Canadiens Still Facing Big Questions

Who wastaking Demidov's spot on the second line? Kirby Dach . While the big forward hasthe tools to be a top-six forward on paper, he rarely displays them on the ice,and based on the training camp so far, that was a surprising choice. Perhapsit's an attempt to get solid effort from him; one has to wonder what AlexNewhook thought of that move, as he was put in Dach's place between AlexandreTexier and Zachary Bolduc . After all, Newhook did very well last season playingalongside Demidov and Kapanen.

Before the scrimmage,though, they had a regular practice, and Martin St-Louis wasn't pleased withwhat he saw on the ice, so he made his players skate a few laps. At 11:30, thepuck dropped on the Red vs. White game. The Red Team featured the ColeCaufield, Nick Suzuki , and Chris Kreider line; the Josh Anderson , PhillipDanault, and Jake Evans line up front; and the Lane Hutson and AlexandreCarrier and Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj pairings on defense. As for theWhite squad, it included the other two NHL lines, meaning Dach, Oliver Kapanen , and Juraj Slafkovsky with the Zach Bolduc, Alex Newhook , and Alexandre Texier lines up front; on the back end, the Mike Matheson and Noah Dobson duo wasintact, while Adam Engstrom and David Reinbacher were reunited.

In the end,the big guns didn't get on the board, though. Team Red signed a 3-0 win, thanksto a Struble breakaway goal, a Tyler Thorpe one-timer and an Aderson empty-netter. Samuel Montembeault was the only goaltender who gave up goals, surrendering thefirst two.