Montreal Canadiens: Joel Armia Out of Quarantine

Montreal Canadiens winger Joel Armia was dealt a scary situation when he tested positive for Covid-19 late last month.

His positive test was the reason the Canadiens schedule had to be shuffled, as he and Jesperi Kotkaniemi were under the NHL’s Covid-19 protocol and not eligible to participate in team activities.

Since Kotkaniemi did not test positive, he was allowed to get back into action with the Canadiens when they played the Edmonton Oilers last week. In fact, he took just 18 seconds to score the game’s opening goal, quickly making up for his lost time.

Armia was not so fortunate. Though it sounds like his symptoms were minor, thankfully, he was not allowed to join the team when they returned to the ice last week. The Habs have played four games since their shutdown, defeating the Oilers twice and splitting a pair of games with the Ottawa Senators.

Yesterday, Armia finally got the green light to leave his quarantine.

After missing two full weeks of action, Armia will take some time to get back into game shape. He has been having a decent season, playing great defensive hockey while contributing a little offence. The pending unrestricted free agent has five goals and ten points in 24 games.

The Canadiens could use his services with Brendan Gallagher going down with a broken thumb in the team’s last game. Depth at right wing is much better than the past with Tyler Toffoli and Josh Anderson brought in over the offseason, but having both Gallagher and Armia out will hurt the team’s depth.

With the news that Armia is out of quarantine, he shouldn’t miss many more games. Thankfully it sounds like he is healthy and feeling well after battling this awful virus and he just needs to get back into game shape.