Road trip will test rookie Kotkaniemi’s mettle
As the Canadiens prepared to hit the road for games in Buffalo and Boston, coach Claude Julien was saying that it’s nice to be tested early in the season.
Julien was talking about his surprising team as a whole, but there’s one player who will face an added challenge this weekend — rookie centre Jesperi Kotkaniemi.
The 18-year-old Finn played only 12:48 in Tuesday’s 3-2 win over Calgary. Julien insisted he wasn’t cutting back Kotkaniemi’s ice time, but did admit that he hesitated to send the youngster out when Calgary used some of its heavyweights.
That’s the advantage you have when you’re at home. It will be a different matter on the road, starting with Thursday’s game against the improved Sabres (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS. TSN-690 Radio).
The Sabres can test Kotkaniemi with Jack Eichel, Patrik Berglund and Sam Reinhart.
And then there’s Saturday night, when Kotkaniemi will no doubt be introduced to Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci.
“I liked his game last night, there was a good intensity to his game,” Julien said. “He brought it up another notch and that’s a good sign of a young player getting to know the league and getting better all the time.”
There were concerns that Kotkaniemi, who is 6-foot-2 but a mere 184 pounds, might struggle with the more physical North American game. But he had three hits against the Flames and his teammates were still talking about the way he went to the defence of goaltender Carey Price after he was run by Colin White in the Ottawa game Saturday.
“I thought it was the right thing to do,” said Kotkaniemi, adding that hitting and getting hit are “part of the game.”
“I don’t think he’s afraid,” Julien said. “He’s a pretty tall individual and all he needs now is to get a little stronger. He has the height and he’ll fill out with time. He’s not intimidated.”
If you’re keeping count — and Kotkaniemi says he isn’t — the Boston game will be his 10th and that means the first year of his entry-level contract kicks in. There might have been some thought given to sending him back to Finland, but that was dismissed early and it appears he’s here to stay.
The only person with mixed feelings about the decision might be his father, Mikael. He’s proud that his son has made it to the NHL, but he’s the coach at Assat Pori in the Finnish Liiga and life would be easier if his son was playing for the team that has opened the season with a 2-10-3 record.
Kotkaniemi is a small part of the turnaround for the Canadiens this season.
Jonathan Drouin is playing better, newcomers Max Domi and Tomas Tatar have added speed and offence, while Paul Byron and Brendan Gallagher have picked up where they left off last season.
With each game, there are subtle improvements. The power play scored two goals against Calgary, while the penalty kill, which was one of the worst in the league last season, survived five power plays unscathed.
New defensive coach Luke Richardson runs the PK with some input from Julien, who jokes “when it’s working, it’s my PK. When it doesn’t, it’s Luke’s.”
“We have to have that attitude where it’s important to kill that penalty,” Julien said. “Technically, we weren’t bad earlier this season, except we were lacking a little bit. Last night we had that extra effort and hopefully we can bottle that and continue.”
There’s one lineup change for Thursday’s game, with backup Antti Niemi slated to get the start in goal. He’s 2-0 this season.