Montreal Canadiens: Dealing with the Paul Byron situation
By Omar L
The Montreal Canadiens will be missing Paul Byron who suffered an upper-body injury on Sunday against the Edmonton Oilers.
It’s been a tough journey for Paul Byron this season with the Montreal Canadiens.
He pushed himself over the summer to ensure he could start the year on time after recovering from shoulder surgery and came hot out of the gate. Unfortunately, that spark was deflated a bit as a lower-body injury forced Byron to miss games in November. Byron returned without missing a step but later had another setback when he was suspended three games for his charging hit on Mackenzie Weegar.
The Habs got through that having Charles Hudon and Matthew Peca rotate into the lineup. And now something else is going to take Byron out of the lineup again. It’s interesting seeing as how healthy the 29-year-old has been over the last two seasons missing only a single game during the 2017/17 campaign. Perhaps it’s the hockey gods catching up to Byron or what have you but thanks to a hit from Matt Benning, the speedster will have to sit.
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Byron was seen with a splint on his arm after leaving the Oilers game early as a result of the hit. Claude Julien confirmed after practice on Monday that it’s the forearm area keeping him out and that further tests will be done to see how many games he could miss. The only thing we know for sure is that Byron won’t be playing Tuesday’s match against the Anaheim Ducks.
What if it’s longer than that?
The Montreal Canadiens are still in the hunt to keep that third Atlantic Division spot and with nine games ahead of the trade deadline, things in the NHL could get really electric, especially if some of the teams in their wheelhouse make a significant addition. Byron is a top player at 5v5 and a key presence on the penalty kill with his speed and tenacity. That’ll be hard to replace for the time being but there are those who can and will get an opportunity to step up.
Hudon and Peca played both games this weekend on the fourth line with Nicolas Deslauriers on the right. They generated very little offensively but Julien doesn’t expect much of that from his bottom line. The duo played well overall not giving the opposition much to build off of in their favour.
Perhaps those games over the weekend was a litmus test between the Montreal Canadiens and Hudon and Peca. Andrew Shaw hasn’t gotten the green light to return to the lineup despite being involved in full contact practice. He likely takes a spot on the fourth line to begin with which could be bad news for Deslauriers but also for Hudon and Peca.
Agostino and Chaput are two of Julien’s favourites and seeing Shaw play with them (or higher in the roster) may be the upcoming goal. That’ll leave a return of the Hudon-Peca carousel as Marc Bergevin finds a trade partner for one of the two.
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Having Byron out stings but the Montreal Canadiens are equipped to grind through it. The pressure is on for Hudon who looks to be the easy option to move out ahead of the deadline. Similar to Byron’s suspension, it’s an opportunity for him to show what he can do. Can he prove to be a versatile player?