A future-oriented photo

“It’s been a pretty hectic season. When you think about it, it looks like we just lived three years in one year. »

Those words of wisdom came from Jake Allen’s mouth. On the eve of the game against the Ottawa Senators at the Bell Centre, the Canadiens held their second and final official team photo opportunity yesterday.

Allen is among the survivors. The goalkeeper from New Brunswick was present for the first version. CH have used 45 players since the start of the campaign. Jordan Harris is the latest in line, having made his NHL debut on Saturday against the Lightning in Tampa Bay.

Should Carey Price return to play, the Habs will climb to 46 active players, which would equal the mark of the team, which has held since 2000-2001. That season, Oleg Petrov shared the roster’s top scorer with Saku Koivu. Both players finished with 47 points. There was also Andrei Markov who was a rookie.

“We’ve been through a lot of cycles over the past few months,” winger Brendan Gallagher said. There was bad and good. We will have to learn. We will place this photo on the wall. I looked at our photo from last year. You have good memories of each team. We won’t play in the playoffs, but we had fun. »

Relaxed atmosphere

Some pleasure. It’s a key word. Despite ranking 32nd overall in the NHL, the Habs players took part in this last shot in a good mood.

Carey Price had fun with Cole Caufield, Kent Hughes, Jeff Gorton and Geoff Molson chatted with the majority of the players who entered the ice, as much the oldest as the youngest like Harris or Justin Barron. Joel Armia had the same serious face as usual, taking the second row several seconds before everyone else.

Obvious contrast

At the start of the year, the CH found itself in a completely different context. Marc Bergevin, still general manager at that time, had practically not spoken with its president and owner, Mr. Molson. There was a heaviness in the air.

There were 29 players present for the team photo. Injured, Jonathan Drouin was not there.

Of this group, there were 17 new faces compared to the finalist formation of the last campaign. On the last row, yesterday, it was all new with Harris, Barron, Corey Schueneman, Jesse Ylönen and others.

Pride

Even if the club has begun a youthful turn, a reconstruction in a more precise language, Martin St-Louis, Hughes and Gorton have won their bet for the moment. They are not just looking for an identity for this new team, they have given a sense of pride to the players who wear this jersey.

The Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Alexander Romanov, Rem Pitlick, Josh Anderson, Justin Barron and Jordan Harris will be at the heart of this rebuild.

Photo QMI Agency, Joël Lemay

1- Samuel Montembeault

2- Jake Allen

3- Luke Richardson

4- Kent Hughes

5- Jeff Gorton

6- Joel Edmundson

7- Brendan Gallagher

8- Paul Byron

9- Nick Suzuki

10- Geoff Molson

11- Martin St-Louis

12- Carey Price

13- Mario Leblanc

14- Alex Burrows

15- Trevor Letowski

16- Josh Anderson

17- Jake Evans

18- Jeff Petry

19- Cole Caufield

20- David Savard

21- Alexander Romanov

22- Joel Armia

23- Éric Raymond

24- Adam Douglas

25- Graham Rynbend

26- Pierre Gervais

27- Michael Pezzetta

28- Chris Wideman

29- Ryan Poehling

30- Christian Dvorak

31- Rem Pitlick

32- Tyler Pitlick

33- Mike Hoffman

34- Mathieu Perreault

35- Pierre Ouellette

36- Patrick Langlois

37- Matthew Romano

38- Donald Balmforth

39- Dale Lablans

40- Jordan Harris

41- Justin Barron

42- Jesse Ylönen

43- Corey Schueneman

44- Laurent Dauphin

45- Kale Clague

46- William Lagesson

47- Pierre Leclair

48- Claude Theriault

49- Éric Gravel

In the team photo taken yesterday (above), there are 24 new faces (in blue) compared to the snapshot taken on June 24 (below), when the Canadian won the semi-final against Vegas . Of the new players, seven will be at the heart of the club’s reconstruction (circled in yellow). Also, empty spots belong to Jonathan Drouin (COVID-19) and Andrew Molson, who will be added to the infographic.

Among the departures, we should also note those of Marc Bergevin and Dominique Ducharme.