdale, Alex Belzile, Evgenii Dadonov, Riley Kidney, Cam Hillis

Nick Suzuki (lower-body), Josh Anderson (lower-body), Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Joel Edmundson (back), Madison Bowey (day-to-day), Logan Mailloux (shoulder), Jonathan Drouin (illness)

Game Report

The Canadiens were in Toronto to face the Maple Leafs for the second game on their pre-season schedule. In just two weeks time, the Habs will be back at Scotiabank Arena to open the regular season against the Leafs. It’s early but Marty St. Louis doesn’t have much time to evaluate his roster and help the players build chemistry.

If anything, the Habs took a step backwards in this game. The lineup looked like it was picked out of a hat, with little rhyme or reason in assembling the trios and defence pairings. The resulting effort featured several laudable individual performances but little cohesion and no offence to speak of.

That said, kudos to Filip Mesar, Emil Heineman and Otto Leskinen!

Unfortunately, there is no sense that the coaching staff hit the ground running when the camp opened after an off-season of preparation. As a result, the gentlemen behind the bench are engaged in trial and error and learning. And the product on the ice looks rather sloppy at this point.

Some fans dismiss any criticism saying that the team will have a much different lineup on opening night. But the same applies to the team at the other end of the ice. The Leafs operated with a makeshift lineup, with two forwards moved to defence, for most of tonight’s game.

There’s no reason to panic but it’s time that the coaching staff roll up their sleeves and get to work. Summer is over. While the Canadiens are not expected to compete for a playoff spot this season, the development challenge ahead is a significant one.

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▼  Sam Montembeault, Corey Schueneman, Rem Pitlick, Juraj Slafkovsky, Nate Schnarr, Chris Wideman, Gabriel Bourque, Lucas Condotta