Chris Kreider is known for his speed and his scoring ability.
But what has impressed me most about the 35-year-old winger through his first seven games with the Canadiens is his ability to make so many smart, little plays, both with and without the puck, and how he doesn’t waste a lot of energy on the ice because of his ability to read the play so well.
Kreider reminds me of Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki with those things.
“Oh wow!” Kreider said with a chuckle when I told him that after the Canadiens practised Friday morning at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard. “I’m not the same (as Suzuki) with the puck, though.”
Kreider is still adjusting to a new team and the Canadiens’ structure with a goal and three assists heading into Saturday’s game at the Bell Centre against the Buffalo Sabres (7 p.m., SNE, TVA Sports). This is Kreider’s 15th season in the NHL after spending 13 years with the New York Rangers and last season with the Anaheim Ducks. The 6-foot-3, 232-pound winger — he’s “a house” as former Canadiens defenceman Jayden Struble put it — has scored at least 20 goals in each of the last eight seasons, including 22 goals last season with the Ducks.
Montreal Canadiens Chris Kreider lines up for a faceoff during first period of National Hockey League game against the Nashville Predators in Montreal Thursday October 8, 2026. John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette
The Canadiens signed Kreider to a one-year, US$2.15-million contract — with another US$3.25 million in potential performance bonuses — on Sept. 12 as a free agent.
“I think you play long enough, you pick up some little — I don’t know — nuances, dirty tricks to try to create a little space for your linemates, whether it’s picking a stick or getting a little skin here or there,” Kreider said. “Obviously, I’m a lot older than Nick, but he’s got that and more. I think those are just the details a player like that has. Might go unnoticed by most people, but really appreciated when you play with him and don’t appreciate when you play against him.”
While Suzuki doesn’t waste energy on the ice, he has become one of the best two-way centres in the NHL, posting 29-72-101 totals last season while winning the Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive forward.
“He’s really smooth,” Kreider said about Suzuki. “I think some guys look like they’re working hard when they’re working hard. I mean, I’ve played with guys who from afar they look really smooth and almost like they’re conserving energy when, in reality, they’re just efficient skaters, good skaters. They maintain their level.
“Up close, you can tell (Suzuki’s) working his ass off every single shift,” Kreider added. “He’s obviously thinking the game and anticipating the game as well. With the amount he plays (averaging 22:01 of ice time this season) he can’t just run around. But he’s not going half speed. He’s pretty much red-lining the whole game. He’s in great shape and he’s a very good skater to boot. He’s also incredibly smart.”
Chris Kreider, right, sits on the bench with linemates Cole Caufield, left, and Nick Suzuki during the first day of Montreal Canadiens training camp at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard on Thursday September 17, 2026. John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette
Kreider sits beside the 27-year-old Suzuki in the Canadiens’ Brossard locker room and at the Bell Centre. The team captain has impressed Kreider as much off the ice as on the ice.
“He’s just consistent in the way he shows up, his professionalism,” Kreider said. “Those are some of the things that have impressed me about the entire group. I think attitude reflects leadership and it starts with him in terms of the way he shows up and the way that he mentally approaches the game, the way he treats people.
“He’s a fantastic leader,” Kreider added. “He comes off as a lot older and wiser than he actually is. They’re lucky to have him.”
Trying to fit in
Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis knows what it’s like to be a veteran player trying to fit in with a new team.
St. Louis was 38 when he joined the New York Rangers near the end of the 2013-14 season after spending the previous 13 years with the Tampa Bay Lightning. One of his new teammates with the Rangers was Kreider, who was a rookie.
Head coach Martin St. Louis speaks with former teammate and newly-signed Chris Kreider during Montreal Canadiens training camp practice at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard on Friday September 18, 2026. John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette
“I think the most difficult thing when you change teams is just going into a new environment and being yourself,” St. Louis said. “That’s the hardest thing. I feel like the environment we have here, I think the guys have smooth transitions because I think they’re allowed to — we want them to be themselves. We have different guys, but we go about it with the same values and just come in here with some enthusiasm, respect and I think that’s very easy for Kreids, the type of human that he is.
“The thing I think is the hardest is probably smooth for Kreids, just because of the environment we have here and the type of human he is,” St. Louis added. “But, of course, on technicality and stuff, the structure, the style of play, that’s an adjustment for everybody and I feel like Kreids is starting to mould himself here and I think the transition is always smoother when guys come in, feel comfortable, be themselves — the non-hockey stuff. I’ve liked it.”
When I asked Kreider if he’s enjoying life in Montreal, he smiled and said: “I am. So far, so good.”
Doing their homework
St. Louis said at the beginning of this week he and his coaching staff did homework over the summer on certain aspects of the game they wanted the team to get better at and brought that to training camp after the Canadiens lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in five games in the Eastern Conference final last season.
The head coach added he was encouraged by what he has seen early this season, but didn’t want to go into the specifics of what that summer homework involved.
“But I would tell you it’s not in the offensive zone,” St. Louis said.
So it was interesting to hear Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery’s comments about the Canadiens ahead of Wednesday’s game in Washington, which the Capitals won 5-4.
“From looking just surface level — and this is just my take on it from watching a little bit of the pre-scouts, from watching them play, from looking at some of the underlying analytics — it looks like they’re same team, same personnel,” Carbery told reporters in Washington. “They’re trying to be a more aggressive defensive team. What I mean by that is really, I noticed on the film, D extremely aggressive down the walls. Trying to pressure you in the neutral zone. So it looks to me like they’re trying to use their skating and their defensive metrics are all up defensively. So it seems like to me Marty’s looking at it: OK, how are we going to get over the hump here? How are we going to beat the Carolinas, the Floridas of the world and we’ve got to become an elite defensive team.
“It’s no secret, that’s the recipe in sports in this league,” Carbery added. “If you want to win a championship, you better be an elite defensive team and it feels like that’s what they’ve really tried to address. Now, they’re not going to do it the same way that necessarily Carolina does it or Florida does it. But it looks like they’re using their team speed to defend. So closing quick, D aggressive because all their D can skate. That’s what I’ve seen.”
Tom Wilson #43 of the Washington Capitals and Josh Anderson #17 of the Montreal Canadiens fight on the bench in the second period of Game Three of the First Round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Bell Centre on April 25, 2025 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images
It’s still a work in progress with the Canadiens ranking 27th in the NHL in defence heading into Saturday night’s game, allowing an average of 3.86 goals per game.
The Brew Crew
The Canadiens’ Cole Caufield grew up in Stevens Point, Wisc., as a huge Milwaukee Brewers fan. Two summers ago, Caufield threw out the ceremonial first pitch before a Brewers game against the Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee’s American Family Field.
When Caufield scored his 50th goal on April 9 last season at the Bell Centre, a video captured his father, Paul, in the stands wiping tears from his eyes while wearing a Brewers baseball cap.
A couple of weeks later, Caufield had a first-person article published in The Player’s Tribune under the headline: Can Someone Get My Old Man a Canadiens Hat?
“I think most people have probably seen the clip of my dad crying in the stands,” Caufield wrote. “Me and my brother were cracking up, because of course he’s wearing a Brewers cap. The guy’s son plays for the Habs and he’s weeping on camera in the quarter-zip and the Brew Crew hat. I guess he had Opening Day fever. Classic. (Security, don’t let him in the building tomorrow without a Habs hat on.)”
It will be hard to take that Brewers cap off the head of Caufield’s father now that the team is in the World Series after sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.
This is the first time the Brewers have been in the World Series since 1982, when they lost in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals. The franchise, which entered MLB for the 1969 season as the Seattle Pilots before relocating to Milwaukee and becoming the Brewers the next year, has never won the World Series.
Caufield played baseball until he was 14 and was a left-handed pitcher.
“It’s fun to see a market like that get recognition and beat a pretty legendary team in four games,” Caufield said after practice Friday. “So hopefully they can keep it going.
“Grew up going to a lot of the games,” Caufield added. “My dad’s a huge fan. It’s just fun to see how they’ve changed kind of baseball. They play the right way. Steal bases, play small ball. Don’t always hit the long ball. The bullpen’s been great. It’s actually been really fun to watch.”
Caufield added it’s fine now if his father wants to wear his Brewers cap to the Bell Centre.
The Brewers will play either the Cleveland Guardians or the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series.
Three’s company
So, a president of hockey operations, a general manager and a head coach walk into a bar …
That’s not the start of a joke. It’s what actually happens often with the Canadiens’ Jeff Gorton, Kent Hughes and St. Louis, who all live in the same downtown Montreal condo building.
“We all live in the same building … we call it’s like a little fraternity for 50-something year olds,” Hughes said when he was a guest during the second intermission of Amazon Prime’s coverage of Wednesday’s game in Washington. “And we have a little pub we go to and we break down games and solve the world’s problems.”
It would certainly be fun to be a fly on the wall in that pub.
VP of hockey operations, Jeff Gorton, left to right, interim head coach Martin St. Louis and general manager Kent Hughes share a laugh after a press conference in Montreal on Thursday, February 10, 2022. Allen McInnis / Montreal Gazette
Three’s a crowd?
It looks like the Canadiens could find themselves in a three-goalie situation again after Samuel Montembeault recovers from a lower-body injury he suffered in practice last week that was expected to sideline him for 10-14 days and joins Jakub Dobes and Jacob Fowler.
Dobes said he doesn’t really mind having three goalies.
“He’s around,” Dobes said about Montembeault after practice last Monday. “He’s doing great. It’s kind of funny to have all the three goalies back together. I feel like we invest (in) each other a little too much.
“It’s great to have the three goalies,” Dobes added. “I personally feel like it feels more fun, to be honest, because we have a good energy around us. I don’t mind that we’re all back together again.”
No cup?
There was an RDS video making the rounds of social media this week of Canadiens players reacting to the fact Struble — who was traded to the Nashville Predators last weekend — doesn’t wear a jockstrap with a protective cup during practices.
“It’s just kind of always what I’ve done,” the defenceman said in the video. “Like practices, not wear it. I feel like it’s a little more free.”
Josh Anderson responded in the video: “That is insane. I didn’t even know that.”
Turns out Struble isn’t the only one who has gone on the ice not wearing a protective cup.
“He didn’t wear one in games and practices until this year, I think,” Canadiens defenceman Arber Xhekaj said about Struble. “I mean, I didn’t wear one until halfway through the first year (in the NHL). I didn’t wear one all junior and then halfway through the first year in the NHL I got speared in the nuts and I was like: ‘That’s it. I’m putting one one.’ It’s probably not the best idea to play without one.”
Ya think?
Bizarre ritual
If you think not wearing a protective cup to play hockey is strange, Xhekaj and teammate Kaiden Guhle also have a very bizarre pre-game ritual at the end of their stretching routine. Xhekaj will whack Guhle on the butt a few times with the butt end of his stick.
How did the routine start?
“I don’t even know,” Guhle said. “It was like our second year together and he just did it and I think we both played good and just kept doing it. … My right ass cheek, sometimes he gets me where there’s no padding and it’s sore.”
“I think it was our first year,” Xhekaj said about the origins of the pre-game routine. “We’d always stretch beside each other and then one day I just kind of smacked him on the ass. I don’t know, we just sort of kept doing it. When he was injured (earlier this season) I was doing it to the air … so I kept it alive.
“It’s just little things to get you locked in the game,” Xhekaj added. “It’s something to keep it light before the game. Don’t be too stressed and just have some fun.”
Gaining confidence
Xhekaj has been playing with more confidence this season — both offensively and defensively — and it really shows.
The 6-foot-4, 240-pound defenceman is also being used as a penalty-killer. Xhekaj has logged 14:12 of short-handed ice time through the first seven games this season after finishing last season with 20:06 of short-handed ice time in 65 games.
“I’m just trusting my game and just making the easy plays and staying on the D side and kind of keeping it tight,” Xhekaj said. “I feel like being on the PK’s helping a little bit, too. Keeping me involved in the game. I don’t feel like I got to go run around and make a huge hit. I just kind of let it come to me. I think just kind of what I’ve been doing.
“I just think me in general as a player, I think I fit a penalty-killing role,” he added. “I’m big, I take up a lot of ice, I got a long stick. I think that just helps in general.”
I agree.
Nice ink
Guhle did more than just recover from adductor-muscle surgery this summer that resulted in him missing the first four games of the season.
The 24-year-old also had a full-sleeve tattoo done on his right arm at Oly Anger Tattoo in Montreal’s Old Port. The artwork is very impressive.
“I kind of started with everywhere I lived,” Guhle said. “So I got Edmonton, Grande Prairie, Prince Albert and then I got Montreal in here, too. And then everything else just kind of tied into family. I got the dates of when we won (the WHL championship with the Edmonton Oil Kings) in junior. It all has meaning to it.
“I got the first one and then the OCD in me took over and I kind of had to get the whole arm done,” Guhle added. “I’ve always wanted to get one and I didn’t really know what to do. Then I started talking to Chat(GPT) one day for like an hour and a half and put together the first piece and then it all just kind of came together.”
Guhle hasn’t decided yet if he might get another sleeve tattoo on his left arm.
“We’ll stick with one for now,” he said with a grin. “My mom says one arm’s good. She might not be happy if I do two.”
Xhekaj also has several tattoos and likes the artwork on Guhle.
“I’m into tattoos,” Xhekaj said. “He got it pretty fast, too, which I think that’s the way you got to do it. I don’t think you can piece stuff together year by year. I think you got to kind of get all your ideas in one basket and go for it right off the bat. I think it looks good. It suits him.”
The great outdoors
The Canadiens practised Friday wearing the brown gloves and blue pants they will use for next Sunday’s outdoor Heritage Classic game against the Jets at Winnipeg’s Princess Auto Stadium (7 p.m., SN, TVA Sports).
“First time I’ve ever had to do it (break in new equipment) for just one game,” Guhle said. “But, honestly, the gloves and the pants feel pretty good. I like the gloves a lot. They feel really good. The sweaters are great. They’re nice. They’re still pretty similar, but the brown gloves and the pants and stuff will make a big difference. It’s pretty sharp.”
Goalies Dobes and Fowler also wore the equipment they will use for the Heritage Classic during Friday’s practice.
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