Montreal Canadiens: An even weaker blueline

The Montreal Canadiens still have Shea Weber on the sidelines, but David Schlemko will be missing time as well as neither made the trip to Carolina.

We got an answer as to why Brett Lernout was called up this morning. The Montreal Canadiens announced that David Schlemko will be staying home to recover from the flu. He isn’t the first player on the Habs to miss games because of an illness. Jonathan Drouin and Torrey Mitchell had to sit out as well earlier in the season while Max Pacioretty played through it.

For the time being, the Habs defence is going to be Jordie Benn and Jeff Petry, Karl Alzner and Jakub Jerabek, and finally Lernout and Joseph Morrow on the bottom pairing. Instead of giving all the extra minutes to Petry like the last time Shea Weber was injured, Claude Julien instead to sprinkle the time around for everyone. Now that Schlemko is out as well, Julien may have to focus one player again to be the workhorse for the remainder of the road trip.

Unfortunately, Montreal’s defence hasn’t been scaring other teams this season, and with this new development, it just got worse. It stings a little more when you compare the Habs’ blueline to what Carolina or Tampa will be rolling out against them.

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There’s only so many times you can say, ‘it’ll take defence by committee to get things done’. At some point, someone is going to have to stand up and take the blueline by the horns. Perhaps it’ll be Lernout as he’ll have a second chance to show management that what happened on Saturday was a one-off. However, not many have a good time when they’re set-up to play against Connor McDavid.

Maybe Jerabek takes another step to become the well-rounded defenceman we all want him to be. Keep in mine, his entry-level-contract was only one year. The Montreal Canadiens should resign him when they have the chance, but Jerabek could maximize how much he gets based on how he plays for the rest of the season.

Hopefully, someone stands out fairly quickly. The Habs don’t have much time or room for error.

Next: Saying Goodbye to a Rival and Legend

Do you think the Habs can get through the road trip with this defence? Who will stand up for them? Let us know your thoughts down below.