Montreal Canadiens defenceman Joel Edmundson was listed as day-to-day when training camp started in late September.
We are now six weeks past that date and he still hasn’t played a game yet this season. His injury has been shrouded in so much mystery his updates should be given by Robert Stack and not Dominique Ducharme.
Edmundson did take a little time away from the team to be with his sick father, but he is still dealing with whatever injury has been nagging at him.
Yesterday, we got another cryptic update as Edmundson was seen skating at the team’s practice facility, though he was not at practice with the rest of the team. His head coach simply said he is “progressing well” from his injury. If he was day-to-day 45 days ago how can he be described as progressing well?
Regardless, it was nice to see him on the ice and skating. This certainly puts him closer to playing a game than he has been at any other point so far this season.
Ducharme says Joel Edmundson is progressing well. He’s on the ice now. pic.twitter.com/iXqzBwy21K
— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) November 8, 2021
The Canadiens, with their 3-10-0 record to begin the season could desperately use Edmundson’s help. He played a terrific defensive game for the team last season and has an underrated ability to move the puck up ice.
Two areas the Canadiens are struggling mightily are defensive zone coverage and their transition game. They have plenty of offensive forwards, but they are stuck spinning their wheels when the team can’t get the puck out of its defensive zone on a regular basis.
Edmundson would mostly help on the penalty kill where he is a bit of a specialist. The Canadiens are near the bottom of the league in penalty killing percentage at just 66%. They were at 91.8% in the postseason, but the absence of Shea Weber, Carey Price as well as Edmundson has the team looking out of sorts when they take a penalty.
Edmundson isn’t going to solve all of the Canadiens problems, but when he does return he will be paired with Jeff Petry to play big minutes at even strength and he will be on the top penalty killing unit.
For a team that doesn’t just need to flip a switch, they need a full circuit breaker booted up, they will take any bit of good news. Seeing Edmundson getting closer to a return is a welcome sight.