Bottom Six Minutes pre-season: Habs win, Romanov shines

After taking a 7-2 stomping at the hands of the Ottawa Senators on Friday night, the Montreal Canadiens took to home ice against a different iteration of the same team. Being that these are exhibitions with non-NHL players, there’s no cause for concern, but of course the team and it’s fans would hope for a better effort on Bell Centre ice.

Welcome to your Bottom Six Minutes for a significantly better effort than that 7-2 stomping as the Habs win 2-1 at home.

Alexander Romanov looked fantastic for a pre-season game. Though Jeff Petry certainly had his impact on the ice, the young Russian was arguably the best defender for the Tricolore. If this is a sign of him taking the next step, it’s a very good thing for this team’s chances this season.

Brendan Gallagher also showed signs of being back to his regular self. Given that he’s currently being penciled in as a third liner for the Habs this year, it could give them a real scoring punch in the top half of their bottom six.

I’ll also touch on the efforts of Nick Suzuki, Cayden Primeau, and Ryan Poehling. The latter of the three appears as if he’s done enough to earn a chance at the fourth-line centre duties for the season.

There are of course still some more practice games to get in, and we’ll know more the closer we get to the actual season starting. It could be very telling when looking at who suits up for the Habs in their next pre-season tilt next Tuesday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.