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Oliver Kapanen: two goals in intra-squad match
Credit: Capture d'écran / Screenshot

This morning, in Brossard, there was an intra-team match. Obviously, these matches, especially at the start of the camp, don’t really mean anything. We agree on that.

But we can still look at what happened to start forming trends.

So here are a few things to keep in mind on the heels of what we saw in Brossard on this first day on the ice of the Montreal Canadiens’ 2024 training camp.

1. Oliver Kapanen is a good hockey player who is here to win a job. He doesn’t want to just get a jersey and walk away with it, as Rob Ramage said.

And he scored two goals, the famous Kapanen.

Obviously, goals don’t tell the whole story. But those present, including colleague Marc-Olivier Cook, agree that the young man was like a fish in water on the ice.

He had his chances to score, he skated well and he looked right at home. By the way, he’s wearing #91, just like… Ivan Demidov.

2. Patrik Laine isn’t the one who puts in the most effort on an ice rink. It shows today, on the first day of camp. I guess you’ll have to get used to it: sometimes, he doesn’t put in as much effort.

Martin St-Louis will have to keep him motivated.

3. The first line played up to the standard of a first line. In particular, Juraj Slafkovsky looked like a hungry player who’s ready to explode for the Habs’ next season.

He scored on an assist from Cole Caufield.

4. I’ve made it to #4 and haven’t mentioned Lane Hutson yet… but we’ll fix that: he’s good. He’s creative with the puck and manages to stand out wherever he goes.

He’s mostly played with Justin Barron, but we’ve also seen him with Logan Mailloux. The latter didn’t get out as much today, but that’s not the end of the world, since he didn’t do too badly.

5. Filip Mesar wasn’t naughty. He played with energy. So much the better!

6. Kirby Dach gave fans a fright because of this: he took a stick to the face. But he stayed in the game, because these things happen in hockey.

Overtime

– Third line today.

– Interesting.

– The Golden Knights are not commenting on the Robin Lehner file. All we know is that he won’t be playing this year.

– Hello, Max.

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