Montreal Canadiens: More Covid Cases Announced, Team Will Still Be Very Shorthanded Next Game

The Montreal Canadiens have been battling through the worst outbreak of Covid in the entire league this season.

They had to ice a team that consisted of just 11 forwards and five defencemen in their first game 2022. It was also the final game of a three game road trip through the southern United States and, not surprisingly perhaps, it was also their third consecutive loss.

The team played quite well considering the circumstances, losing 5-2 and running out of gas after heading into the final period trailing just 3-2. With all sue respect to Kale Clague, if he is playing 27:34 in a game, that team is dealing with significant issues.

The Canadiens issues just continue to pile up. Yesterday, four more players were added to the Covid protocol. David Savard, Samuel Montembeault, Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Jesse Ylonen were placed on the Covid protocol list as well as assistant coach Trevor Letowski. This brings the total number of Canadiens players on the list to 20.

The Canadiens were supposed to play the Washington Capitals last night, the Toronto Maple Leafs tomorrow night as well as the Buffalo Sabres and Columbus Blue Jackets within the next week. All four of those games have been wisely postponed.

The Canadiens next game is scheduled for December 12th against the Boston Bruins. While they are likely to have Artturi Lehkonen, Mike Hoffman and Laurent Dauphin out of Covid protocol by then, they could still have 17 players out of the lineup when they travel across the border for that contest. Of course, that is a full week away and anything can happen in seven days.

Tyler Toffoli, Joel Edmundson, Jeff Petry, Ben Chiarot, Chris Wideman and Jake Allen all entered the protocol on December 27th. The Quebec government will have them stay away from the team and arenas for two weeks, so they can’t skate again until January 10th at the earliest. Would they be into game shape in a day or two and ready to face the Bruins on the 12th? I think that’s unlikely after two weeks away stuck in their homes.

Which means the Habs will be short 17 players on January 12th when they play Boston. More importantly, they will be without Allen, Montembeault, Cayden Primeau and Carey Price who are all either in Covid protocol, or in Price’s case, still injured.

After a nearly two week break, most teams would be well rested and ready to come out firing. The Canadiens on the other hand, will have Michael McNiven and Kevin Poulin in goal and are going to have to play Brett Kulak for 25 minutes once again as they begin a five game in seven day stretch on January 12th.

Players will eventually return after that game, but how quickly can they back into the lineup after a two week quarantine? We will have to wait and see on that one, but with such a busy schedule immediately following the break, and limited practice time, it is going to take players a few days to get up to speed.

You would have hoped the team would be healthy after a near two week break, but that will not be the case.