Here's exactly why there are so many players at the Montreal Canadiens camp
On Tuesday afternoon, the Canadiens unveiled the complete list of players who would be present at the organization's main camp. Many were surprised to see that 74 players would show up on Wednesday morning for the opening to take orders from Martin St-Louis and his assistants.
All the players who were at the club's rookie camp last week will be present during the next few days in Brossard. Martin St-Louis said, during his interview with Jean-Charles Lajoie at BPM Sports this Wednesday morning, that all the hopefuls deserved this chance following their last performances.
Philippe Boucher, for his part, sees another reason for the large number of players present at the camp. According to the former NHL player, the CH wants to take advantage of the opportunity to turn the page and establish its new culture.
"I think the reason is where the Habs are at, that's what you have to think about and I love the idea. The Montreal Canadiens are building their foundation. The Colorado Avalanche, my son was there a few years ago, day 1 of training camp we were practicing the forecheck and the defensive game. We were practicing special units and threes were formed. We wanted to build a team to win the Stanley Cup, we won it two years later."
"[...] The Habs are at the point of building the foundation. We have a new vice president, a new GM, a new coach, some assistants are new, a new captain. So what do we want to do, we want to get the new message out, what is our new philosophy, our way of doing things, what is the work ethic." - Philippe Boucher
So the organization wants all the players who may have the privilege of wearing the CH jersey in the coming years to have this new message. They want, according to Boucher, to start on new foundations and show what the Montreal Canadiens 2.0 is.
You can listen to the full interview here.
| POLL | ||
Who do you think has the best chance of surprising at camp? | ||
| Xhekaj | 111 | 37.2 % |
| Beck | 76 | 25.5 % |
| Mesar | 66 | 22.1 % |
| Heineman | 45 | 15.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
