Philippe Boucher played 17 seasons in the NHL, collecting 94 goals and 300 points in 748 games. The Saint-Apollinaire native defender notably had two seasons of 40 points or more. He participated in the All-Star Game in 2007, in addition to lifting the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in his last season in the NHL in 2009. First round pick (13th overall) of the Buffalo Sabers in 1991, he successively worn the colors of the Sabres, the Los Angeles Kings, the Dallas Stars and the Penguins. At the end of his playing career, he held management positions with the Rimouski Océanic, the Quebec Remparts and the Drummondville Voltigeurs in the Maritimes Quebec Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). Philippe agreed to collaborate with the LNH.com team to cover various current hockey topics.
The Montreal Canadiens concluded their training camp with a four-game losing streak, but what is even more worrying is the performance of the team’s power play during these preparatory games: 0-for-30.
That’s not very encouraging heading into the season, especially for a team that finished 27th in the NHL in power play last year. Of course, statistics in preparatory matches don’t mean much, it’s important to remember that. But it’s still worrying.
Has the injury to Patrik Laine, who was specifically acquired to help in this facet of the game, unbalanced the massive attack? Should the Canadiens, like the Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings and Florida Panthers during their games at the Videotron Center in recent days, have dressed their best players during the last two meetings? preparatory activities in order to give experience to the first wave and allow them to gain confidence by scoring at least once?
Maybe. But I also believe that Martin St-Louis wears a lot of hats, perhaps too many.
It’s quite a challenge that the Habs head coach decided to take on, since he decided to take care of the power play, in addition to all his other tasks, following the departure of Alex Burrows at the end of the last season. If St. Louis were solely responsible for the power play, he could very well be one of the best in the NHL at this position, since he has, in my opinion, all the qualities, ideas and resume required to be there. achieve. But when you add in all the other responsibilities of a head coach, it’s a huge order.
There are only 24 hours in a day.
The Canadiens announced their latest cuts on Monday, and we now know who the young defensemen are who have stood out in the blue line battle.
Lane Hutson will start the season in Montreal, and that’s understandable. He is a special player who is ready to stand out. For his part, Jayden Struble had a very good camp and fully deserves to stay with the Habs.
It is therefore Logan Mailloux who will take the orange line to go to Laval and play with the Laval Rocket. But don’t worry, we’ll see him again in Montreal this year, that’s for sure.
The Canadiens’ camp will have served more to decide who would stay in Montreal rather than to prepare the veterans for a season where we seem to want to aim for the playoffs. It’s a way of doing things, but it’s not the one that was adopted by the Bruins, the Kings and the Panthers during their games in Quebec last week. We’re aiming for top honors, and it shows.
The bar has been set a little higher this season for the Habs. We are now talking about defensive systems and efficiency. We want to be “in the mix,” as we said at the team’s golf tournament in mid-September.
I wish them success, because there are expectations that have been created. It will be interesting to see if the team can climb out of the bottom of the NHL standings.
Where there are expectations is in Edmonton. Can the Oilers bring the Stanley Cup back to Canada after coming so close last year against the Panthers? I believe it, like what the Panthers did by losing in the final against the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023, before winning everything last year. We learn from defeat, especially when it happens in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
The Kings did it big
It’s not just on the ice that the Kings players worked hard during their visit to Quebec last week to hold their training camp.
It was once outside the Videotron Center that the passage of the Californian team was most noticed by the community. I had the pleasure of accompanying the team during the week during various activities, and I was able to see how much the people of Quebec enjoyed meeting these NHL stars.
Of course, the coming of the Kings to Quebec, and the subsidy that accompanied it, created uneasiness, and I understand people’s reaction. But we certainly can’t blame the organization for not being generous during his time there. This is not surprising, since we know to what extent Luc Robitaille, the president of the Kings, has always been an accessible person.
Young hockey players from the region had the chance to skate with some Kings players, but also NHL veterans like Darryl Evans, Stéphane Fiset, Manon Rhéaume, who is part of the organization, and myself. Then on Saturday, a pee-wee AAA women’s team was able to meet members of the Kings.
Some players also participated in a dek hockey game, including Quinton Byfield. He was so intense that I said if he worked that hard in the next day’s game against the Boston Bruins, he was going to be successful.
He finally scored a hat trick!
The Kings also donated 400 pieces of hockey equipment to three organizations aimed at helping children play hockey, including the foundation that bears my name. They will be able to take advantage of this generous donation to practice the sport they are passionate about or even discover it.
In addition to giving a boost to the community, these activities are a great way to build chemistry within a team. This was also how the Kings operated when I wore their uniform in the 1990s and early 2000s. We used to travel to Las Vegas to play games and have our team activities there. We also finished the preparatory schedule in Colorado in order to spend a few days at the ranch of owner Philip Anschutz.
All clubs have their own way of doing things, but Quebec is a great destination to build team chemistry. Perhaps we will witness the start of a tradition. Quebec is beautiful, especially at this time of year!
Comments collected by Nicolas Ducharme, LNH.com journalist
