Rookie Kotkaniemi showing he can play with big boys
Finn’s play, willingness to stick up for Price earn points with teammates
The Canadiens, who are off to a 4-1-2 start, have three games this week with the Calgary Flames visiting the Bell Centre Tuesday night (7:30 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio), followed by road games Thursday night against the Buffalo Sabres and Saturday night against the Boston Bruins.
If Canadiens rookie Jesperi Kotkaniemi plays in all three games, he will reach the 10-game mark and his NHL entry-level contract will automatically kick in.
The Canadiens will have a decision to make after Kotkaniemi plays Game No. 9 about whether to keep the 18-year-old or send him back to Assat Pori in the Finnish Elite League for more seasoning, while also saving a year on his entry-level contract.
It doesn’t look like Kotkaniemi is going anywhere and after practice Monday at the Bell Centre he got a vote of confidence when head coach Claude Julien said he hadn’t even discussed the 10-game mark with the Finnish teen. As for Kotkaniemi, he keeps giving the same answer when asked about his future: “One day at a time.” It always comes with a big smile. Kotkaniemi had his teammates smiling during overtime of the Canadiens’ 4-3 loss to the Senators Saturday night in Ottawa.
With 2:41 remaining in the OT period, Carey Price stopped Ottawa’s Chris Tierney on a breakaway and then the Senators’ Colin White skated into the Canadiens goalie, trying to knock loose a rebound.
Kotkaniemi didn’t hesitate coming to Price’s defence, shoving White away from the net and then exchanging a few more shoves and pushes with him.
“I respect it … I love it,” the Canadiens’ Andrew Shaw said about Kotkaniemi’s reaction — not to mention the fact the kid was even on the ice in OT. “I want him to continue doing that. Stand his ground and never back down. You show weakness in this league and people will try and take advantage of it.
“I gave him the old slap on the shoulder and told him: ‘Keep it up,’ ” added Shaw, who has become a big-brother figure to Kotkaniemi in the locker-room.
“Don’t change a thing. Guys respect that and Pricey respects that. It just shows how tight our room is right now.”
Added teammate Jordie Benn about Kotkaniemi’s reaction: “I wouldn’t say I was surprised. There’s kind of like this unwritten rule in hockey that if your goalie gets touched someone goes after him. But to see it was KK, it was good to see.”
Nicolas Deslauriers is the Canadiens’ resident tough guy and he also praised Kotkaniemi’s reaction.
“It was good,” said Deslauriers, who played his first game of the season against the Senators after suffering a facial fracture during a pre-season game fight with the New Jersey Devils’ Brandon Baddock.
“You see there’s a little bit of character in him. It’s always good to see that. If he gets it at a young age, it’s always a plus.”
The last thing the Canadiens want to see is Kotkaniemi dropping his gloves to fight — he has never had one in his hockey life — but there are other ways to defend a teammate, especially your star goaltender.
Kotkaniemi showed he’s willing to do that.
“I think that’s not fine if a guy is slashing our best player,” Kotkaniemi said after Monday’s practice.
“So I think someone needs to take care of that.”
Kotkaniemi has three assists in his first seven games and a plus-3 rating, averaging 14:17 of ice time while winning 41.9 per cent of his faceoffs. The Canadiens are the worst team in the NHL on faceoffs, winning only 42.6 per cent.
“Right now, I don’t see a guy who’s necessarily out of place,” Julien said about Kotkaniemi.
“If people expected him to lead our team in scoring, I don’t think that’s necessarily realistic, right? But he is producing. Even on faceoffs, we’re not a good faceoff team, but he’s certainly not down there at the bottom of our group.
“I think he’s a young guy that’s learning about the league and that’s what we’re seeing,” the coach added. “The more comfortable he’s going to get, the more experience he’s going to get … right now we have a feeling he’s going to get better. So that’s how we’re looking at it.”
One reporter joked after practice Monday, asking Kotkaniemi what would come first: his first NHL goal or his first NHL fight?
“Maybe both in the same game,” the teenager said with another big smile.
There’s kind of like this unwritten rule in hockey that if your goalie gets touched someone goes after him.