by Chris G, Senior Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine

LAVAL, QC. — The Canadiens are currently on a three game winning streak courtesy of their three wins last week. They beat the Senators on Tuesday and Thursday by the score of 5-2, and on Sunday, they beat the Blackhawks by a score of 3-2. 

Montreal plays one more game on the road on Tuesday night when they head to Minnesota to face the Wild before they return to the Bell Centre to face Carolina on Thursday and Ottawa on Saturday.

Here are my top 5 takes of the week:

• Kotkaniemi not playing for Finland – With teams starting to announce their World Junior Championship selection camp rosters, it raised the question whether the Canadiens would loan Jesperi Kotkaniemi  to Finland over the holidays. On Saturday, Marc Bergevin said that unless another centre falls into his lap, Kotkaniemi won’t be leaving Montreal. Bergevin said that he is 95 percent sure that Kotkaniemi will not play at the WJC. In training camp, while the 18-year old was impressing everyone in his entourage, many experts were of the opinion that Jesperi would follow the same path like Victor Mete who was loaned to Team Canada last season for the tournament. I agree with the team’s decision to keep him in the NHL as Kotkaniemi is getting ice time and important responsibilities. He’s playing an average of 14:01 per game, facing tough opponents and getting time on the power play on a team that’s winning regularly. Mete didn’t have the same environment last season. His ice time was gradually being reduced and the attitude around the team was negative as losses accumulated. Considering that this is a season where there are no expectations for the team, and that he’s the franchise’s upcoming number one centre, Kotkaniemi has more to learn playing with the Canadiens than his country, in my opinion. 

• Home and home games – The Canadiens and Senators played home-and-home games last week on Tuesday and Thursday. I have to say that those games were fun. We saw Max Domi taunt Zack Smith on Tuesday night about being placed on waivers earlier in the season, and on Thursday, Smith retaliated with a pitch fork between Domi’s legs. With the National Hockey League being in the entertainment business, I think they should consider having home-and-home games between division rivals throughout the season. This would create more rivalries between teams, and the story-lines would make the games to be must-watch TV. 

• Expansion draft –  On Tuesday, the National Hockey League announced that Seattle had been awarded the 32nd franchise of the league. It was sad news for the fans in Quebec City as it seems that there is no interest in expanding to their city in the short term. Even though Seattle will begin playing in the 2020-2021 season, let’s have some fun and see who would Montreal protect right now if there was an expansion draft. Jonathan Drouin, Max Domi, Brendan Gallagher, Paul Byron, Tomas Tatar, Philip Danault and Artturi Lehkonen would be the seven forwards that I would protect. On defense, Shea Weber, Jeff Petry and Mike Reilly would be my picks. There’s no doubt that Carey Price would be the protected goalie. If I were Seattle, Charles Hudon would be my targeted player from Montreal. A lot of things will change by then and it will be interesting to see how this list evolves until it’s time for the expansion draft. 

• Value goes up  – Forbes Magazine published the 2018 list of the value of the teams in the NHL. The Canadiens are ranked third in the league with a value of $1.3-billion US, a four percent increase from last year. As much as fans want teams to make hockey decisions that will allow their team to win the Stanley Cup, I think that a lot of decisions are made to help the bottom line. If we keep it specific to Canadiens, I understand why the head coach and general manager need to speak French, and the reason why preference should be given to a francophone player. If I were in Geoff Molson‘s shoes with millions of dollars invested in the business, I would do the same. Only one team wins the Stanley Cup every year, so as a business owner, I would take necessary actions to maximize the value of my business, and sacrifice wins, and a Cup, if necessary.  

• Lavoie crosses line – There was a story on TVA Sports where hockey insider, Renaud Lavoie, spoke about a conversation that he had with Los Angeles Kings president Luc Robitaille. Lavoie told Robitaille that he predicts that the newly-acquired Nikita Scherbak would be placed on waivers in 30 days because he’s not a NHL player, maybe not even an AHL player. The story was all about Lavoie’s own personal views.  Regardless if Lavoie is right, I have an issue with this conversation being made public or a story at all. Analysts, scouts, and managers may have  conversations about players. The conversation being made public in that fashion is unusual. All 31 teams have scouts across North America that evaluate players on a daily basis. When a team makes a waiver claim, they have done their due diligence before making their decision. Scherbak scored in his debut with his new team on Saturday. Rocket Sports Media founder, Rick Stephens joined the All Kings Men podcast to talk about Los Angeles’ newest acquisition. You can listen to his conversation by clicking here. 

Leave your comments below. I am looking forward to interacting with all of you.