HABS’ BYRON SETTLES IN
Loves living in Montreal
The Canadiens’ Paul Byron grew up in Ottawa, but he now calls Montreal home — 12 months a year.
Byron, wife Sarah Leblond and their two young children have settled nicely into a home near the Canadiens’ Brossard practice facility and will spend the summer there.
“It’s just nice and convenient to have all your stuff in one spot and not moving it around year-round, lugging beds and cribs and toys,” Byron said Wednesday after skating in Brossard with Formula One driver Valtteri Bottas as part of a Canadian Grand Prix event.
Byron added he could see his family settling in Montreal after his career is over.
Wednesday marked the first time Byron had skated since the Canadiens’ first-round playoff loss to the New York Rangers. He posted 21-22-43 totals during the regular season, but had only one goal in six playoff games.
“It was a tough series … tough loss,” Byron said. “You just kind of think back and wonder what went wrong. Obviously, we didn’t get enough goal scoring to get the job done. Carey (Price) was great for us like he always is, giving us a chance to win every night. At the end of the day, I think our top scorers in the regular season just didn’t score enough in the playoffs. I only had one goal. To win in the playoffs you need timely goal scoring and we just didn’t have it. I think it’s something that’s going to come. I believe in this team, I believe in everyone in this room. You just work harder to get better next year.”
Coach Claude Julien didn’t have a chance to make many changes to the Canadiens’ system after taking over from the fired Michel Therrien on Valentine’s Day. But Julien will now have a full training camp to implement his own system for next season and there could also be quite a few roster changes.
Byron will be entering the second season of a three-year, US$3.5million contract.
“I never thought I’d like Montreal as much as I do growing up as a kid,” the bilingual Byron said. “Even though Quebec’s so close to Ottawa, I was always an English kid living in Ottawa and that was home to me. But ever since coming here, having my house here, kids here, it’s just blown my expectations away. I like the city a lot more than I ever thought I would. It’s got beautiful culture, a lot of people here, amazing, friendly. There’s certainly more to do here in Montreal.”
Byron will have more time than he wanted this summer to get to know the city better.