Montreal Canadiens Finally Get Positive Injury News
The Montreal Canadiens have been the most injury depleted team in the NHL for a month. They finally received positive injury news today.
The Montreal Canadiens injured list has been piling up for more than a month. Things went pretty swimmingly on the injury front for the Habs in October and November. Don’t worry about the Canadiens trainers though, they weren’t out of work leading up to the holidays.
The first Habs to fall was perhaps their most important skater. Alex Galchenyuk was knocked down by an Anze Kopitar knee on knee collision and hasn’t played since December 4. David Desharnais was supped to “replace” him, but he too was knocked out long term in the very next game.
Defenceman Greg Pateryn left the same game as Desharnais with injury and is yet to return to the lineup. Andrei Markov joined them on the shelf and has missed the past eight games, his first real injury in several years.
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Andrew Shaw took a dangerous – yet not suspendable for some reason – check from Torey Krug on December 12. The Habs overtime victory against the Nashville Predators last night was the tenth straight game without Shaw in the lineup.
Injuries continued to pile up last night
Things didn’t get any better during that game either. Brendan Gallagher left the game after being hit in the hand with a booming slap shot by Shea Weber. It was very reminiscent of an injury last season that knocked Gallagher out of the lineup for more than a month.
Paul Byron, who is surprisingly among the Habs top scorers this season, also left the game with injury. He was nailed at the blue line by Patrick Sharp and looked to take the brunt of the contact to the head.
Neither Gallagher nor Byron returned to action last night. There was no further update on either player, but neither injury looked to be a bruise or something that would lead to either player returning to the lineup any time soon.
Not just role players being injured
That’s seven prominent players in the Canadiens lineup. Galchenyuk was leading the team with 23 points in 25 games at the time of his injury. Markov had 21 in 31 from the blue line and was among the league’s highest scoring defencemen.
Byron has scored 12 goals 23 points. Shaw was getting hot and had 15 points in 29 games. Shaw, as well as Gallagher, also bring much needed grit and net-front presence to the lineup. Desharnais admittedly was struggling, and Pateryn is not a big scorer but had just cemented his role as a regular contributor to the lineup.
It’s been one month and one day since the first big injury occurred in that game against the Kings. In that month, not one of these players was able to return to the lineup. No return dates were even mentioned as all injuries were long term.
Finally an update on a possible return for an injured player
Today, finally, there was some positive news on the injury front. The team announced that both Galcehnyuk and Markov will be at practice and will join the team when they head to Toronto for Saturday night’s game.
Finally!! Some positive news involving the injured stars. This doesn’t necessarily mean either of them will play on Saturday. However, they are obviously getting much closer to returning if they are traveling with the team and practicing.
The Canadiens have done a great job weathering the storm. Since the injury to Galchenyuk occurred, the team put together an 8-3-4 record in 15 games. It’s no Columbus Blue Jackets 15 straight wins, but 20 out of a possible 30 points without your best forward is darn impressive.
It doesn’t mean the team isn’t desperate to get some of their injured players back. Sure, the team performed well without them, but imagine how good the Canadiens could be with Galchenyuk, Markov, Shaw, Gallagher and Byron all healthy.
Next: Habs Shouldn't Wait To Re-Sign Radulov
We may soon find out. Finally!