Defensesman Matthias Norlender will experience baptism of fire in the National Hockey League (NHL) Thursday night, when the Montreal Canadiens host the Pittsburgh Penguins.
That’s what coach Dominique Ducharme said on Wednesday after meeting his family.
“He will have to keep things simple, and use his vision and skills at the appropriate times,” said the CH driver. I didn’t know him before this season. He is physically stronger than I expected. I want to see what he can do in the National Hockey League.”
The 21-year-old Swede will replace Chris Weidmann along with Quebec’s David Savard in the Habs’ second quarterback pair. See Norlander’s press briefing in the video above.
“It’s stressful to play your first National Hockey League game, but he has to be himself and not try to do too much,” Savard said of his new partner. If he plays the right way he will do it and he will be happy with his first game. Don’t worry about it. He’s a calm guy and seems to always know what he’s doing when he’s on the ice.”
Press briefing from David Savard –
Norlander is currently playing its first campaign in North America. Injured during training camp, he trained with the Laval Rocket in the MLS. In three matches with the school club, he could not score a point and kept a difference of -2.
The defensive left back was a third-round pick (64th place) for the two Canadians in the 2019 draft.
Also note that Christian Dvorak did not train, as it was a therapeutic day for him. In his absence, Ryan Bowling performed core exercises for Jonathan Drouin and Josh Anderson. The young man also got rehearsals with the fourth line.
Ducharme also gave news about the injured players. Defender Joel Edmondson will resume training on Saturday. The coach also noted that striker Matteo Periol has had surgery again on one of his eyes and that he will be out for a few weeks.
Watch Ducharme’s full press briefing here:
Dominique Ducharme’s press conference –
CH Training in Training:
attackers
Tovoli – Suzuki – Gallagher
Drouin – Poehling – Anderson
Likonen – Evans – Jeremiah
Pezzetta – Poehling – Alex Pelzel
defenders
Chiaroot – Petri
Norlander – Savard
Romanov – Kulaks
guardians
Montembolt
Primo
Additional players
Weidmann – Nico
