The Montreal Canadiens are preparing to face the Chicago Blackhawks and Connor Bedard on Friday (8 p.m.), so the soldiers of Martin St-Louis are rusty on January 2, 2025. Remember that the Habs ended the year 2024 on a positive note with three successive wins against big names, like the Florida Panthers, the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Vegas Golden Knights.
During its three games, CH made the red light shine 12 times and allowed only four goals to its opponents. It’s a colossal order that the MSL troupe brilliantly executed, playing with an aplomb never before seen since Patrik Laine’s return to action. Let us also add that the addition of Alexandre Carrier stabilized the defensive brigade considerably.
That said, the atmosphere during this training session was obviously at its height, where several funny sequences appeared. Since it’s Cole Caufield’s birthday, who is celebrating his 24th birthday today, his teammates certainly had to mark this event. Little number 13 therefore took a blast of water down the neck, courtesy of his mentor Brendan Gallagher.
Here is an assembly carried out by the manager of account HabsOnRedditwho wanted to celebrate Cole Caufield’s birthday with great grandeur.
Note also that comrades Juraj Slafkovsky and Kaiden Guhle smashed their sticks almost at the same time during training.
Without forgetting that Alexandre Carrier needed a little shower of cold water to bring himself back into the present moment after New Year’s Day.
All these little moments with smiles certainly demonstrate the current attitude within a team which finally has the “mental” in the right place at all levels.
The negative point of this training, however, remains the hasty departure of David Savard, who left without warning. Is the “daddy” of this pack still dealing with the same injury that made him miss the December 12 game against the Pittsburgh Penguins? Very plausible!
In front of the net: Samuel Montembeault or Jakub Dobes?
Monty will face the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday, when we should reserve a more robust team, in order to test it well, for Dobes. On Saturday, the Flannel will fight against a powerful team, the Colorado Avalanche. The youngster needs to be tested, so it will be an ultimate test against the best scorer in the NHL so far, Nathan MacKinnon.
