The injury bug is continuing to settle in the Montreal Canadiens locker room as Al Montoya is out with an upper-body injury.
Well, when it rains it pours. It seems like every day a new player on the Montreal Canadiens is getting hurt. First, it was Jonathan Drouin who missed Thursday’s game after taking a puck to the hand. Shea Weber apparently sustained an injury at the end of practice that the team underestimated. Additionally, Carey Price has missed the last four games recovering from his lower-body injury but was thankfully on the ice again Friday morning.
Now it’s Al Montoya who has to sit out. The team is calling it an upper-body injury (hooray for secrecy), and it explains why the 32-year-old has been away from the ice lately. Montoya hasn’t played since last Saturday’s win against the Winnipeg Jets, but it makes you wonder whether something happened in that game.
Sportsnet‘s Eric Engels brought up in a tweet the slap shot Montoya took off the head from Dustin Byflugien. Whether that’s what’s keeping him out or something related is still a mystery.
Last time Montoya played, he took the full force of a Dustin Byflugien slap shot off the noggin. He's practised plenty since, but you wonder....
— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) November 10, 2017
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In response to this news, the Montreal Canadiens are reuniting the Laval Rocket goalie tandem in recalling Zachary Fucale. It’s deemed an emergency call-up though, so whatever is ailing Montoya may not keep him from backing up Charlie Lindgren (who will most likely be getting his third consecutive start on Saturday).
Similarly to Lindgren, Fucale’s numbers in Laval hasn’t looked as attractive. The 22-year-old has played in five of their games sporting a .881 save percentage. Again, you may have to hold the Rocket’s run and gun offensive style partly responsible.
It’ll be interesting to see if Fucale actually plays a game for the Montreal Canadiens. He’s been called up in the past but has never stood in between the pipes.
Either way, somebody needs to find this injury bug floating around and destroy it.
What do you make of the news? Will Fucale actually play? Let us know your thoughts down below.