The Montreal Canadiens officially kicked off the 2024-25 NHL season today at the 48th annual Canadiens Golf Tournament at Club de Golf Laval-sur-le-Lac.
Owner Geoff Molson, vice president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton, general manager Kent Hughes, head coach Martin St. Louis, and players Patrik Laine, Juraj Slafkovsky, Mike Matheson, and Samuel Montembault answered questions from the media. Here were the main takeaways:
Geoff Molson: “The players have higher expectations of themselves as well , and I think there’s every reason to believe that we would be in the mix and competing for a playoff spot. The bar is high always on our team and the expectations are high but at the same time, it’s a process.”
”Jeff (Gorton) has a ton of experience. His being involved in one of these situations with the New York Rangers and one of the things he brings to Marty and Kent, who are greener, I think he brings that understanding of the importance of patience and the three of them work really well as a group.”
Vice President Jeff Gorton: ”Just the evolution of the team. Where we’re going next. It excites me. I think the summer has been good. We were able to take care of some players long-term that are going to be here, and able to acquire (Laine), and do some things that I think will help and we’ll have to see how it works out with how the young players will play and if they’re ready to help us now we have a lot of good young players we have a lot of players here so I think the competition for spots should be better now we’re increasing our talent pool.”
”I’m not going to put it past this team to do that be in the mix. I know the players in that room feel very confident about that team and what we can do this year. After the season progresses and it gets to the trade deadline we’re still in there playing meaningful games and competing for a playoff spot I think that will be important for our group, the evolution. We’ve had a few years where we picked five a couple of times and first, so it will be nice to see if we can move it along and as the season goes along and we’re getting into April and we’re playing games that really matter.”
”Certainly I would like to make the playoffs and think our team could but I’ve been through this before with a couple of other teams when they’re rebuilding and you just like to see…you know…I think the players on the ice will tell you if they’re ready.”
”I think I said last year there are a lot of players on our team that still haven’t hit their ceiling and so there’s a lot of unknown as we go into camp and head into the season we’re going to learn more and more about our team and we’ll know what kind of team we have so for me to sit here the first day of cat and say oh yeah, yeah, we’re a great team or whatever…we’ll see.”
”I think our offense will take care of itself. I think we can be a team that can be pretty good offensively. If we want to be in that mix we’re going to have to keep our goals against down. We know we’ve got to be better defensively.”
”You can’t have enough defence I don’t think we have a problem there. A lot of them are young and if they have to be in the miners they’ll be in the minors, that’s just the way it is but I never apologize for having too many defenseman I think it’s a good thing.”
”Obviously, we’ve talked to a lot of people that know him and been around him his whole life. Once we did all that homework we talked to him and we just felt like this was a risk well worth taking.”
Coach Martin St. Louis: “The thing that excites me the most is the package that (Laine) has and the things that he’s done in this league. That’s exciting. The key is can we get that back and you’re not going to get that back without him being excited about playing so I don’t have anything that really scares me you know I think we’re going to get going here and see how it all fits he’s got to try to get acclimated with all of his teammates, new city and stuff so you know, if there are a few Finns on the team usually you will see them together and I think Armia sees that Patrik is in a new situation here and he just wants to guide him here.”
”There are not a lot of changes. It’s not like we’re adding five or six new players so I like the continuity of what we’re doing. We’re a very familiar group and I think that helps us.”
”I’m very excited about our roster. I think we had had a very good summer with locking up some of our young core guys and bringing in Patrick and getting a healthy Kirby Dach there’s a lot to be excited about and that’s just one part every team is going to look at the roster this year before the season starts and now it’s what you do with it.”
”I helped (Alex Burrows) with the power play the last couple of years. When he stepped down I wanted that continuity with the power play and I wanted to take care of it, and I don’t feel like I needed to bring in a coach when I want to do it so it wouldn’t be fair for that guy coming in so I was looking more for somebody who could be an extension of the staff. I was looking for an older person and what Roger (Grillo) has done throughout his coaching career and post career he had experience that was kind of fitting for what I was looking for and obviously I’ve had in a relationship for a long time so he’s going to be an extension to help for all of the departments and the staff.”
Patrik Laine: “Practice has been a little bit different from what I’m used to… kind of like game-like drills. I’m a big fan of that. Overall experience has been really good so far and I’m sure that it stays like that.
”I think for me personally to stay healthy and have a good time. Obviously, when you do those two things there is a really good chance for success. This team has a lot of great pieces and I’m happy to come on and try to help as much as I can and fans are expecting a lot of great things from myself and so do I but I’ve got to really stay patient. I haven’t played in a while and so I just think that’s the biggest thing for me, just to give myself time to get back at it and stay patient
”I feel like there’s no better place to play in terms 0f a hockey market so I’m super excited to be here and to finally have these fans on my side for once.”
Laine was asked how he would deal with the pressure if he gets off to a slow start: “I don’t like to get into ifs. It’s always easy you say ifs and buts and maybes. We’ll deal with that if that happens but just try to help the team win as much as I can and do my part…whether it’s scoring or doing something else. I try to do my job. I think just embrace it. I think that it’s great that people here care. If you lose they’re going to be passed off but that’s because they care and they want to win. I don’t mind it.”
”(Joel Armia)said a lot of good things. He’s said he’s lived being here and he said he’s been here seven years and he’d want to be here forever so I feel like everybody’s said that.”
”It’s just a game. We get to play this game we love. It’s just a game. If we have a bad game, don’t dwell on it.”
”I feel like I’m light years ahead as a player than what I was when I was 18 years old but I’m still entering my prime, I’ve still got hopefully a lot of years left…but just very to get better each year. I feel I’ve been doing that…hopefully the results will come as well.”
Juraj Slafkovsky: “It doesn’t really matter about the contract. It’s just good that it’s out of the way and I know I’ll be here for a long time. I will just focus on the work and our goals.”
”I already set some goals which I’m not going to tell everyone here. I will keep them for myself. Whatever my individual goals are…I’ll tell you at the end of the season if I did that.”
”It’s great to have a lot of good forwards, that means more goals and I think that means more wins. We’ll see how we do now that everyone is healthy.”
”Pretty much (worked on) everything (in the offseason). Getting faster, getting stronger, getting lighter again. Just trying to get better overall. Now I weigh 101 kilos (223 pounds).”
”In summer…I don’t know. I just try to rest. Stay away from people as much as I can. Just stay in my house in Kosice.
”Yeah. It’s a little bit hard (to go to the store). I go to buy some clothes with my sister and it ends up with a full photo shoot in the mall.”
”I was happy (when Laine signed). He’s a great player and he can only help us. He scores 40 goals or something it will be good for us, so it’s good to have a player like him in my opinion.”
”I wanted to be sure I was 100 percent ready for the season. Unfortunately I had to miss the (Olympic) qualification but thankfully, we got there.”
