BROSSARD, Que.— The sequence starts with Jonathan Drouin driving straight to the net.
From there, he crosschecks Tyson Barrie in the back, pitchforks him with his stick to gain position on him in front of the net, and then he leans in and just misses an opportunity to tip the puck past goaltender Michael Hutchinson.
The sequence ends with Drouin going to the penalty box for slashing — the result of a hefty whack he takes at the puck, which Hutchinson has frozen in his glove. Sure, it’s a penalty taken 200 feet from his own net, one putting a lethal Toronto Maple Leafs power play to work in a game the Montreal Canadiens are already trailing 3-1, but it’s also a sample of how involved Drouin has been in his team’s first two games of the regular season.
There have been several more since the puck dropped in Carolina against the Hurricanes last Thursday.
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“He’s been incredible,” said Canadiens teammate Paul Byron after Monday’s practice.
“He’s been playing great for us. Honestly, probably our best player other than Carey (Price). His effort, his skating, just his intensity on the ice—he’s been playing great hockey for us. That’s the player we all believe he can be. It’s the player we all know he can be for our team, and it’s important for us because I think he’s our best forward. He can be (that) on any given night.”
On too many nights last season, Drouin was nowhere near that. He struggled to engage and it showed when he finished with just a goal and seven points over his last 26 games after recording 18 goals and 46 points over his first 55 games.
And it appeared as though Drouin was picking up where he left off when he cruised through four of Montreal’s first six pre-season games and opened himself up to a fair deal of criticism — and some fodder the Canadiens may be losing patience with him.
If the 24-year-old has flipped it around completely since then, it’s at least in part due to the approach Canadiens coach Claude Julien has taken with him — urging the media to take it easy on him as camp was wrapping, working with him closely to make it clear he understands the unique pressure the Ste. Agathe, Que., native faces in being a hometown kid and encouraging him to apply what he learned in summer video sessions with Canadiens assistant coach Dominique Ducharme.
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But the lion’s share of the credit belongs to Drouin himself.
“My mindset this year is being more right on (top of) the puck,” he said Monday. “Make sure I’m the first guy that’s there forechecking, and I’m getting involved, and I’m in the game and getting on bodies and hitting guys and stuff like that.”
The results — a goal and an assist and points in each of the first two games — have come directly from that mindset.
You look at the way Drouin prepared Montreal’s second goal in the 4-3 shootout loss to the Hurricanes and you can’t help but be impressed with his second effort on the play. The rush he took up the ice was tantalizing as he flew by Warren Foegele and Sebastian Aho before rocking Jaccob Slavin back on his heels as he gained the zone, but the extra push he made to beat Slavin to a loose puck and feed Artturi Lehkonen for the shot that would generate a rebound for Jesperi Kotkaniemi to put home was exactly what he wanted to prove he’s committed to bringing this season.
“In the past few years you haven’t seen that much from me,” Drouin said.
“That’s what I want to show this year, where I’m involved and I create a small play where maybe last year I didn’t do. It’s those small plays that make a difference and I want to make sure I’m at least making those plays to give a chance to our line to be a difference-maker out there.”
Drouin’s been making those plays all over the ice through two games Julien qualified as ones he’s happy with. He was unquestionably Montreal’s most effective forward in Carolina, and the coach saw him as one of the team’s best through two periods most of his players struggled through in the 6-5 shootout win over Toronto on Saturday.
Drouin was hard on the forecheck, he was effective in all three zones and he played with the type of bite that could take his game to the level most expected to see from him when he was drafted third overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2013.
Coming out of the penalty box after his slash on Hutchinson, Drouin raced down the ice to beat an icing call. Then he doubled back as the puck made its way to the neutral zone, he tracked his way to where it was going and he launched himself at Toronto forward Trevor Moore before nearly going head over heels into Montreal’s bench.
It was far from Drouin’s best play of the night, but the intention behind it was what mattered. And it played a role in building up his confidence for the goal he scored a period later, the goal that gave the Canadiens reason to believe they could erase a 4-1 deficit.
“I could have zero points right now but I’d be feeling pretty good about the way it’s going,” he said. “I do know I have to contribute offensively in this town, (but) I gotta make sure I just keep playing the same way and (the) goals and points will come (as a result).”
Julien knows that’s the key to Drouin unlocking his full potential.
“I think he’s starting to find his game,” the coach said. “We’re just hoping he keeps playing that way.”
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