Practice: Kirby Dach is no longer on the second line | Mike Matheson is out

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Practice: Kirby Dach is no longer on the second line | Mike Matheson is out
Credit: Patrick Guillet

Yesterday, the Canadiens announced their lineups for today's intra-squad game.

We've said it before and we'll say it again: take it with a grain of salt. Training camp hasn't even started yet, and Martin St-Louis isn't even on the ice with his teammates just yet.

But we're still allowed to talk about it and analyze it a little bit—as long as we don't take it all at face value.

Yesterday, for example, Kirby Dach was at center on the second line, alongside Ivan Demidov and Alex Newhook. Demidov will start there (unless he moves up to the first line), and Newhook has a good chance of being a top-6 player.

But this morning, it was actually Oliver Kapanen playing center on the second line.

Kirby Dach, for his part, was paired with Josh Anderson and Jake Evans. So basically, the only change on offense is that Dach and Kapanen swapped spots.

Zachary Bolduc, Phillip Danault, and Alexandre Texier were still forming a “French connection.”

Defensively, things were a bit shaken up. But once again, Noah Dobson and Lane Hutson practiced together on the ice this morning.

Arber Xhekaj, who was paired with Mike Matheson yesterday, was paired with Alexandre Carrier this morning. Adam Engstrom was paired with Jayden Struble this morning… and David Reinbacher was paired with Vincent Arseneau.


Hutson – Dobson
Reinbacher – Arseneau
Engstrom – Struble
Xhekaj – Carrier

Kaiden Guhle was obviously absent, but so was Mike Matheson. He didn't skate with the others on Tuesday and Wednesday (he skated on his own) and didn't skate at all today.

Meanwhile, Dobson and Hutson continue to skate together.


In a nutshell

– Well done.

– Stay tuned.

– He had a great career.

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