The Montreal Canadiens started the year healthy, but that hasn’t been the case for three months. They will finally get a look at a healthy lineup just before the trade deadline.
The Montreal Canadiens started the 2019-20 season healthy and hopeful. They had just missed the postseason in 2019 after finished with 96 points and thought they could make up that difference with more contributions from young players. That wasn’t quite the case, but they did begin the year playing well.
After about six weeks of regular season hockey, with a healthy lineup for most games, the Canadiens had a record of 11-5-3. They were scoring plenty of goals, especially at even strength and were winning despite Carey Price not being at the top of his game. It was a promising start and led fans to believe the team could be really good if Price stepped his game up.
Price did eventually step up but by then injuries had taken their toll on the Habs roster. After starting the year 11-5-3, Jonathan Drouin and Paul Byron were both knocked out of the lineup with long-term injuries.
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During that time, Joel Armia and Brendan Gallagher joined them on the injured reserve for a while, really thinning out the Habs forward group. The Canadiens had solid depth scoring to begin the season, but don’t have the organization depth to make up for four wingers being out of the lineup at the same time.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Victor Mete and Shea Weber all missed time with injuries as well. The result has been a lineup that hasn’t been fully healthy since November 15th. Byron hasn’t played a single game since then and Drouin has been back for a handful.
Luckily, though it may be too little too late, the Canadiens finally got some good news on the injury front. It was announced at practice yesterday that Drouin will be back in the lineup today when the Habs take on the Detroit Red Wings. Drouin could be joined by Byron, Weber and Gallagher who is nursing a few bumps and bruises.
They may not all get back in the lineup tonight in Detroit, but we should finally get a look at healthy Habs roster this week. With the trade deadline coming up on Monday, it will be interesting to see how many players are no longer in Montreal by this time next week. At least with a healthy roster, the Habs can sell some pieces and still ice a lineup without tearing apart the Laval Rocket roster.
Weber being back at practice and ready to return to the lineup put to bed some ridiculous rumours started by Nick Kypreos a few days ago. The former insider for Sportsnet tweeted that Weber’s season was over and his “future was in question.” Well, less than a week later Weber will be back playing big minutes for the Habs.
It is great that the Canadiens are final getting healthy. It is just too bad it has taken so long and their long list of injuries to key players derailed a promising start to the season. At least the Habs will have a few games this week to evaluate what a healthy roster looks like before deciding what trades to make on Monday.