With the Montreal Canadiens at 1-and-1 to start the new season and headed for a four-game road trip out west, perhaps the  most  significant  message  to  come  from  the  first  week are words from head coach Michel Therrien.

“It's an inside competition,” said Therrien Saturday. “It's pretty simple. You perform well, you get ice time.  You don't perform well, then your ice time goes down. It's fair.”

Those 10seconds from the head coach could resonate the entire year.

It’s new philosophy that really stems from last season that players need to earn their ice time and won’t receive free rides based on status.

“I mean that's all you want. The nights you’re going and feeling it, you want be to rewarded, and vice versa; if you're struggling, you don't want to hurt the team. It’s up to (Therrien) to manage that and I think he's pretty fair with that,” said captain Brian Gionta.

Forward Daniel Briere agrees.“You have to earn your ice time. You have to play well. I think it’s fair. I love it. At the same time, that is going to make us a more dangerous team, so I am all for it.”

 

Therrien was true to his word:

  • P.K. Subban had a high of 28 minutes and 30 seconds. 
  • Alex Galchenyuk played the most minutes in a game in his career so far, at 16 minutes and 42 seconds.
  • Lars Eller was up to 18 minutes and 43 seconds.

Eller, the second star of the week, is seeing even more growth.

“I put it this way,” said the young centre. “I think there are things I can still improve and get better at.  That's how I would put it.”

Winger Brendan Gallagher is supportive of his linemate.“Lars, obviously, he makes our line go. He controls the puck and when he goes, our line goes. And playing with (him), you know he is going to get you the puck, no matter where you are. You just have to get open and you just have to make the right play,” he said.

“(Tomas Plekanic, Rene Bourque and Brian Gionta), I thought they did really well defensively. They manage the puck well. They created offence too. We saw what Eller did. I like what our (Travis) Moen, (Michael) Bournival and (Ryan) White did, so I liked what they did for the team,” said Therrien.

There was no praise, however, of David Desharnais's line, who the coach said needs to see more compete from.

That lines big minutes were cut to under 14 for Desharnais, who did not have linemate Max Pacioretty, after he suffered a  wrist  injury  on  opening  night. 

“He's a big part of our line,” said Desharnais. “He's the shooter. He's a big guy making up some space for us. Everyone's playing well. If we want more ice, we just have to play a little better and we will have our ice time.”

The Habs’ road trip starts on Wednesday in Calgary then continues with stops in Edmonton and Vancouver, concluding with Winnipeg on Tuesday night.