Montreal Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin has not played since the Habs’ recent victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on November 12th. The team announced that he has been playing through an injury, and it’s become too much to keep battling through.
The Montreal Canadiens announced that he will miss between four and six weeks with an upper-body injury sustained during the Habs’ contest against the Vegas Golden Knights on November 5th.
It was announced before the Habs game on Tuesday that Drouin would be absent as he and Joel Armia were marked as unavailable with upper-body injuries after missing the morning skate. Then, after the Habs game on Tuesday, the team announced that Drouin will be out for an extended period.
Montreal Canadiens Jonathan Drouin to miss time with an upper-body injury.
Since the injury was sustained on November 5th, Drouin has continued to play through it, logging four more games where he was still able to tally two assists for his credit and not be completely invisible out there.
Chris G., the senior writer of All Habs and host of the Habs Connection podcast, posted this video concerning the injury. It’s a clip from the Habs versus Golden Knights game that may just showcase Drouin’s injury occurring.
#Habs announce that Jonathan Drouin will miss 4 to 6 weeks with an upper body injury sustained on Nov. 5th vs Vegas.
— Chris G (@ChrisHabs360) November 16, 2022
I believe this is the sequence where the injury occurred as Drouin shows discomfort on his left hand as he gets up from the contact@AllHabs @RocketSports pic.twitter.com/AJw7rWH20t
In the tweet, Chris notes that the left hand of Drouin appears to be the cause of the injury. Though, with hockey injuries being labeled upper and lower body injuries, there’s no official diagnosis. Chris seems to be onto something here as you see him land on that left hand and forearm as he goes down.
After getting up, Drouin labored with that left arm close to his body before resuming a normal stick position. This might just be the cause, and a reaggravation of the injury prompted further diagnosis.
Either way, the Habs will be without the winger for some time as he heals up and recovers. Through 12 games played in 2022-23, Drouin has no goals and four assists to his credit. So there has not been a ton of excitement around the 27-year-old’s performance this season.
The scoring has not exactly been there for Drouin, but with Evgenii Dadonov being reactivated last week, he has slotted into Drouin’s spot in his absence. Heck, Dadonov even found the back of the net, tallying his first goal in a Canadiens uniform.
As the Canadiens trudge on, they will be without Drouin through the first of the year, most likely, unless any updates or an early “all-clear” is given for his upper-body injury. Until then, the hope will be that Dadonov wakes up after finally scoring with an uber-quiet start to the season.