MONTREAL – Tanner Pearson has played with some of the most talented players in the NHL, from Anze Kopitar to Elias Pettersson to Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, and he knows what his mission is when he plays with players of this caliber.
“Go get the puck and give them the puck,” he said Sunday after playing alongside Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki during the Montreal Canadiens’ Reds vs. Whites game.
“I’ve played with some pretty good players during my career and they all have one thing in common, they want the puck,” added Pearson.
Emil Heineman trained alongside Caufield and Suzuki during the first three days of camp. It was possibly an opportunity to give the Swedish hopeful some experience.
Pearson therefore became the first veteran to audition to the right of the two Habs stars, only five days after the team obtained his services from the Vancouver Canucks.
Things have been going very quickly for Pearson since his arrival with the Canadian.
“I found out I was playing with them only 10 minutes before going on the ice,” he said after the game, during which he set the table for a Caufield goal. I’m sitting next to one of them (Suzuki). I hadn’t seen the training and I asked him the question. He told me I was playing with him and Cole. It whipped me up a bit. ”
Pearson, who is 31 and won the Stanley Cup with the Los Angeles Kings in 2014, implemented the usual formula.
“One is a pretty good shooter, the other is a pretty good playmaker. You throw the puck at them and they’re going to make things happen,” he said with a smirk.
Pearson was limited to 14 games last winter after suffering a broken left hand on November 9 at the Bell Center against the Canadiens. Many procedures were then required due to infection.
He insisted that everything was now okay with his hand.
His place in the hierarchy with the Canucks was more than uncertain at the start of the Vancouver camp. Pearson hopes to take advantage of the new wind to obtain a key role with the Canadian.
“I take it day by day and try not to worry too much about it,” he said. I had fun today. I talked a lot with them on the bench to find out their tendencies. The more the match progressed, the better it got. They are two dynamic players. ”
“Of course, I would like to keep it that way. But there is no trio that remains intact for an entire season. ”
Asked about Pearson’s qualities, assistant coach Alex Burrows praised the versatility of the Kitchener, Ontario native.
“He’s a big winger with a scoring touch who can support good players or play on any line,” Burrows said. He knows the league and he’s a pro. He prepares well. ”
“I think he’s happy to get this new chance after his injury last year. And for us, he becomes a great option, a player that we can place anywhere in our formation. ”
This is only the beginning of the period of experiments at the Canadiens camp. Time will tell if Pearson proves to be the best option to the right of Suzuki and Caufield to start the season.
