Montreal Canadiens: Eric Staal to Make Habs Debut Monday

The Montreal Canadiens newest acquisition will officially make his Habs debut on Monday night.

Eric Staal was acquired from the Buffalo Sabres last week, but he is serving his quarantine period currently and is not eligible to participate in team activities until he received negative tests for seven consecutive days.

Staal was acquired on Friday, March 26th and traveled to Montreal on the 27th to begin his quarantine period. That makes today his 7th and final day where he needs to be isolated so he can join his team for practice tomorrow.

The Canadiens play tomorrow night against the Ottawa Senators, but it wouldn’t make sense to rush a veteran like Staal into the lineup after sitting in a hotel room for seven days. He can join the team for their skate tomorrow, but can then actually have a full practice with the team on Sunday before skating again Monday morning in preparation for another showdown with the Edmonton Oilers Monday night.

Head Coach Dominique Ducharme confirmed that this was the plan when he met with the media earlier today.

It will be interesting to see where Staal fits into the Habs lineup. It was assumed he would step into the fourth line centre role and push Jake Evans out of the lineup.

However, Evans played his best game of the season last night, making two excellent plays to set up goals, creating chances even while shorthanded and proving he is capable of handling NHL minutes.

Does Evans come out? Or does a veteran winger like Paul Byron or Arthur Lehkonen need to sit as a healthy scratch again to make room for Staal?

I guess all eyes will be on these players tomorrow night when they face the Senators. Somebody has to take a seat, but it won’t be an easy call.