Harris, Kovacevic must help Canadiens navigate Guhle's short-term absence

BROSSARD, Que. — First Kirby Dach, now Kaiden Guhle.

The former is out for the season and in need of surgery to repair ACL and MCL tears in his right knee, the latter is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, and the Montreal Canadiens aren’t going to be able to replace what either one specifically brings to the lineup.

Missing Dach’s size, strength, skill and versatility up the middle will be particularly challenging to deal with, and that was evident in his absence Tuesday, when the Canadiens lost 5-2 to the Minnesota Wild. And they’ll be fortunate if Guhle’s only out short-term because, as his defence partner, Johnathan Kovacevic, noted after Thursday’s practice, he’s as complete a player as this team has.

“I’ve always had appreciation for what he does,” Kovacevic said. “If you would’ve asked me last year, I probably would’ve said the same thing, where I think he can for sure be a No. 1 defenceman in this league. And I just think he’s so good. I think that from practising with him every day, and as someone who’s really up close to him, I think that’s someone the fans should be really, really excited for. I think he’s the No. 1 D-man of the future, and he’s really that good. Just the way he moves for his size, he’s physical and smooth.

“And he’s got a great mindset for the game. It’s not too big for him, he’s not overthinking things, he’s just going out there and playing. And for someone who’s that young to have that raw skill, and to have that mindset, too … I think really, really highly of his game.”

Filling in for what Guhle brings is going to require the Canadiens to make a different type of adjustment than the one they’ve made because of Dach’s absence.

Up front, Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis has sought to balance his lines. Now, on defence, he’s going to have to spread the minutes a bit less evenly.

Mike Matheson and David Savard are already taking on a lot. Matheson is averaging over 25 minutes per game and playing in all situations, and Savard is up to 21:45 and serving as the anchor of the penalty kill.

Now, Jordan Harris is going to have to take on more, and he’ll likely be reunited with Kovacevic to give the team a steady second pair.

The duo played 627 minutes together at five-on-five last season, according to naturalstattrick.com, and it faired reasonably well: controlling over 50 per cent of the shot attempts and the expected goals while playing a relatively sheltered role.

Now, with Guhle absent, Harris and Kovacevic will have to match up more regularly against quality competition, and there’s reason to believe that even if they can’t handle it as well as Guhle might, they can handle it better than they did last season.

Kovacevic has already gotten a taste of that as Guhle’s partner this season, and St. Louis believes he’s been up to it because of how he approaches the game.

“Kovy is Kovy no matter what, no matter who he plays with,” St. Louis said. “I think he just understands what he is and, that said, he knows what he has to improve on because he knows what he is. He’s a very intelligent young man, he’s very honest about the things he needs to improve on, but he knows what he’s good at. So, I don’t think it really matters who you pair Kovy with, I think Kovy’s just Kovy.

“He defends pretty well,” St. Louis continued. “He’s got a good stick defensively. He sees the game, he sees the game developing in front of him. He’s a pretty intelligent player on the ice.”

The same could be said of the heady Harris, who’s grown a lot since debuting in the league toward the end of the 2021-22 season — and not just as far as his game is concerned, but also physically.

“From the 10 games he came in for at the end of his college career to last year to this year, just (his) strength (has increased),” said St. Louis. “He plays heavier out there, and he worked on that. He put on some weight, but also strength. To me, that’s the most noticeable (improvement). He’s always been a good skater, but now he can do it a bit heavier and be harder to play against. He can defend better because of it.”

Harris can also handle more responsibility.

He played over 20 minutes in 22 of his 65 games last season, and he had some of his best performances in those games — finishing above even in more than half of them.

“The more reps and ice time you get, you just feel a little more comfortable,” Harris said on Thursday. “You get more touches, naturally. When you’re playing less, you’re going to think more. You’re trying to stay focused and pay attention to the game to see what they’re doing with the lines and plays, but I get that it’s probably just easier to forget about little mistakes because you’re in the flow of the game more when you play more.”

He's excited to play with Kovacevic again, and feels he’s taken steps to better serve in the role he’ll be playing in.

“I think where I’ve improved is just overall understanding of where the puck needs to go and just reading situations,” Harris said. “There’s a lot of stuff I still want to build on creatively and offensively, and getting more pucks to the net, but I feel I’ve improved my overall understanding of the game and just when to slow it down and speed it up. And I think that’s still coming along, but from where I was at the end of my college career and even last year, my overall understanding of the game has come a long way for sure. And then you just add the overall execution on top, and add the creativity on top of that, I think that’s where I’m going to build.”

Behind Harris and Kovacevic, Arber Xhekaj will have to buckle down defensively.

It’s uncertain whom he’ll be paired with come Saturday, when the Washington Capitals visit the Bell Centre.

St. Louis was noncommittal on inserting Justin Barron, saying, “With circumstances like (losing Guhle), he’s going to maybe get a chance to play now.”

Perhaps the coach will instead turn to Mattias Norlinder, who had a strong training camp with the Canadiens and looked good in a 5-4 loss with the Laval Rocket Wednesday.

No matter who completes the defence against the Capitals, the Canadiens know they’re going to be in tough without Guhle.

But that’s the hand they’ve been dealt, and they’re not going to fold it.

“We just have to always focus on our collective game,” said St. Louis. “The group is always stronger than the individual. I think we have more depth, more experience compared to last season, so I’m not concerned. I know it worries all of you, but I’m not worried because I like our depth. So, we continue. We don’t just stop because we’ve lost one or two guys, we continue. I know it’s harder to continue when you lose players like we did last year, but the league doesn’t care if we’re injured. The league continues, so why wouldn’t we? Control what you can control.”