Montreal Canadiens: 2 Habs Look to Take Advantage of Second Chances

It was about a month ago that everyone assumed that Yannick Weber and Andreas Engqvist would be part of the Montreal Canadiens' opening day roster: the former as a defenseman and the latter as the team's fourth-line centreman.

You know what they say about assumptions, right?

After both players seemed to forget to show up at training camp, Canadiens general manager Pierre Gauthier was forced to look for other options.

Weber was left on the outside of the defensive corps looking in as his countryman, Raphael Diaz, virtually stole his job with his impressive performance. Alexei Emelin (then Yemelin)—who wasn't all that impressive himself—was placed ahead of Weber on the depth chart. Chris Campoli was signed to a one-year contract and the Habs defense was set; it did not involve Weber.

Thankfully for Yannick, he has shown the ability to be a utility player. His role would be to play limited minutes on the fourth line and on the second wave of the power play.

Andreas Engqvist's camp wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't good either. Engqvist was just "there"; he did nothing spectacular. His faceoff percentage wasn't very good and he didn’t do much to show his worth to the Habs’ brass.

Opportunity knocked for Gauthier when Blair Betts was placed on waivers by the Philadelphia Flyers. The penalty-killing specialist was claimed, Engqvist was sent down to the Hamilton Bulldogs (the team's American Hockey League affiliate), and that was that.

As we all know, that has since changed.

Chris Campoli was injured in the Habs' first game, opening the door for Emelin.

Jaroslav Spacek, another member of the Canadiens' defense, was hurt during the team’s second game and, lo and behold, Weber was back in the position he was most comfortable playing.

He scored a power-play goal (the team's only one to date), added an assist and was a plus-two on the night; not a bad output for someone who wasn't supposed to be there. Weber matched his goal-scoring output from last season (or 41 games, I should say.) It looks like he could be effective during the man advantage.

Betts turned out to be injured and was returned to Philadelphia. Gauthier was left with no choice but to recall Engqvist.

Engqvist still hasn't done anything spectacular, but he was great at taking faceoffs last game (6-of-9, 67 percent).

It looks like he is being groomed as a PK specialist. Obviously, at this point in time, he isn't nearly as effective as Blair Betts would have been. Hopefully, as games go by, he will be able to assume more penalty-killing responsibility.

So far so good on that front, though; the Habs have yet to give up a goal while shorthanded.

For some reason or another, these two players are back where they wanted to be. It's now up to them to prove to everyone that they belong there.

Jason is on Twitter: Follow @jhytel