It was a relatively quiet week in terms of scheduled games in the European leagues, although every single Montreal Canadiens prospect playing in Europe managed to hit the score sheet.
Joonas Nättinen, JYP Jyväskylä
Nättinen’s team, JYP, struggled on the weekend, losing games by scores of 6-3 and 6-2. While Nättinen managed to earn an assist, he was also a -4 in both games.
Lukas Vejdemo, Djurgården IF
Vejdemo is taking steps forward every week. For the match against Karlskrona, his trio was promoted as the first line. Unfortunately it was a little bit too much, a little bit too soon for the youngsters, and Vejdemo was only given seven minutes of ice time.
Magnus Nygren, Färjestad
After Nygren scored a goal to tie the game 3-3 (Färjestad was 3-0 down to Frölunda after eight minutes) he said, “that was one of the best shots in my career,” and burst out laughing while claiming that the “rabbit chaser” was just a fluke. The term doesn’t really translate, but essentially Nygren admitted that he shanked the shot.
The Frölunda / Färjestad game was the game of the season so far in SHL, and was decided during the 3-on-3 overtime, in a game that had the crowd sitting on the edge of their seats. Frölunda ended up winning 4-3.
Artturi Lehkonen, Frölunda
Lehkonen continues to adapt to his centre duties, but he isn’t the type of player to complain. He ends up behind the play at times, and other times he is at his former right wing position.
The one positive thing from the Färjestad game was that he actually had a winning percentage on the draws with 57%, indication he is improving in that department. In the match prior to the rivalry game against Färjestad, Lehkonen scored his first goal of the season in SHL, on a breakaway against Malmö.
Martin Reway, Sparta Prague
Reway was phenomenal in the shootout against Mountfield HK where he started off by netting his first 5-on-5 goal for the season in the Extraliga. Not to be outdone by the goal from Lehkonen the night before, Reway took it upon himself to score three (!) goals in the shootout. All three times leaning on his backhand to do the damage.
After the game Reway said that the last time he might have scored three times in a shootout was when he was a kid. He continued to tell us that he is not afraid of taking penalty shots, because he usually stays behind to work on his moves once practice is over.
