While the Canadiens have finally come out of the mother of all losing streak this week, a lot of damage has been done in the standings. As I write these lines, the Habs are outside of the playoffs picture looking in:
Thankfully though, they are in the weak Atlantic division meaning that while they are 5 points behind the Hurricanes in the second wild card spot, they are actually level in points with the Sabres for the 3rd place in the Atlantic division and a single point behind the Panthers in 2nd. However, the Panthers have 2 games in hand and should Sergei Bobrovsky sort himself out and start playing like the number one goaltender he can be, the Cats could start grabbing a lot more points. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay sits on 31 points with 3 games in hand and let's face it, this team is much too good to be 11th in the eastern conference. I know, we've been saying that since the start of the season but they are bound to wake up sooner rather than later.
If the Habs struggled in November, December doesn't look any easier. In the 10 games left this month, 8 of them will be played on the road. Starting December 17th, the Habs will be on the west coast and make stops in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg all in the span of 7 days. Thankfully, the Habs have won the last 7 games against the Canucks and the last 3 against Calgary but one can wonder if that kind of stat really matters when a team is battling against so many injuries and itself really.
Not since the season ending injury to Carey Price in 2015-2016 has this team been hit so badly with injuries. Jonathan Drouin was having a great start to the season with 15 points in 19 games before he injured his wrist and had to go under the knife. The injury occurred on November 15th and his absence was expected to last for 8 weeks. It's only been 3 weeks and the Tricolore is reeling...If you would have told me during the preseason that Montreal would be that affected by Drouin's loss, I would have called you crazy.
While Paul Byron wasn't having a good season by any stretch of imagination, he is still a bona fide NHL player and he fits in this line-up much better than the likes of Weal or Cousins. His 4 points in 19 games weren't a huge offensive contribution but his speed and commitment are sorely missed and the Canadiens' lack of depth is cruelly exposed right now. He was also injured on November 15th and meant to be out for 4 weeks. He has since started skating again and should he stick to the timetable, he could be available for the start of the west coast road trip.
Victor Mete being injured also made a difference. The Canadiens' struggling defense corps just couldn't afford to lose one of its regular and it's been exposed big time since it had to make do without number 53. The news came out on December 2nd that Mete would be out of action for at least 2 weeks and while both Ben Chiarot and Shea Weber have been absolute beasts lately, there's just no way they can keep performing like that if they have to spend half the game on the ice. The Olofsson experiment really wasn't a success and it looks like the Leskinen one will continue, at least for now. From 7:37 of ice time in his first game, he went up to 10:58 in his second one. Hopefully, this positive trend continues.
If things weren't bad enough though, Jesperi Kotkaniemi also landed on the injury list this last week, dealing with a concussion. It's always hard to know how long a player will be out of action when dealing with head injuries but this is also Kotkaniemi's second injury this season and it comes at a time when the young Finn seemed to be finding his game.
While Claude Julien isn't everyone's favourite coach, there's only so much he can do with such a depleted line-up especially when talented players like Drouin and Kotkaniemi are out of order. The lines he drew up for the game in New York worked well, we'll see if they stick and if they can offer the same kind of performance in Pittsburgh Tuesday and against Ottawa on Wednesday. If the Canadiens are to have any chance to make the Spring dance, they'll need all the puck luck they can get for the rest of the month...and hopefully a respite from the injury ninja...
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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