de la Rose: Reason to smile

MONTREAL - It remains to be seen who Jacob de la Rose will line up alongside against the St. Louis Blues, but there's no denying his success playing in between Paul Byron and Alex Galchenyuk of late.

Over the last two games, the 22-year-old Swede has chipped in offensively to the tune of one goal and three assists - including a career-high three-point effort (1G, 2A) in Saturday night's 10-1 thumping of the Detroit Red Wings at the Bell Centre.
Promoted to the trio when Jonathan Drouin went down with a lower-body injury last week, de la Rose has certainly made the most of his opportunity to pivot a line with a pair of the Canadiens' most skilled forwards.
"They're pretty easy players to play with. They're making my job easy, too," praised de la Rose, who was featured in between Byron and Galchenyuk at practice again on Monday, while Drouin skated solo on the South Shore. "With Pauly's speed and Chucky's skill, I can take care of the defense for them and they can do their stuff."

It clearly worked, with Byron notching his first career hat trick and Galchenyuk registering a career-high four-point night of his own with four assists.
As much as de la Rose would like to factor in on the scoresheet himself, of course, he's perfectly comfortable with just putting his linemates in a position to put up points.
"You try to get them the puck as much as possible. If I can make some room for them in the offensive zone, I'm going to try to do that," said de la Rose, who snapped a 49-game goal drought with his short-handed tally on Saturday night. "I'm not going to change my game or think that I'm a skill player just because I play with those guys. I know what type of player I am and what I have to do out there to play well."
No doubt playing a pivotal offensive role against an Atlantic Division rival was a real confidence-booster for the four-year NHL veteran, though.
"You feel good about it and try to bring that into the next game," said de la Rose, who logged a season-high 13:39 of ice time on Saturday night. "Maybe I've played better games overall [than the last two against Detroit], but you feel good about yourself when you get some points, too."

Now, it's up to de la Rose to build on that standout performance going forward - and he's convinced he can.
"Obviously, I'm happy with the chance that I've been given here," concluded de la Rose. "I'm just trying to keep playing the same way I have been and I know good things are going to happen."
de la Rose and the rest of Canadiens didn't skate on Tuesday morning at the Bell Sports Complex. Head coach Claude Julien will meet the media at 5:00 p.m. EST to confirm his lineup for the matchup against the Blues.