Canadiens: Kirby Dach Out Long-Term With Significant Knee Injury
By Ryan Praught
Well, it took all of two games for the injuries that plagued the Canadiens in each of the last two seasons to start again this year. On Monday, Canadiens Head Coach Martin St. Louis announced that forward Kirby Dach would miss significant time with a knee injury sustained on Saturday Night. Dach played just five minutes before he left the game and did not return.
Kirby Dach has a significant injury. He's out long-term. Still being diagnosed, more coming in the next few hours or days--according to Habs.
— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) October 16, 2023
The injury occurred on a rather harmless-looking play, where Dach was pushed into the Blackhawks bench by former Canadien Jared Tinordi. It was a noteworthy play, but not one that you would’ve expected to result in a major injury. It just goes to show how unlucky Dach was and how unfortunate the Canadiens have been.
For Canadiens fans, this is the worst news for a multitude of reasons. First, the Habs and their fans had high hopes for Dach this year after what was a magnificent start to his career with Montreal last year. The hope was he could take another step towards stardom this year.
And the other reason for pessimism is it triggers some PTSD about injuries from each of the last two years. The Canadiens were the NHL’s most injured team two years running heading into this season, and now it looks as though they are vying for a three-peat.
The good news is it doesn’t appear to be a season-ending injury, though we won’t know for sure until we get a proper diagnosis. The hope is obviously that the injury is week-to-week and not months. Still, the Habs will have to prepare for life without Dach for the time being.
The Canadiens AHL affiliate Laval Rocket also announced today that prospect Emil Heineman is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury. And David Reinbacher sustained a lower-body injury in Europe this week as well.
Hopefully, this is the worst of it as far as bad news on the injury front goes for the next little while. Because Habs fans have been through a lot in the last two years, and they deserve the ability to see their favourite players healthy and actually playing.
5:00 pm UPDATE: Eric Engels is reporting that he has received word that Dach has a torn ACL and MCL which could put Dach’s season in jeopardy. Still waiting on official confirmation but if true it would be the absolute worst case scenario for Dach and the Canadiens.
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