The Canadiens might not practise again before the end of the regular season.<\/p>\n
The way they\u2019ve been playing \u2014 with a season-high six straight wins ahead of Thursday\u2019s game in New York against the Rangers (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS) \u2014 they look like they don\u2019t need to practise. <\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not the reason why another practice seems unlikely before their regular season comes to a close on April 14. The Canadiens will play their final eight games over 13 days with one or zero days off between each game.<\/p>\n
The Canadiens had a practice scheduled for last Friday in Brossard before leaving on a five-game road trip, but head coach Martin St. Louis cancelled it following a 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets the previous night at the Bell Centre.<\/p>\n
The Canadiens flew to Nashville on Friday and beat the Predators 4-1 Saturday before flying to Carolina, where they beat the Hurricanes 3-1 on Sunday before flying to Tampa. Monday was a scheduled day off in Tampa and the Canadiens beat the Lightning 4-1 Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
The Canadiens were scheduled to practise Wednesday morning in Tampa before flying to New York, but that practice was cancelled. They have a practice scheduled for Friday in New Jersey before facing the Devils on Saturday, but that seems unlikely to happen since the two teams will meet again Sunday at the Bell Centre. <\/p>\n
At this point in the season, rest can be more important than another practice.<\/p>\n
New month, new monthly wallpaper!<\/p>\n
April wallpaper \u2193 #GoHabsGo<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Canadiens Montr\u00e9al (@CanadiensMTL) April 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Before leaving on this road trip, St. Louis spoke about the importance of stamina down the final stretch of the regular season.<\/p>\n \u201cCan you keep going?\u201d he said, \u201cThat\u2019s\u00a0stamina, right? And it\u2019s not necessarily physical\u00a0stamina. It\u2019s mental. Everything we\u2019ve built up to keep going. Knowing that you\u2019re not going to play 60 awesome minutes \u2026 there\u2019s another good team on the other side that\u2019s going to have some good minutes. It\u2019s momentum.<\/p>\n \u201cBut when you don\u2019t have the momentum, can you not hurt yourself so much that it\u2019s hard to\u00a0stay in the game? And I feel we\u2019ve done a pretty good job of that and I feel we\u2019ve played a lot of good minutes. I think the way we play off the puck defensively has helped us.\u201d<\/p>\n Rookie Ivan Demidov spoke with The Athletic\u2019s Arpon Basu recently <\/a>about the grind of the 82-game NHL schedule after making the jump from the KHL. The 20-year-old he played 71 games last season with St. Petersburg SKA \u2014 including six playoff games \u2014 while posting 22-32-54 totals.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty hard, because you\u2019re 19 years old and it\u2019s your first year playing that type of games in a row,\u201d Demidov, who leads all NHL rookies in scoring with 16-42-58 totals, told Basu. \u201cFor example, last year I played around 78 games. But (at) that time when I played we start earlier (in the year), you have so many days off between games. \u2026 So you have a lot of days where you can go to sauna to rest and your body is feeling good. But here, it\u2019s like, you don\u2019t have those days. You\u2019re just playing, playing, playing, playing, and also your mind, you have to rest.\u201d<\/p>\n St. Louis said the only way for young players to learn about preparing for the grind of an NHL season is to experience it. Defenceman Lane Hutson experienced it for the first time last season when he played in all 82 games with the Canadiens after playing only 38 games the previous season at Boston University. Hutson won the Calder Trophy last season as the NHL\u2019s top rookie, posting 6-60-66 totals, and has played in all 74 games this season with 11-62-73 totals.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to keep Hutson and Demidov off the ice and they\u2019re always first in line for optional practices and morning skates. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not going to\u00a0step in the way of their preparation,\u201d St. Louis said. \u201cTo be a confident player it\u00a0starts with preparation. Not everybody\u2019s going to prepare the same way. They have the option.\u201d<\/p>\n Centre Oliver Kapanen and goalies Jakub Dobes and Jacob Fowler are also experiencing an NHL schedule for the first time.<\/p>\n \u201cThey got to go through it,\u201d St. Louis said about young players. \u201cI\u2019m glad they\u2019re going through it. That\u2019s part of it. It\u2019s on the player. Got to get through that grind. I think as a group we\u2019re doing a good job with a compact schedule to not overwork them on the off days. But they got to go through it. Not just the compact schedule, but where we are in the schedule, what\u2019s at\u00a0stake and all that. I think it\u2019s a big part of growth for a young player. <\/p>\n \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t have so many problems in different departments of your game at this time of the year if you, as coaches, did your job and the players have done their job,\u201d St. Louis added. \u201cThe teaching \u2014 not that you\u00a0stop teaching \u2014 but the teaching is kind of over. Now we\u2019re just focusing on the details of the\u00a0structure. I feel like lately we\u2019ve been very detailed and can we keep doing that?\u201d<\/p>\n With three straight wins to start this road trip \u2014 without any practices \u2014 the answer is yes.<\/p>\n scowan@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n x.com\/StuCowan1<\/a><\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n \t\t