Montreal Canadiens: Reasons For Optimism After Disastrous Start

Reinforcements are coming soon

The Canadiens had an incredible number of injuries occur during the offseason and then more happened during their training camp. This has left them with nine players that took part in training camp that are currently not available.

Now, three of those players are Joel Teasdale, Josh Brook and Mattias Norlinder who will be sent to the AHL or back to Sweden when they are healthy, but the other six would be regular contributors. Shea Weber will be out for the season, but the other five will be back at some point this season, and a few key players could be back very soon.

Mike Hoffman has been skating already and will miss tonight’s game with the New York Rangers but he could be back for the team’s fourth game of the season. He is a weapon on the power play and a natural goal scoring threat that could have made a difference on opening night against the Maple Leafs.

Joel Edmundson sounds like he will be back shortly after Hoffman. He has been dealing with a mysterious, nagging injury since the beginning of camp, but he could be back in about a week’s time. He will surely line up next to Jeff Petry and play big minutes at even strength, helping limit chances against and also boost the anemic looking penalty kill.

Sami Niku should be ready to go soon and a little extra depth on the blue line could come in handy. His ability to move the puck up ice will help these goal scoring wingers get chances to do what they do best.

Paul Byron and Carey Price are a little further away from a return, but Price should be back sometime in the first half of November.

Getting Hoffman and Edmundson back soon should make a big difference right away and the eventual return of Price will have a huge impact on this team’s ability to win games.