Montreal Canadiens: Three Players Who Took Advantage of Unlikely Opportunity

The Montreal Canadiens went through an incredible month of December. Maybe ridiculous is a better word than incredible to describe what we witnessed last month.

The team was battling an extremely high number of injuries as regulars like Carey Price, Shea Weber, Paul Byron and Joel Edmundson have not played all season and Jeff Petry, Mike Hoffman, Tyler Toffoli, Joel Armia, Brendan Gallagher, Jonathan Drouin and Josh Anderson joined them on the injured list.

That was before the Covid breakout in the Habs dressing room that has now affected 20 players.

Somehow, the team managed to complete a three game road trip in the southern United States on January 1st. They of course lost all three games to the Tampa Bay Lightning, Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers, but they managed to scrape together a lineup. Well, most of a lineup. In that last game on New Year’s day, the Canadiens only had five defensemen and 11 forwards available.

In sports, teams must continue to move ahead even with a few injuries. Most teams don’t have to deal with as many injuries and illnesses as the Canadiens did last month. In fact, many teams had less severe cases of Covid outbreaks and had their games postponed. Some of the Habs games would be postponed, but that three game road trip with a skeleton crew of a roster was an odd sight.

The lines looked more like an early preseason contest and less like a middle of the regular season roster.

It led to three straight losses, but the Canadiens are now 7-23-4 so it is unlikely they would have won no matter who was playing. While the results in the standings haven’t been good, all of these injuries have opened doors for players who were not expected to play in the NHL this season.

One player’s injury is another player’s opportunity and these three players really took advantage of that unlikely chance and made a name for themselves in December.