Drouin embracing pressure of being a Quebec-born Canadien

There are times when Jonathan Drouin still wonders if this is all a fantasy.

Like when he gets stopped on the streets of Montreal by loyal Canadiens fans welcoming him to the Habs. Like when he goes to the grocery store and people browsing for chow stop in their tracks to ask if he can pose for a photo with them. Or when he spots pedestrians walking down Sainte-Catharine Street wearing T-shirts with the name DROUIN on the back.

“It’s all still a dream come true,” he told Postmedia on Thursday during the NHL’s annual media tour. “Sometimes I’m just speechless.”

To that end, Drouin, 22, vividly recalls being at a loss for words back on June 15. That’s the day he was on the way to the golf course to join his buddies when his phone rang. It would be a call, he says, that “changed my life forever.”

The voice on the other end of the line: Allan Walsh, his agent. The message: Kid, you’ve just been traded by the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Montreal Canadiens for Mikhail Sergachev, a highly regarded blue-line prospect.

For Drouin, a native of SainteAgathe-des-Monts, Que., the raw emotions of the moment consumed him. He quickly phoned his dad Serge, who had grown up attending Habs games first at the famed Montreal Forum, then the Bell Centre.

Now, three months after the deal, the reality of the situation is about to set in.

On Sept. 20, the Canadiens will play host to the Washington Capitals in a pre-season game, their second of the exhibition campaign and their first at the Bell Centre.

As such, it will provide Drouin with his opportunity — should coach Claude Julien decide to dress him that night — to step onto the ice in a Habs jersey at the home of the Canadiens and look up at the countless banners dangling from above, ones sporting legendary names like Richard and Beliveau and Lafleur.

“I’m going to have goosebumps all over my body when that happens,” Drouin said. “Looking up at the banners in the rafters, my grandfather watched some of those guys play and I’ve heard all the stories. When you live in

Montreal you hear about yearlong stories of the past.

“It’s going to be special. It is different for me than some other guys, being from Quebec. It’s a huge honour to be part of the Habs.”

Playing in his native province is something all of Quebec is embracing. In Drouin, there is a local kid who has a penchant for scoring goals — 21 last season with the Lightning — while showing the type of flair that can bring spectators out of their seats. The next Guy Lafleur? Maybe that’s an unfair comparison. But he’s going to hear things like that. He has already. That’s how much the fans are thirsting for a scoring star from their beloved la belle province.

Such is the pressure on Jonathan Drouin’s shoulders. Fair or unfair, it’s there. He knows it. And he’s already prepared for it.

“That comes from being in a big hockey market,” he said. “They’re so passionate. Sometimes they’ll get mad, curse at some guys. But guys have been through it before and it won’t be different for me.

“It’s definitely going to be different for me than it was in Tampa. There’s definitely stints for me where you don’t score for four or five games. It will be interesting to see how I deal with it. You try not to think about it but at the same time, I think it’s better if you are ready and deal with it rather than if it pops up and you aren’t ready.”

Colorado Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon, for one, feels Drouin can handle the backlash, should there be any. The two players were teammates in junior with the Halifax Mooseheads.

“He’s got the talent,” MacKinnon said.

“I think he’s unbelievable and I think mentally he’s going to be fine. I think that he’ll realize that some days he’ll be God and other days they’ll say he’ll be terrible. I think that’s just the way it is. It is for everybody in Montreal.

“But at the end of the day, they love their team and they’ll love the type of player that he is.”

Jonathan Drouin has already braced himself for the criticism. He just hopes he plays well enough to keep it from coming.

If he can pull that off, the localboy-done-good will be hearing far more cheers than jeers.

“Being from Quebec, I thought I felt the passion, but it’s not really the case until you play for them,” he said.

“Just being back in the city, meeting the older players, the legends, like Serge Savard, and just the history of the team in the city.

“It’s very different. And very special.”