Let's make one thing clear right off the bat: pre-season hockey is essentially a glorified warmup. It's for skaters to get their stride back. It's for goalies to get back to game speed. It's for shooters to find their angles. It's for defencemen to know when it's a good time to stickcheck or hipcheck. And it's for kids or journeymen to make an impression on the coach and maybe win a few hearts in the stands or with the press. Sometimes it's the only time a kid will get to play with one of the superstars, sometimes even with one of his idols.
In this hockey sick city, people make too much of intra-squad scrimmages in who's scoring goals and who's coasting around. In this hockey sick city we sometimes forget that a season isn't determined in pre-season.
But pre-season games can be fun! They can be equally intense. Last season we had a whole new set of guys on the team and a whole new set of staff members, so that was interesting. My favourite pre-season games were the two Detroit games two years ago (except for seeing Mathieu Carle getting knocked out into another solar system). It showed us Pacioretty when he was raw and not injured from smashing into people. We saw the save of the year even though it wasn't even the year yet. We saw Guy Carbonneau wonder what the hell is up with Mike Babcock not sending out the kids in the shootout like he did but rather sending out the veterans. We saw starry-eyed Bulldogs playing with Kovalev and chasing/injuring Chelios, or just starry-eyed from stepping onto the Bell Center rink.
Because not everyone follows the Bulldogs, it's also the only chance many Habs fans will see the prospects that may or may not make their way to the big squad. This year, you'll even get to see a few players that are still in junior: namely Louis Leblanc and Jarred Tinordi. Well also get to see who's really taller between Tinordi and Gill.
So when you seat your arses down in front of the TV or in the stands, no matter what you think of pre-season hockey just enjoy it. Because I know the guys on the ice are going to enjoy it. Hockey's back!
The over-under on Team A
- Price and Sanford will split net duties.
- Who gets a letter tomorrow? Gorges, Gill, Cammy, Pleks? Pleks was very captain-like when he was leading the B-Squad in Roberval.
- Palushaj gets to play with Cammy and Pleks. Pouliot's there too but he's checking his rear-view mirror on this one.
- Ben Maxwell is misunderstood by everyone.
- I give Conboy at least until the mid-second period to drop the gloves with someone.
- Pyatt and Lapierre will hopefully remain chained together.
- You will be captivated by Louis Leblanc's eyebrows.
- I will probably laugh when Tinordi goes out there next to...anyone.
- Tinordi could probably fit Pleks and Cammy in his jersey.
- I'm already starting with the Jolly Green Giant Tinordi jokes.
- OK I'll stop.
- It's 7:30 on RDS tomorrow. Tune in and start your own Tinordi Is Tall jokes.
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