Connect with us

Montreal Canadiens

Habs Practise Report: Injury Updates, Gallagher And Byron Close

Published

on

Montreal Canadiens

After dropping their fourth straight game with a 5-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks Thursday night at the Bell Centre, the Montreal Canadiens were back at it Friday practising in Brossard.

Montreal Canadiens forwards Paul Byron (hip) and Brendan Gallagher (lower-body) skated with their teammates for a third straight day but remained in non-contact jerseys. The Montreal Canadiens continue an eight-game homestand tomorrow (vs Edmonton Oilers) and Sunday (vs Columbus Blue Jackets) at the Bell Centre.  The hope is that either Byron or Gallagher or both will be cleared to play for at least one of the upcoming games this weekend.

Gallagher hasn’t played since Dec. 30 and Byron has yet to play a game during the 2021-22 season.

Habs goalie Sam Montembeault and defenseman David Savard were given therapy days.

Canadiens vice president Chantal Machabée provided the rest of the injury updates following practise:

-Montreal Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin remains out indefinitely with a right wrist injury. MachabĂ©e stressed that this isn’t the same wrist Drouin injured in November 2019 and had surgery on.

-Forward Christian Dvorak does not have a concussion but he is suffering from an upper-body injury that has led the Montreal Canadiens to place him on injured reserve. Dvorak isn’t expected back until at least after the upcoming all-star break on Feb. 4-7.

-Montreal Canadiens defenseman Joel Edmundson remains out indefinitely with a back injury.

-Forward Mathieu Perreault will be out three to four weeks more with a lower-body injury.

-Forwards Joel Armia and Cole Caufield are out of COVID protocol and were expected back in Montreal later on Friday.

Here’s how the Canadiens lined up at practise Friday:

Forwards:

Artturi Lehkonen-Nick Suzuki-Tyler Toffoli

Laurent Dauphin – Ryan Poehling – Mike Hoffman

Rem Pitlick-Jake Evans-Josh Anderson

Michael Pezzetta- Lukas Vejdemo-Cedric Paquette

Non-contact: Brendan Gallagher, Paul Byron

Defense:

Ben Chiarot-Kale Clague

Brett Kulak-Jeff Petry

Alexander Romanov-Chris Wideman

Sami Niku

Goalies:

Cayden Primeau