Martin St-Louis Completely Shakes Up His Lines Following Embarrassing 9-2 Loss
The Canadiens made changes following the embarrassing loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins and Sidney Crosby.
Martin St-Louis indeed shook things up, making some adjustments to his lineup mid-game.
The most notable change made by MSL was (finally) removing Alex Newhook from the first line.
Will these changes be permanent? Time will tell, but this was observed last night during the game.
Slafkovsky returns with Caufield and Suzuki.
Newhook joins Dach and Laine.
-Anthony Martineau
Do you like this new top-six?
Juraj Slafkovsky back on the first line with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield
This is where he has found the most success since the beginning of his young career, and I personally believe this is a very good move.
In any case, it's not much of a loss for Kirby Dach's line, as it simply wasn't working anyways for that trio.
Alex Newhook is now effectively playing with Dach and Patrik Laine.
Will it last? We'll find out in the coming hours, but I think it would be a good thing for Slaf.
Juraj Slafkovsky has 15 points in 26 games this season.
Kirby Dach has 9 points in 29 games this season.
Alex Newhook has 6 points in 29 games this season (6 goals).
I'd be curious to see Emil Heineman (10 points in 28 games) get an opportunity within the Canadiens' top six. I really think the results could be pleasantly surprising.
In short, it's a situation to monitor, but it's clear that Martin St-Louis significantly stirred the pot last night mid-game.
As we reported earlier today, St-Louis also made changes on defense, demoting Hutson from the first power-play unit and reinstating Matheson.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 13 | 1956 ANSWERS Martin St-Louis Completely Shakes Up His Lines Following Embarrassing 9-2 Loss Who do you think should play with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield? | ||
| Patrik Laine | 724 | 37 % |
| Juraj Slafkovsky | 967 | 49.4 % |
| Alex Newhook | 160 | 8.2 % |
| Kirby Dach or other | 105 | 5.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
