Montreal Canadiens: Bad luck looking down the middle
By Omar L
The Montreal Canadiens may be without another centre after Jonathan Drouin was forced to leave yesterday’s game after taking a shot to the ribs.
Sometimes something happens in life that makes you wonder whether you’re living through a television show or a movie. The Montreal Canadiens managed to end their three-game losing streak winning 5-2 against the Anaheim Ducks. Logan Shaw opened the scoring on his former team in the first period followed by Joseph Morrow and David Schlemko. It’s not ‘haha’ funny, but you can’t help but notice three of the players getting the most heat from the fanbase got the goals.
It wasn’t all them, Jeff Petry and most importantly Nikita Scherbak stepped up for the Habs and had solid performances. There was a lot of confidence coming from the 22-year-old especially when given an opportunity to play on the top power-play unit.
Antti Niemi, who is continuing to grow as a hero for the 2017/18 season did it again in holding the fort early for the Habs. He stopped 43 of 45 saves weathering the storm when Anaheim started to push and control the pace of the game.
Unfortunately, Jonathan Drouin wasn’t there for the rest of it.
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Drouin took a Karl Alzner slap shot to the ribs which took him out of the game. He was taken to the hospital for X-Rays, and thankfully everything came back negative. However, he’ll have to be re-evaluated to see if he’s healthy enough to play. There may not be anything broken, but there could be a heavy amount of bruising which may make staying in the lineup an ill-advised plan.
Montreal had an earlier scare with Paul Byron after he went shoulder first into the boards, but he was alright to play. Additionally, Phillip Danault is skating after suffering his concussion. It’s been an unlucky season for the Habs’ centres this season, especially for Drouin.
It’ll be the second time the 23-year-old will be forced to miss games due to injury. Drouin was out for the Minnesota game in November and missed another five at the end of the month heading into December.
The Habs will have to make the appropriate moves if that happens which will most likely have Charles Hudon at centre. Claude Julien went with that option after Drouin was forced to leave with Alex Galchenyuk and Nicolas Deslauriers on the wing. With another afternoon game this time against Ottawa, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Habs had Drouin sit.