The
Montreal Canadiens got a rare win in their yearly opener against nemesis from
the West, Nashville, a thoroughly dominating performance on the shot sheet,
holding the Preds to just 19 shots while putting up 34 of their own. This
follows a pre-season in which they thoroughly outshot their opponent in most
games, and an off-season that focused on this aspect of the game.
While prior training camps focused on the team’s skating abilities and always
being able to out muscle opponents, this year they made a shift in to overall
athletic endurance, hiring a new training staff that would focus on improving
their play late in periods. The change also comes with the hopeful effect of
limiting penalty minutes, which they did quite well in the pre-season, and in
this season opener, paid off perfectly with no trips to the penalty box for
Montreal.
Goals came from Brock Mcginn and Jonathan Ericsson, both whom were in camp
early working under the new staff.
No one arrived earlier than goaltender Garret Sparks however, who had a team of
athletic managers working on various parts of his game after signing the biggest
goaltender contract in Montreal since Calvin Pickard was in town. The deal just
north of 40 million dollars indicates that the club was ready to commit long
term to the goaltender, who is entering his fourth season as a Hab, and second
season as the undisputed full time starter.
The other big news from the summer was certainly the acquisition of Zachary
Werenski, who was handed a mega contract offer after taking the risk of dumping
off Johnny Oduya’s six million dollar cap hit right before the beginning of
free agency. The deal will see him earn slightly more than the mega contract
Sam Morin signed with the club a few years ago, eventually seeing him with a
cap hit over $11 million. Clearly, the organization wanted to make sure their
blue line was secured beyond these twilight seasons of the 37 year old
Ericsson, and his former blue line partner Oduya, also 37.
Werenski debuted with a 24 minutes, +1 performance.
6/16/2026 - 328 words
