Montreal Canadiens: Tomas Plekanec out and Andrew Shaw in
By Omar L
The Montreal Canadiens will have to leave Tomas Plekanec behind ahead of their trip to Ottawa as he is dealing with a lower-back injury.
It’s been a rollercoaster of a week for the Montreal Canadiens and Tomas Plekanec. The 35-year-old played in his 1000th NHL game against the Detroit Red Wings where the team won the game, and he walked away with his first goal of the season.
Their next match saw Plekanec honoured for the accomplishment receiving a silver stick and a photo with the management group at centre ice. But the trajectory is beginning to dip downwards for Plekanec. The team announced ahead of practice that the veteran will remain in Montreal instead of travelling with the group to Ottawa for their Saturday night game against the Senators.
It’s a lower-back injury that is keeping Plekanec out this time around.
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Matthew Peca has returned to the spot he started the season out as the fourth-line centre with Charles Hudon on his left. It also looks like Andrew Shaw may be well enough to come back as he’s missed the last two with the flu. However, he may get the run at playing centre instead of Peca, at least according to the Montreal Canadiens site.
The Habs also look to be running the same blueline that defeated the St. Louis Blues. Victor Mete is still day-to-day with a hand injury which for now is giving Karl Alzner the opportunity to play. He hasn’t been lights out enough to say he deserves to stay once Mete is healthy making perhaps Saturday’s game that much more important for him.
There isn’t a timeline on Plekanec’s back injury, and it’ll be interesting to see how long it lasts. It’s also strange to see him out of the lineup so often given his past track records playing with the Montreal Canadiens. But that is the past. Perhaps Marc Bergevin saw a situation like this playing out and gave him the performance bonuses as incentive.
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Either way, the Habs will be without Plekanec for the next little while. But the team has managed to string wins together because of their team speed and compete. That shouldn’t change with this slight alteration in the bottom-six.