Practice Notes – Losing rings in the changes at Canadiens practice

Montreal Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme has seen enough from his team after the franchise’s worst start to a season in 26 years.

Ducharme turned the blender on high both up front and on the blueline with only the line of Jonathan Drouin, Christian Dvorak and Josh Anderson left intact. The most noticeable change was the decision to break up the defensive pairing of Ben Chiarot and David Savard. The other two defence pairings have been tweaked through the first four games while Chiarot and Savard remained untouched. Chiarot lined up on the left of Chris Wideman while Savard was on the right of Alexander Romanov.

The intensity at practice was noticeably high after their 5-0 shutout loss to the Sharks last night. The coaching staff put the players through several combative one-on-one battles. The Oklahoma drill in front of the net stood out.

When you’re 0-4, it’s time for the hockey equivalent of the Oklahoma drill at #Habs practice pic.twitter.com/HU2kk77ofi

— Jon Still (@Imstilljon) October 20, 2021

The power-play configuration remained the same as it did earlier in the week.  The PP and the PK went full-tilt against one another in practice as both special teams units continue to struggle.

The biggest miss from Montreal Canadiens practice was the moustache of Jeff Petry.  Perhaps superstition was the reason for the bare face after the team’s 0-4 start. The Habs defenceman was blunt last night in his assessment of the team, saying that certain players were lacking the appropriate effort level.

The Montreal Canadiens will try and avoid going 0-5 for the first time since 1995 tomorrow night. Former Hab Jesperi Kotkaniemi and the Carolina Hurricanes invade the Bell Centre for what is certain to be a hostile atmosphere for the former third overall pick. Kotkaniemi signed a one-year, $6.1 million dollar offer sheet with the Canes that was not matched by the Canadiens.

Here are your Montreal Canadiens lines from practice this morning in Brossard

Forwards

Drouin-Dvorak-Anderson

Hoffman-Suzuki-Gallagher

Toffoli-Perreault-Caufield

Lehkonen-Evans-Armia

Extras: Brooks, Paquette

Defencemen

Kulak-Petry

Romanov-Savard

Chiarot-Wideman

Niku

Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin surprisingly met the media after practice. We’ll have more on MHN later in the day on the GM’s comments to reporters.