{"id":229445,"date":"2025-10-21T07:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T07:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/229445\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T07:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T07:54:09","slug":"hot-rookies-helping-to-make-montreal-canadiens-tougher-to-play-against","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/229445\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot rookies helping to make Montreal Canadiens tougher to play against"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2014 A year after having the rookie of the year in the lineup, the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> might even have a better group this season.<\/p>\n

Led by Oliver Kapanen<\/a>, who scored the opening goal \u2014 his rookie-leading fourth of the season \u2014 in Monday\u2019s 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres<\/a>, and Ivan Demidov<\/a> who is tied for the league lead for rookie points, the Canadiens have more points from rookies (nine) than any other team in the NHL this season.<\/p>\n

A third rookie, goaltender Jakub Dobes<\/a>, made 29 saves to move to 3-0. Dobes, who is in his first full season in the NHL, now has a .939 save percentage and 1.63 goals against average.<\/p>\n

Kapanen, Demidov, and Dobes all received some playoff experience last season and have taken their opportunity to step up for the Canadiens through the team\u2019s first seven games. While Demidov was expected to produce offensively, Kapanen has been a pleasant surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis intelligence always puts him in the right place on both sides of the ice,\u201d said Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis<\/a>. \u201cHe understands that he plays with Demidov who will do this thing but he\u2019s always in the right place. His offensive touch will continue to improve as he gets used to the speed of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the Achilles heels of the Canadiens last season was that they often relied on the line of Cole Caufield<\/a>, Nick Suzuki<\/a> and Juraj Slafkovsky to score. Having the line of Demidov, Kapanen, and Alex Newhook<\/a> contributing could change the way people may have to play against them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps us a lot,\u201d said Canadiens defender Lane Hutson<\/a>, no stranger to strong rookie seasons as last year\u2019s Calder Trophy winner. \u201cThe depth throughout the lineup, we have a lot of guys who step up and it\u2019s different every night. So to have that luxury of guys who can score and create opportunities it\u2019s pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dobes was named the game\u2019s third star, and said it was the first time he earned the honour at the Bell Centre, and now has 10 wins in 18 career regular-season starts. He also had the crowd of 20,962 chant his name a couple of times in the third period.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels good, I love the fans. I\u2019m glad they showed me some love,\u201d Dobes said. \u201cYou try to stay as humble as possible, hopefully it will happen more and I will get used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was great,\u201d said Canadiens forward Jake Evans<\/a>. \u201cHe looks huge out there and made some huge saves. We left him out to dry in the second period and he kept us in it and I\u2019m happy we got the win for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

JAYS FEVER HITS MONTREAL<\/p>\n

After winning their own game, the Canadiens players quickly turned their attention to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners.<\/p>\n

Evans rushed his post-game interview before going to the back to watch the game, finishing his availability with \u201cGo Jays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josh Anderson<\/a> delayed his interview until after George Springer\u2019s game-winning home run. The homer was met with an eruption of cheers that disrupted the interviews in progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we got a lot of guys on the bandwagon right now,\u201d said Anderson, a Toronto-area native.<\/p>\n

Hutson, one of the Americans on the team, is among the converts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not really into baseball but (Brendan Gallagher<\/a>) made me a Blue Jays fan,\u201d said Hutson. \u201cHe said I have no choice. It\u2019s cool what they\u2019re doing right now and maybe I\u2019ll tune in a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2025.<\/p>\n

Jared Book, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2014 A year after having the rookie of the year in the lineup, the Montreal Canadiens might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-229445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}