Mete back with Habs after glory at juniors

When the Canadiens meet the Boston Bruins Saturday (7 p.m. CBC, Sportsnet, TVA Sports, TSN-690 Radio), there will be one Montreal player who has some recent experience with winning.

The Canadiens gathered in Brossard Friday after a four-day break for the so-called bye week and they were led in their stretching exercises by rookie defenceman Victor Mete, who returned to Montreal after helping Canada win the gold medal at the world junior championships.

Mete’s status with the Canadiens became a bit clearer last Sunday when general manager Marc Bergevin said the 19-year-old would “probably” finish the season in Montreal rather than return to the junior London Knights.

While Bergevin’s words were welcome, the word probably wasn’t lost on Mete.

“It’s good that he said that, but I just have to keep fighting,” Mete said. “He said probably, but hopefully I can make it permanently. I’m ready for whatever they want me to do, whether it’s playing big minutes like I did at the beginning of the season or even just 10 to 12 minutes. I’m happy to be here and I want to be here.”

Mete played 27 games with the Canadiens before he was loaned to the junior team.

“Obviously, when I was sent down, my only goal was to win a gold medal and that happened and then I wanted to come back here,” Mete said.

If the alignment at Friday’s practice is any indication, head coach Claude Julien isn’t wasting any time putting Mete back to work.

Mete practised on the third pairing with David Schlemko.

“We’ve kept him, we certainly expect to play him,” Julien said.

“We haven’t looked any further than that. Right now, I have another player who we can utilize the best way we can.”

The Canadiens have five games in eight nights, with the Bruins supplying the opposition in three of those games.

Julien made a small change in his forward lines in preparation for the Bruins. Artturi Lehkonen joins Phillip Danault and Max Pacioretty, while Charles Hudon will play with Jonathan Drouin and Alex Galchenyuk.

“There’s all kinds of reasons for making that small change,” Julien said. “When you look at the team we’re playing tomorrow, they have some pretty explosive guys up front. I think it’s important to get some experienced guys to play against them. This could be short term, but right now I get the last change and it’s up to me to make the right decisions.”