They suffered upper-body injuries during Thursday night's 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at the Bell Centre.
Defenceman Mike Matheson, who suffered an upper-body injury in the first period of Thursday night’s 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at the Bell Centre, did not take part in practice Friday morning in Brossard, taking a therapy day instead. Matheson only logged 7:35 of ice time against the Kings before going to the locker-room with his injury and he didn’t return to the game.
Meanwhile, the Canadiens announced Friday morning that defenceman Kaiden Guhle, who logged 23:09 of ice time against the Kings, also suffered an upper-body injury during Thursday night’s game and will be evaluated on a daily basis. Guhle has been one of the Canadiens’ best players to start the season with 1-3-4 totals and a plus-4 differential in five games. Matheson has three assists in the first five games.
Because of the injuries, the Canadiens have called up defenceman Logan Mailloux from the AHL’s Laval Rocket. In two games with the Rocket this season, Mailloux has 2-2-4 totals. The Rocket, who have a 1-1-0 record, will play their home opener Friday at Place Bell against the Syracuse Crunch (7 p.m., RDS2).
To make matters worse for the Canadiens, Juraj Slafkovsky had to leave the ice during Friday morning’s practice at the CN Sports Complex after appearing to suffer a shoulder injury.
The Canadiens, who have a 2-3-0 record, are back in action Saturday in New York against the Islanders (7 p.m., CITY, SNE, TVA Sports). Matheson and Slafkovsky will make the flight to New York Friday afternoon with their teammates, but Guhle won’t. After practice, head coach Martin St. Louis said he didn’t know if Slafkovsky would be able to play against the Islanders.
When Canadiens defenceman Arber Xhekaj was asked about Matheson’s status after practice Friday, he said: “I think he’ll be all right. I’m not sure what the status is there.”
The Canadiens are already missing forward Patrik Laine, who suffered a knee injury during a pre-season game on Sept. 28 that is expected to sideline him for 2-3 months. Defenceman David Reinbacher, who was expected to start the season in Laval, also suffered a knee injury during the same pre-season game as Laine against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Reinbacher required surgery and is expected to be sidelined for 5-6 months.
Last season, the Canadiens lost forward Kirby Dach to a season-ending knee injury during the second game of the year. The previous season, the Canadiens set an NHL record when they lost 751 man-games to injury. That broke the NHL record the Canadiens had set the previous season when they lost 720 man-games to injury.
“You just kind of get used to it,” veteran Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher said after practice Friday when asked about the team’s injury problems. “It’s part of the sport. Some years you feel like you’re hit worse than others. It’s five games in here, we’re not going to start making excuses. We just got to handle it. These are the moments where we got to figure out what we are as a group. Have guys step up and pick each other up.”
The Canadiens will be looking to end a two-game losing streak against the Islanders. St. Louis wouldn’t say after practice Friday who will start in goal against the Islanders. Samuel Montembeault has started the last three games and has a 2-2-0 record this season, along with a 2.29 goals-against average and a .932 save percentage. Cayden Primeau has made one start, allowing six goals on 29 shots in a 6-4 loss to the Bruins in Boston in the second game of the season for a .793 save percentage.
“It’s not a panic, but obviously we have expectations of ourself to be in a better position,” Gallagher said about the Canadiens’ start to the season. “So it’s working to find results. We put in a good day of work here today. Tomorrow, find a way to win a hockey game. That’s what it comes down to and then get back on track.”
Losing Guhle and Matheson would be a huge blow to the Canadiens’ defence corps. Guhle’s consistency is what has impressed St. Louis the most this season after the 22-year-old defenceman had surgery to remove his appendix on the first day of training camp and was only able to play in one pre-season game.
“I think he covers a lot of ice defensively,” St. Louis said about Guhle. “He’s able to play through our offensive scheme, too. To me, what Guhls is, you know what you’re going to get every game. Obviously, he’s got a very high ceiling. But what I like the most about Guhls is how high is his floor, you know what I mean? So the difference between a so-so game for Guhls and a good game is not big and that’s great for a coach because you know what you’re getting out of a guy. You don’t know if you’re going to have his A game, but his B game is very good and his C game is pretty good, too.”
The Canadiens will fly back to Montreal after Saturday night’s game and have a day off Sunday. They will practise Monday morning at the Bell Centre, which is also team-photo day, and will then play the New York Rangers Tuesday at the Bell Centre (7:15 p.m., TSN2, RDS).
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