The announcement of Cole Caufield’s package for the remainder of the season is another rock that has fallen on the Canadian. Since the beginning of the campaign, the Habs’ infirmary seems to have been busier than the ER at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital.
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Including Carey Price and Paul Byron, who have not played a game, the Habs currently have 12 injured players. Except for the Vegas Golden Knights, who do without 10 players, no other team has more than seven players on the sidelines.
How can such a catastrophe be explained? Especially since this isn’t the first time the Habs have flirted with the top of this unenviable category.
Last year, according to the website mangameslost.com which summarizes the absenteeism of all NHL players, the Canadiens had the highest absenteeism rate with 731 missed games. The Arizona Coyotes followed with 627.
Of course, it’s not always about injuries in the classic sense. Price and Jonathan Drouin’s absences for mental health reasons and the COVID cases in recent years are not evils that come in the heat of the moment.
Hughes wonders
However, the fact that the Canadian is at the bottom of this ranking year after year raises a question mark. To what extent can the Habs medical team be singled out for these recurring issues!
Could the jobs of members of this medical staff, headed by Graham Ryndbend, the chief sports therapist, be threatened?
Questions that apparently have now reached the management of the team. During his midseason recap, Kent Hughes seemed a bit tickled when asked about it.
“We will continue to assess the situation at the end of the season. It’s really surprising how many injuries we have,” said the Canadian’s general manager.
Apart from injuries, a normal situation in a sport like hockey, there seems to be a lack of management. Who doesn’t remember the saga surrounding Shea Weber’s injury?
Victim of a broken left foot, the result of a blocked shot, he had endured the pain from the first game of the 2017-2018 season until mid-December (occasional missed games) before retiring for the remainder of the season.
The operation, performed in March 2018, then required a consultation to assess the condition of his right knee. Knee that eventually required surgery in July of that year, keeping the captain on the sidelines for two months and very likely pawning the rest of his career.
Byron struck
Byron also paid dearly for his stubbornness in wanting to continue playing despite injuries. Two hip operations have severely damaged his future.
You realize, yes, the players are sometimes to blame.
“Sometimes we have players who want to come back to the game, who want to push the envelope. With them, we need to protect them better from themselves,” Hughes said.
True, but do they have all the information they need to make the right decisions?
We can ask serious questions about subjects that are much closer to us in time. Starting with last year.
2021-2022
Joel Edmundson
Archive photo, Martin Chevalier
Joel Edmundson
On the first day of training camp, we learn that Joel Edmundson is suffering from an upper body injury and that his condition is being reassessed daily. After all, the defender will miss the first 57 games of the season with a back injury.
Jonathan Drouin
Archive photo, Martin Chevalier
Injuring his right wrist, he will be absent for a month between mid-November and mid-December.
Despite this injury, he played 20 of the next 21 games before coming to terms. The pain is too strong. He has to undergo an operation which will make him miss the rest of the season.
Samuel Montembault
Archive photo, Martin Chevalier
Samuel Montembault
Samuel Montembeault holds the net to the relief of Jake Allen who was injured first in the lower body and then in the groin (was it the same injury?). We feel hesitant in front of his web. Believing initially in a weakened sense of confidence, we will eventually learn that he played for three months despite suffering from a right wrist injury. He underwent surgery in May.
Jake Allen
Archive photo, Martin Chevalier
Jake Allen
Injured in the lower body in mid-December, he tries to get back into the game quickly. On January 12, he was injured again. He will miss the next 25 games.
David Savard
Archive photo, Martin Chevalier
David Savard
On January 12 in Boston, he injured his right ankle while blocking a shot. Despite this injury, he played seven more games before retiring. He will miss seven weeks of activity.
2022-2023
Mike Matheson
Archive photo, Martin Chevalier
Mike Matheson
On October 13, the Canadians placed Matheson’s name on the injured reserves list for eight weeks. He returned to the game five weeks later, three ahead of the originally planned schedule, with that return lasting just nine games. He stays on the sidelines for five weeks. During this time he is attempting a comeback. Only one match in which he played more than 22 minutes.
Sean Monahan
Archive photo, Martin Chevalier
Sean Monahan
Not wanting to miss his return to Calgary, he continued playing despite a broken right foot. With an immediate removal from training, the Canadian would have avoided a lot of trouble in this case. His absence would have been minimal. Maybe two weeks. Earlier this week, however, the organization put his name on the long-term injured list retroactively to December 6, the day after his last game almost seven weeks ago. At the last workout, he spent the first 10 minutes stretching his hips and groin, a sign his body has compensated for the initial injury.
Brendan Gallagher
We understand his pain tolerance level is high and that he would love to play even if he had to have both legs amputated. In early December, the Canadian announced that Gallagher, who has a lower body injury (we know it’s an ankle), will be inactive for at least two weeks. The Albertan returns to the game a month later. After three games, the same injury forced him to retire again.
Jonathan Drouin
He suffered a broken rib on November 5 against the Golden Knights. He played the next three games. He has been sidelined since January 12. And everything indicates that it could be a similar problem.