Defenceman had surgery to remove his appendix on Sept. 18, the same day the Habs opened training camp.
On Friday, Guhle told reporters in Mont-Tremblant — where the Canadiens practised Thursday and Friday — he would like to be in the lineup for the final pre-season game Saturday in Ottawa (7 p.m., TSN5, RDS), but will be ready for the season opener even if he doesn’t play against the Senators.
The Canadiens will open the regular season next Wednesday at the Bell Centre against the Toronto Maple Leafs (7 p.m., SN, TVA Sports).
“I’m ready,” Guhle told reporters in Mont-Tremblant after taking part in Friday’s practice. “I feel good. Whenever they need me to play, I’ll be ready to play. If that’s tomorrow or if that’s Game 1, whatever, I’ll be ready to go.
“It would be nice to play one game (in the pre-season) just maybe get a little bit of the rust off,” Guhle added. “But if I don’t I’m going to have no problems jumping in on (Wednesday).”
“One night was really bad,” Guhle told reporters in Mont-Tremblant on Friday when asked about his appendix surgery. “Kind of had a little bit of pain for a few days and then just got it checked out. Caught it really early, which is good. We just felt that it was best to just take it out and get it over with and that’s that.
“One ounce lighter,” he added with a grin.
Guhle likes the makeup of the Canadiens’ young defence group, which includes Arber Xhekaj (23), Jayden Struble (23), Justin Barron (22), Logan Mailloux (21) and Lane Hutson (20).
“I think everyone’s just getting older,” Guhle said. “Everyone’s getting more mature, more comfortable in the league. Not comfortable, but more familiar I guess you could say. I think just maturity back there is huge and you want guys to play games. That’s huge. You ask anyone that’s played in the league and they all say that you just need to play games. I feel like we’re getting to that point.
“I feel like you can even see in practice everyone’s more mature and just kind of figuring it out and getting to that point,” Guhle added. “So I think we’re just getting more mature.”
Guhle has been impressed by what he has seen from Hutson during the 5-foot-10, 162-pound defenceman’s first training camp with the Canadiens after spending the last two seasons at Boston University.
“He looks good,” Guhle said about Hutson, who had 30-67-97 totals in 77 games over the last two seasons at Boston University after being selected by the Canadiens in the second round (62nd overall) of the 2022 NHL Draft. “Obviously, you guys see he’s a wizard with the puck. He does some crazy things. It’s fun to watch. Every time he’s got the puck up there you know he’s going to make a play and something’s going to happen. He’s had a great camp so far. He looks good.”