Now it really is “go time” for the Canadiens with the season opener Wednesday in Toronto against the Maple Leafs (7 p.m., SN, TVA Sports).

“They’re hungry,” head coach Martin St. Louis said when asked what he learned about his team at training camp. “I feel like this group was hungry right from the start of camp and I think they were hungry this summer, individually. They have the resources to really get after it early here and they did. And then, once training camp started, I really felt that we were in the ‘now’ business. It’s ‘now.’ We’re not going to wait till Oct. 8 to now play an honest game with the right intentions. That’s been fun to watch.”

The Canadiens should be a lot of fun to watch this season, but it’s not an easy start with three straight road games. They will play the Red Wings in Detroit on Thursday and the Blackhawks in Chicago on Saturday.

Last season, the Canadiens won their opening game 1-0 over the Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre despite being outshot 48-27 with goalie Samuel Montembeault earning the first star. It was a sign of things to come with the Canadiens struggling in the defensive zone.

After 15 games, the Canadiens were sitting in last place in the overall NHL standings with a 4-9-2 record. They were able to battle back and make the playoffs for the first time in four seasons with a 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes in the final game of the season, finishing with a 40-31-11 record for 91 points.

The Canadiens shouldn’t have to wait until the final game to clinch a playoff spot this season with a team that should come close to 100 points after the addition of defenceman Noah Dobson and forward Zachary Bolduc, plus having forward Ivan Demidov to start the season.

Dobson, 25, is a big upgrade on David Savard, who retired at age 34. Alexandre Carrier will also be with the team to start the season. The Canadiens had a 28-15-8 record after acquiring Carrier from the Nashville Predators last December.

The Canadiens will also have Jakub Dobes as the backup to Montembeault to start the season. Montembeault went through a stretch last season where he played in 21 of 23 games because St. Louis had lost faith in Cayden Primeau as the backup. Dobes had a shutout in his NHL debut last Dec. 28, making 34 saves in a 4-0 win over the Panthers in Florida, after getting called up from the AHL’s Laval Rocket to replace Primeau. Dobes finished the season with a 7-4-3 record, a 2.74 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage. Dobes will cut down on the workload for Montembeault, who played 62 games last season while posting a 2.80 GAA and a .902 save percentage.

The Canadiens’ power play, which ranked 21st in the NHL last season with a 20.1 per cent success rate, should also be better with the addition of Dobson and having Demidov all year. St. Louis has a lot of options now on the PP.

There are some concerns, however, including:

The penalty kill: The Canadiens ranked ninth on the PK last season with an 80.9 per cent success rate, but lost three of their penalty-killers: Savard, Christian Dvorak and Joel Armia. But the PK shouldn’t be that much of a concern when you consider Kaiden Guhle and Carrier can eat up a lot of the minutes Savard played, while Nick Suzuki and Alex Newhook replace Dvorak and Armia.

The second line: This is more of a concern than the PK with Oliver Kapanen at centre between Newhook and Demidov. The 22-year-old Kapanen beat out Kirby Dach for that job in training camp by playing a very mature game at both ends of the ice. St. Louis said Kapanen has “an NHL computer” when it comes to thinking the game. St. Louis also likes how Kapanen has added more physicality to his game at 6-foot-2 and 192 pounds. As this rebuild moves forward, the Canadiens are going to have to trust more young players in key roles. We’ll see how Kapanen handles the opportunity he has been given.

Patrik Laine: We all know what Laine can do on the power play, scoring 15 of his 20 goals last season with the man advantage. But can he play a solid enough game five-on-five and be responsible enough defensively for St. Louis to keep him in the lineup and roll four lines? Starting on the fourth line with Jake Evans and Josh Anderson — two very responsible defensive players — is a good way to help Laine do that.

I asked Suzuki what makes this year’s team better than last year.

“We’ve grown up a little bit,” he said. “Guys seem to have really good summer and come back prepared. Just the chemistry that we built last year has really tied into this year. We’ve gotten a lot of nice, talented new players coming in and that’s going to help our group moving forward. It’s a little bit different, but everything that we learned last year is going to stay with us.”

Now it’s time to drop the puck and find out.

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