Montreal Canadiens
Canadiens Place Joel Armia And Cole Caufield In COVID Protocol
The Montreal Canadiens have placed forwards Cole Caufield and Joel Armia on the NHL’s Covid Protocol list.
Both players will be unavailable tonight when the Canadiens play the Stars in Dallas (8:30 PM ET, TSN2, RDS, BSSW).
Les attaquants Joel Armia et Cole Caufield ont été placés aujourd'hui sur le protocole de la COVID-19 de la LNH.
Forwards Joel Armia and Cole Caufield were placed on the NHL's COVID-19 protocol list today. pic.twitter.com/mClmhZwzkr
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) January 18, 2022
Caufield and Armia are currently the only Montreal Canadiens players on the NHL COVID Protocol list. This is Caufield’s first stint in COVID Protocol, but dating back to last season, this is Armia’s second. The Canadiens, like many NHL teams, have been ravaged by COVID. At one point in early January, they had 24 players in NHL COVID Protocol. The Habs shut down all team activities for a week following a 5-2 loss to the Panthers in Florida on New Year’s Day less than a week after the NHL took a league-wide COVID pause.
The Montreal Canadiens had 16 players on the protocol list for that game against the Panthers and they had to play the game against the Panthers with only 18 players instead of the normal minimum of 20. The Habs then had their next four games postponed after three were postponed in December.
Both Armia and Caufield have been two of plenty of Montreal Canadiens players that have struggled this season. Armia has one goal and four assists in 32 games and Caufield one goal and seven assists in 29 games.
The Canadiens had been getting healthier recently with nine players coming out of COVID Protocol a week ago and just as they embarked on a seven-game road trip. The Habs still haven’t fared well on the road even as they got healthier. They lost 5-1 to the Boston Bruins last Wednesday, 3-2 in overtime to the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday, and then 5-2 to the Arizona Coyotes on Monday. In addition to Dallas tonight, the Montreal Canadiens will still travel to Las Vegas for a game against the Golden Knights on Thursday, Denver to play the Avalanche Saturday and to Minnesota to play the Wild next Monday.
It’s worth noting that according to a report by Sportsnet Insider Elliotte Friedman Tuesday, the NHL and NHLPA have agreed to not test asymptomatic players after the all-star break.
Hearing NHL/NHLPA agreeing on no longer testing asymptomatic players and staff after All-Star. At that point, testing only required for cross-border travel and if a person develops symptoms.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 18, 2022