Marc Dumont
After the Montreal Canadiens picked up centreman Adam Brooks off of waivers from Toronto on Monday, it confirmed what many had suspected throughout the pre-season: whether today, tomorrow or next week, Ryan Poehling will likely play for the Laval Rocket to start the season.
He won’t be in the lineup tonight for Game 1 against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
And that’s okay?
While Montreal Canadiens fans, the coaching staff and Poehling himself are surely disappointed that he wasn’t able to grab the fourth line centre spot in training camp, all is not lost for the 2017 first round pick. It will now be up to him, the Canadiens development team and new Rocket head coach JF Houle to get him back to the level that saw him produce at nearly a point-per game pace in the AHL last season.
When Poehling was first sent down to the farm in 2019-20 after his ludicrous first game in the NHL to end the previous year saw him score a hat-trick and the shootout winner, he didn’t take it well. There were reports out of Laval that he allowed the disappointment of not making the Habs to fester. He was frustrated and it translated to his game both with Laval and eventually through 27 unremarkable games with the Montreal Canadiens.
The good news is that the 22 year-old seems more mature now and able to cope with the ups and downs of trying to establish himself in the NHL.
“Everyone is on their own path,” Poehling told reporters at his first media availability on September 23rd. “You can’t get frustrated with someone else’s path being different than yours and yours being different than someone else’s. The best path is for yourself. For me, I think I’ve kind of realized that and said hey, just continue on the path, continue on the path, trust it. It’s all going to work out in the end and where you should be, you should be.”
Poehling’s own words seem prophetic now after five pre-season games that, for whatever reason, were underwhelming. His physicality was non-existent. His determination to win board battles was inconsistent. Whether that was down to trusting his body again after off-season wrist surgery or overthinking his chance is hard to say. But a player who looked borderline dominant in Laval last year looked like a shell of himself at camp.
And that’s okay.
If Poehling truly believes and follows his own advice, then there should be no problem on his end. It’s now up to JF Houle to give him the confidence he needs to start the AHL campaign as the top center for the Rocket.
The messaging from the organization, from Montreal Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme down to director of player personnel Martin Lapointe down to Houle should be consistent:
We believe in you. You are a valuable piece of this team going forward. We want you to play in all situations in Laval and get your confidence to the level where you are a trusted member of the team in Montreal. We need more of this from you. When we signed you to a two-year deal in the offseason, there’s a reason why this season was a two-way contract. Extra seasoning is a good thing. You haven’t yet played a full 72-game season in the American Hockey League. Don’t get discouraged. We are going to need you at some point this season.
And they certainly will. The season hasn’t even started yet and the team is already facing a rash of injuries. Projected fourth line center Cedric Paquette has missed most of training camp with a lower-body injury. New signing Mathieu Perreault has looked uncomfortable playing down the middle. Brooks has played 18 career NHL games. The Habs are coming off a long run to the Cup final and the shortest off-season in league history. It’s not a matter of if but when injuries will take their toll on the team. It is likely we will see the number 25 jersey back up with the Montreal Canadiens before the new year.
“Wherever the chips fall, they will,” was something else Poehling told reporters at the start of camp. The chips didn’t fall the way he wanted the last three weeks. But with that consistent attitude and the help of the organization, he could be looking at pocket aces in the not-too distant future.
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