The NHL shutdown couldn’t have come at a better time for Canadiens winger Jonathan Drouin.
When the NHL suspended the season on March 12, Drouin was hobbling on a wonky ankle. He had missed nearly three months with a wrist injury that required surgery and it was clear that he had little confidence in the repaired joint.
In the eight games he played before the ankle injury sidelined him a second time, he failed to produce a point and was a minus-7.
But Drouin was among a handful of players who returned to the ice at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard Tuesday for individual workouts in Phase 2 of the NHL’s return-to-work protocol and he was happy with the results after another three months away from the game.
“I definitely feel the difference,” Drouin said during a conference call Wednesday. “It’s bad luck not being able to play hockey, but those three months were huge for my ankle and my wrist. Not being on the ice for three months, I was able to shoot the puck normally and it’s the same thing with my ankle. And hopefully when we get to training camp, it will be even better.”
Drouin had the best start of his career last fall. He had seven goals and eight assists in 19 games. But his offensive performance was only part of the story. He was more involved in the offensive zone, less of a perimeter player. He also showed a commitment at the other end of the ice as he worked to become a two-way player.
“My game was going well and the team was going well and obviously you wanted it to keep going,” said Drouin. “I felt way more comfortable in those first months of the season than I’ve been in Montreal. I felt confident against any team in any building. I saw I can be an impact player every night if I show up and play the game I’m supposed to play, and that was a good time for me.
“I just want to grab what I did in that first (part of the season) and bring it to whenever hockey starts again. In those three months (on the sidelines) I looked at some of those games and the reason I was playing well, the reason was I was skating. You look at those things and you want to bring those things back when hockey comes around again. But, definitely, I want to go back to that same pace and that same feeling I had.”
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Drouin is aware that the Canadiens have been given a second chance. There was no way they were going to make the playoffs when the season was halted, but they have been included in the expanded 22-team tournament and will play Pittsburgh in a best-of-five qualifying round.
Returning to the playoffs suits Drouin, who says his game “goes up in playoff hockey. When playoffs come around, there’s a different feeling (and) I’m not the only one to get that.”
Drouin’s finest moment in the NHL came in 2016 with the Tampa Bay Lightning. After a stormy season that saw the Ste-Agathe native walk out after refusing a demotion to the minors, he had five goals and nine assists in 17 playoff games.
Training camps are scheduled to open on July 10 and Drouin said players will have to be very careful as they ramp up their workouts.
“That first week of camp, guys who are older, guys who have lingering stuff that won’t go away, have to be careful about their groins and hips,” Drouin noted.
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