Quotes of the day: Chiarot, Tatar & Julien

BROSSARD – The Canadiens practiced at the Bell Sports Complex on Wednesday.

Following the on-ice session, defenseman Ben Chiarot, forward Tomas Tatar and head coach Claude Julien met the media via Zoom.

Here are a few highlights from their respective chats with reporters:

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Once this break is over, a hectic schedule awaits the Habs for the remainder of the regular season. Chiarot talked about the importance of staying fresh both physically and mentally in the weeks and months to come:

By now, if you’ve played a few years, you kind of understand the grind, you understand how you have to be on mentally when you come to the rink, and it’s so important to be able to turn it off when you go home. If you’re thinking about it, or if you don’t kind of have that to get away from the rink and kind of shut your mind off from hockey, it can wear on you. When you go a few weeks and you’re thinking about hockey every second of the day, it can wear you out, it can fatigue you, and so I think getting that rest and getting away from the rink is important, especially with a schedule like we’re going to have, two months of playing every other day. Getting away from the rink will be just as important as being sharp when you come to the rink.

The veteran blueliner also shared his thoughts on what his primary focus is during this period when the team isn’t playing any games:

My priority this week is to get feeling energized, get feeling healthy, get your body feeling as good as possible going into what’s going to be a heavy grind. It’s not just the playing every other day, but it’s the flying and changing time zones and the back-to-backs. It’s your energy and your body, that’s going to be the biggest priority in these two months. You have to manage that more so than your practice time and getting on the ice because you’re not going to have the opportunity to do that.

Video: Chiarot on managing energy

For his part, Tatar was asked if being a healthy scratch over the weekend caught him by surprise:

A little bit. When you experience something like that in the regular season, it’s a little bit of a shock, but at the end of the day it’s not my decision and I had to respect it. You want to be a pro about it. I was very happy the guys did great and they won a big game. It wasn’t an easy game. I just have to respect the decision.

Tatar also confirmed that he has been speaking with Julien about where he needs to improve, and he’s eager to contribute to the Canadiens’ cause again as soon as possible:

We did talk, even before previous games, about what he would like to see from me. Once you dress and you’re on the ice, you’re just trying to do the best out there. You want to help the team as much as you can and that’s what I’ll try to do. When I get back in the lineup, I’ll be ready and I’ll try to do my best out there.

Video: Tatar on his season so far

Julien, meanwhile, reflected on Tatar watching the game in Toronto from the stands. He’s hopeful the Slovak sniper will return to form when the games resume:

In order for us to have success this year, we’re going to need everybody. That includes Tomas Tatar. He’s a guy who can really help us. You can’t read anything into the fact that he missed a game. We’ll see him in the lineup, and we hope that he’ll be able to bring what he can bring. We worked with him. We showed him the things we’d like him to improve. We want a little bit more from him because we know it’s there. It’s as simple as that.

Video: Julien on team player Tomas Tatar

As far as the schedule is concerned, the Canadiens’ bench boss stressed the importance of working with the club’s sports science staff to ensure players are well taken care of:

Apart from the end of February, when we have the last day of the month and the first day of March, two days in a row without games, we’re playing every second day for the rest of the season right up until the last week. Sometimes we’ll be playing four games in six nights or five games in eight nights. It’ll be a big test. I can guarantee that. At the same time, it’ll be important for us to manage things well. We have to give players a chance to recover with Pierre Allard and Patrick Delisle-Houde. We’ll also have to make sure that the guys are in a good position to recover and try and limit fatigue. There will be some fatigue, though. There’s no doubt about it. But they have access to information to see where the guys are collectively and individually as well.