Montreal Canadiens: Cayden Primeau, Paul Byron Added to Covid Protocol

The Montreal Canadiens put together a depleted lineup and pretty near beat the defending Stanley Cup champions last night.

They have been dealing with injuries and also had nine players in Covid protocol that are ineligible to play right now. They will take on the Carolina Hurricanes tomorrow night and then face the Florida Panthers on January 1st.

The lineup that was already decimated by injuries and illness, lost a couple of more players today.

Cayden Primeau and Paul Byron have also been added to the Covid protocol. They join Artturi Lehkonen, Mike Hoffman, Tyler Toffoli, Laurent Dauphin, Jake Allen, Ben Chiarot, Jeff Petry, Joel Edmundson and Chris Wideman.

That means there are a total of 11 players unable to play due to being in Covid protocol. Still, the Canadiens are expected to somehow ice a lineup and take on the Hurricanes and the Panthers in the coming days.

Unfortunately for Primeau, he was expected to start on Thursday night against Carolina after a strong performance against the Philadelphia Flyers in his last NHL appearance two weeks ago. He had been playing well for the Laval Rocket for the past few weeks before being called up, but one again had a hot streak ended by a Covid shutdown.

Byron has not played a game yet this season after offseason surgery. However, he was inching closer to a return to the lineup and a depleted lineup at that, which would have been great timing. With so many players already out of the lineup, welcoming back a healthy Byron to play a bottom six role and kill penalties would have been terrific.

Unfortunately, his season debut will now have to wait even longer.

At this point, you have to start wondering if the Canadiens can play tomorrow. Primeau did not start their last game and Byron didn’t play either so this news doesn’t really impact their lineup from yesterday.

Still, with 11 players on the Covid list, it might be time to postpone a few more games so this team can get healthy.