Juraj Slafkovsky did not practice the first trio

The Canadiens are in a bad way these days. That said, tomorrow night, they won’t be able to afford such a poor performance. Why not? Because of the identity of the coach behind the bench. #PatrickRoy

I hope I didn’t bombard you with too much new information this morning…

But seriously. To prepare for tomorrow’s game against the Islanders and to try and forget the last few games, Martin St-Louis’ men jumped on the ice this morning.

That said, not all of them were there.

The Habs announced that David Savard and Mike Matheson, the two Quebec veterans on the blue line, were absent for a day of treatments this morning.

Of course, both guys are older and are defensive stalwarts. They also play a fairly important role on special units, which gives them a lot of playing time.

And they often respond well.

To see a treatment day like this is not abnormal. As long as the guys play the games, they can miss a practice once in a while, we agree.

Kent Hughes surely doesn’t like his counterparts to know that Savard isn’t 100%, but at the same time, at this stage of the season, every player has a boo-boo.

In the same vein, Sean Monahan didn’t get a day’s treatment.

In view of the fact that the Ontarian has had a few training days off here and there recently, and that he played en masse yesterday, this is still rather noteworthy news.

But that’s not what we notice most.

In fact, it’s worth noting that this morning at practice, Juraj Slafkovsky wasn’t training on the first trio. It was Josh Anderson who was with the two buddies.

Yesterday, there were rotations in the third period, the Habs’ best. It’s not a complete surprise, but Slaf has been on the first line for a long time.

Instead, he’s been training on a trio completed by Sean Monahan and Joel Armia.

Will this still be the case tomorrow? Will playing with three centers continue to make the identity of the center of each trio less important? To be seen.

It should also be noted that Joshua Roy was rotated on the fourth trio.

I don’t think the Habs sent Mitchell Stephens to the waivers to sit Joshua Roy in the stands. If a guy has to bail out Jesse Ylönen, it would surely be Michael “1:57 of play” Pezzetta.

But we’ll see tomorrow.

In bursts

– Of note.

– Daniel Brière talks about Carter Hart. He said nothing.

– Why are Foote and McLeod absent from Devils training?

– Cole Caufield: a rising efficiency percentage that changes everything. [98.5 FM]

– Ladies and gentlemen… the Sharks.

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