Promotion of Roy, Laine’s progress helps St. Louis push buttons in Canadiens’ top six

Joshua Roy moved from the Laval Rocket to what appears to be a newly formed second line with Jake Evans and Emil Heineman. Patrik Laine moved closer to a return to the lineup by shedding the non-contact jersey he’s been wearing since last week and rotating with Alex Newhook into line rushes with Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki. Lucas Condotta moved from the centre of the fourth line to a defence pairing because Mike Matheson took the day off for treatment, and then he was sent down to the Rocket. And Kirby Dach took Condotta’s place, where he’s expected to start alongside Juraj Slafkovsky and Joel Armia when the Utah Hockey Club makes it’s first-ever visit to the Bell Centre Tuesday.

It’s the type of button pushing coach Martin St. Louis probably would’ve resorted to sooner if he could’ve, but he hasn’t had as many options as he’d have liked to have stimulated internal competition at the top end of Montreal’s forward group.

“I can’t say if we haven’t had internal competition there, or if we haven’t enough of it,” said St. Louis, “but we’re going to have it now.”

It’s coming at the right time.

It’s one thing to tell Newhook, Dach and Slafkovsky they need to double down on their efforts and find more consistency in their engagement from shift to shift and dial in their focus to refine their processes and generate better results, but showing all three of them that their roles in the top six are actually at stake feels necessary at this point. Especially for Dach and Slafkovsky, who were at the root of Montreal’s 6-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights this past Saturday.

Those two finished that game on Montreal’s fourth line with Condotta.

But keeping Dach and Slafkovsky there with Armia to start next game is only being made possible by Heineman proving he deserves to be bumped up and Roy showing he deserves a chance.

The hope was that Roy would do that out of the gate — that he’d follow up on a strong rookie season and fight for ice-time in the Canadiens’ top six throughout his sophomore campaign.

But the 21-year-old had an underwhelming training camp and was sent down to the Rocket.

Now that Roy has collected eight goals and 16 points in 17 games, and now that he’s had enough time to build his game up, he’s getting a premium opportunity to show he not only belongs with the Canadiens but also belongs up as high up in their lineup.

“I think he’s earned that,” said St. Louis.

The hope must be that Dach and Slafkovsky earn a chance to join or displace Roy.

They had played exclusively in top-six roles through the first 20 games of the season until being demoted in the third period of the Vegas game, and their results have been underwhelming, unconvincing and inconsistent.

That was somewhat expected in both cases — with Dach (one goal, eight points) having missed almost all last season with a knee injury and Slafkovsky (one goal, 11 points) being only 20 years old — but it can’t continue to be accepted.

Newhook’s effort level and engagement has been more than acceptable. It’s beyond reproach.

But he’s also on notice that his role could change if he doesn’t take advantage of his opportunity next to Caufield and Suzuki.

The 23-year-old has just four goals and has yet to produce an assist, and Laine’s imminent return could not only knock him off the top line but also displace him from the top six.

St. Louis said that’s unlikely to happen this week, that even if everything goes to plan in Laine’s recovery, we shouldn’t expect to see him in games against Utah, Columbus, New York or Boston.

But the big Finn’s mere presence in a regular jersey at practice upped the level of competition on Monday.

Newhook is in a good spot to assert himself in it, and Dach and Slafkovsky must find their way back to the ones they’re expected to be in.

St. Louis said they’ll have that chance.

“It might be the fourth line on the board, but once the game starts it’s about how you comport yourself,” he said.

As for what the coach wants his players to take from the competition that’s now being stimulated, he said it’s “Go to work.”