Habs' Drouin hopes to carry early-season confidence into play-in round

Montreal Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin is healthy again and hopes to rekindle the confidence he had early in the 2019-20 season if and when the NHL returns to the ice this summer.

"I just want to grab what I did in that first (part of the) season and bring it to whenever hockey starts again," Drouin told Sportsnet's Eric Engels. "In those three months (away from hockey) I looked at some of those games and the reason I was playing well, the reason was I was skating. You look at those things and you want to bring those things back when hockey comes around again. But, definitely, I want to go back to that same pace and that same feeling I had."

Drouin started his season with 15 points in 19 games but suffered a wrist tendon injury in November that kept him out of Montreal's lineup for nearly three months. He suited up for eight contests in February but was sidelined with an ankle injury shortly before the league suspended play.

Prior to his first injury, Drouin believes he was playing his best hockey since the Canadiens acquired him from the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2017.

"I felt way more comfortable in the first couple of months of the season than I had ever been in Montreal," he said. "Just playing hockey, it didn't matter. The team was playing well, I was playing well, and I just felt good about my game at the time. And I felt confident going against any team and in any building ... At least I saw I can be an impact player every night if I show up and play the game I’m supposed to play, and that was a good time for me."

The Canadiens captured the 12th seed in the Eastern Conference and are slated to battle the Pittsburgh Penguins in a best-of-five to advance to the traditional 16-team playoff format.