Jayden Struble Reportedly Just Fine After Leaving Montreal Canadiens Game With Nasty Looking Injury

The Montreal Canadiens are used to having seemingly short term injuries turn into extremely long term absences in recent years.

We thought Carey Price was going to miss a few weeks of the 2021-22 season but his career turned out to be over. Sean Monahan was ruled day to day for about four months last season. Joel Edmundson always seemed to be days away from making his season debut a year ago but it took weeks and wekks before he actually played.

This season has been less mysterious, but not without long term absences. Kirby Dach was lost for the year just four periods into the season. Christian Dvorak's season started late and ended early. Jordan Harris, Alex Newhook and Kaiden Guhle all missed some time as well.

So the team is no stranger to injuries, especially ones that last a long time.

That is why when Jayden Struble limped off the ice against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night, fans were expecting the worst. His injury was an odd one as there was no contact on the play. He just dumped the puck into the Penguins zone and then couldn't put any weight on his left leg.

He collapsed before trying to get back up and head to the bench a couple of times but just could not put any pressure on his leg and slowly made his way to the bench as he crawled across the ice. I am no doctor, but this usually means a severe injury like an achilles tear or something that can take months to recover from.

Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports reported that Struble has actually escaped a long term injury. He was seen walking around after the Penguins game and Lavoie said he could be fine and might possibly even play today against the New Jersey Devils.

That would be refreshing, unexpected news. It seems like every time someone goes down it ends up being a months long recovery for them in Montreal. Struble is having a fantastic rookie season, showing he can skate with, and defend against the best players in the world on a nightly basis.

Among all Canadiens players, you could argue Struble has moved up the depth chart the furthest since the beginning of the season. It would be a shame if he were to miss any time, but it sounds like the Canadiens have definitely avoided the worst case scenario this time.