{"id":577233,"date":"2026-03-31T22:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T22:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/577233\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T22:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T22:49:08","slug":"jayden-struble-gains-foothold-on-canadiens-blue-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/577233\/","title":{"rendered":"Jayden Struble gains foothold on Canadiens’ blue line"},"content":{"rendered":"

There have been trials and tribulations this season for Canadiens defenceman Jayden Struble in his quest to become a regular along the blue line.<\/p>\n

He was a healthy scratch for Montreal\u2019s opening four games and 22 times overall while he battled Arber Xhekaj for playing time as the team\u2019s sixth defenceman.<\/p>\n

But Struble has played the last seven games, scored his first goal of the season last Thursday against Columbus<\/a>, and has generally performed well while appearing to earn the trust of head coach Martin St. Louis.<\/p>\n

And with fellow rearguard Alexandre Carrier sidelined two to four weeks<\/a> with an upper-body injury, Struble\u2019s spot on the Canadiens could be further enhanced, despite Monday\u2019s recall of defenceman Adam Engstrom<\/a> from the AHL\u2019s Laval Rocket.<\/p>\n

While Engstrom practised with Lane Hutson in Tampa ahead of Tuesday night\u2019s game, Engstrom did extra work after the session \u2014 indicating he wouldn\u2019t play against the Lightning \u2014 further solidifying Struble\u2019s status.<\/p>\n

Kaiden Guhle was teamed with Xhekaj, who dressed as a forward on the fourth line during Sunday\u2019s game at Carolina.<\/p>\n

Jakub Dobes, named the NHL\u2019s first star of the week<\/a> on Monday, was expected to start against the Lightning, while forward Josh Anderson, who left Saturday\u2019s game against Nashville feeling ill, was also slated to return.<\/p>\n

Although Struble has been playing regularly of late, the 24-year-old native of Cumberland, R.I., won\u2019t allow complacency to affect his game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m playing hard and killing a lot of plays,\u201d Struble said before the Canadiens embarked on their five-game, nine-day road trip. \u201cI\u2019m hard to play against. I\u2019m happy with my games recently. But I\u2019m never going to be really comfortable, which is a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Struble, who has been teamed with Hutson of late, has one goal and 11 points through 50 games. While the 6-foot, 207-pounder will never be known for his offensive prowess, he provides the Canadiens with a physical presence while working hard to improve his defensive play. He has a plus-5 goal differential while averaging 13:40 of ice time.<\/p>\n

Struble believes being teamed with Hutson has improved his overall game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s awesome,\u201d Struble said. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the better players I\u2019ve played with. Just being able to get the puck to him and watch him do whatever is pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Canadiens'Canadiens\u2019 Jayden Struble celebrates after scoring his first goal of the season during a 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets in Montreal on March 26, 2026. John Mahoney \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n

The Canadiens took a season-long five-game winning streak into Tampa in a potential opening round Atlantic Division playoff matchup.<\/p>\n

While a five-game road trip this late in the season could have derailed the Canadiens\u2019 playoff aspirations, they continue winning thanks to solid goaltending from Dobes and Jacob Fowler<\/a>, along with sound defensive play and some balanced scoring.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur second and third periods have been good and we\u2019re not panicking,\u201d Struble said. \u201cWe\u2019re adapting to the game that\u2019s in front of us and we\u2019re killing a lot of plays. We haven\u2019t let up that much in the games we\u2019ve played. We know our assignments and I think we\u2019re pretty good in the neutral zone. I think we\u2019re going pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canadiens have been remarkably resilient on the road this season, posting a 20-8-8 record. That translates to a .667 winning percentage and is the fourth-best road record in the NHL. Only Colorado, Tampa Bay and Dallas have higher winning percentages.<\/p>\n

After some early-season struggles at the Bell Centre that included a three-game losing streak in November \u2014 along with a pair of two-game skids \u2014\u00a0the Canadiens have improved to 22-13-2 on home ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, we might play better on the road,\u201d Struble said. \u201cYou\u2019re all together, going out to dinner. There\u2019s a lot of team bonding. You\u2019re at the hotel. It helps bring the group closer.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s a tendency to play a more simple game on the road, because entertaining fans isn\u2019t paramount, centre Jake Evans said there\u2019s no correlation between the way the Canadiens play depending on the venue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even know our record on the road compared to home,\u201d he said. \u201cIf anything, going on the road helps with the energy levels sometimes. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a real reason, just a coincidence. We like playing (at home) and get energy here. I guess, on the road, we find other ways to get that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have one goal in mind \u2014\u00a0to keep pushing and peak, playing our best hockey of the season for the playoffs,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s a good challenge for us to play some good teams (this trip). Keep pushing our game to new levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

hzurkowsky@postmedia.com<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There have been trials and tribulations this season for Canadiens defenceman Jayden Struble in his quest to become…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-577233","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\/577233","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=577233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}