Hockey

Martin St-Louis doesn’t help Ivan Demidov by placing him with Oliver Kapanen and Alex Newhook
Marc-Olivier Cook
Martin St-Louis doesn’t help Ivan Demidov by placing him with Oliver Kapanen and Alex Newhook
Credit: YouTube

Martin St-Louis has stirred the pot. At this morning's practice, Ivan Demidov was no longer paired with Patrik Laine and Kirby Dach: instead, he found himself on a line with Alex Newhook and Oliver Kapanen. And this decision is questionable. In fact, seeing him change lines is worse than seeing him stay with Laine and Dach. We know it more or less works with #92 and #77 because they haven't been exceptional since the start of camp. We can give Kirby the benefit of the doubt because he's coming back from a major injury… but Laine doesn't look like a guy who can help the Canadiens on a top-6 right now. That's why the solution wasn't to move Demidov. The ideal solution… was to swap Laine and Bolduc to give Demidov the opportunity to have two players with great skills alongside him.Now, Demidov is stuck with Alex Newhook, who has trouble converting his scoring chances… and with Oliver Kapanen, who really doesn't have the biggest offensive upside in the world.And it's hard to believe that this is an ideal situation for the Russian.

Does Martin St-Louis want to bring stability to Demidov by pairing him with Kapanen and Newhook, rather than with Dach – who may not play every night – and Laine.maybe, but it comes back to the same damn problem we had this summer. The Canadiens don't have the quality second center they need to surround Ivan Demidov in the right way. And with only a few days to go before the start of the season, we're still asking the same question, even if Dach is in that chair: who's the real second center for the Montreal Canadiens right now?The easy answer is: there isn't one. The various combinations may still change between now and the start of the season, and I can't wait to see what Martin St-Louis's tests come up with. But at first glance, it makes sense that the Habs head coach isn't helping Ivan Demidov by putting him with Oliver Kapanen and Alex Newhook. It remains to be seen whether that will change…

'Overtime'

– Well done.

– Beautiful.

– Really?

– Oh how good it's going to be!

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