The Montreal Canadien just completed their season opener West coast road trip concluding it on a positive note by defeating the Vancouver Canucks yesterday by a score of 5-2. For the the players and coaching staff, they can be more than satisfied with their start to the season, recording a total of 10 points out of a possible 12 in their first six games.
Contrary to all expectations, the new Habs squad did not take long to find its bearings. When a team has several new players in its roster, it may take some time to adjust before a chemistry develops between its athletes. This was not the case for the Canadiens, who in the first game of the season against Toronto, showed impressive cohesion between its four forward lines and defenseman pairs.
Putting it All Together
Head Coach Claude Julien can breathe a sigh of relief, as he was tasked with putting all these pieces in place at the start of the season. The coach didn’t have all the time in the world to integrate Alexander Romanov, Joel Edmundson, Josh Anderson and Tyler Toffoli into his playing system because of the very short training camp. Julien didn’t have a long period of time to test his lines and defensive duos, or the Carey Price / Jake Allen goaltending tandem.
Even the schedule seemed to disadvantage the Canadiens. Starting the season with six games on the road is a tough task for a team. And against all odds, Claude Julien had the happy hand during this sequence on the road. Of course, it wasn’t always perfect, due in part to the Habs’ indiscipline that gave his coach headaches. However, this is part of that famous period of adaptation.
With only 50 games to go, the remainder of the season looks bright for the Canadian, who will start his first game at the Bell Centre next Thursday against the Calgary Flames. It will be the first game at the Bell Centre in 10 months. It is just too bad the crowd won’t be there to welcome his beloved team. The atmosphere would have been electric.
