They suffered upper-body injuries during Thursday night’s 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at the Bell Centre.
The injury problems continue for the Canadiens.
Defenceman Mike Matheson, who suffered an upper-body injury in the first period of Thursday night’s 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at the Bell Centre, did not take part in practice Friday morning in Brossard, taking a therapy day instead. Matheson only logged 7:35 of ice time against the Kings before going to the locker-room with his injury and he didn’t return to the game.
Meanwhile, the Canadiens announced Friday morning that defenceman Kaiden Guhle, who logged 23:09 of ice time against the Kings, also suffered an upper-body injury during Thursday night’s game and will be evaluated on a daily basis.
Because of the injuries, the Canadiens have called up defenceman Logan Mailloux from the AHL’s Laval Rocket. In two games with the Rocket this season, Mailloux has 2-2-4 totals. The Rocket, who have a 1-1-0 record, will play their home opener Friday at Place Bell against the Syracuse Crunch (7 p.m., RDS2).
To make matters worse for the Canadiens, Juraj Slafkovsky had to leave the ice during Friday morning’s practice after appearing to suffer a shoulder injury.
The Canadiens are back in action Saturday in New York against the Islanders (7 p.m., CITY, SNE, TVA Sports). Matheson will make the flight to New York Friday afternoon with his teammates, but Guhle won’t.
The Canadiens are already missing forward Patrik Laine, who suffered a knee injury during a pre-season game that is expected to sideline him for 2-3 months. Defenceman David Reinbacher, who was expected to start the season in Laval, also suffered a knee injury during the same pre-season game as Laine against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sept. 28. Reinbacher required surgery and is expected to sidelined for 5-6 months.
Last season, the Canadiens lost forward Kirby Dach to a season-ending knee injury during the second game of the year. The previous season, the Canadiens set an NHL record when they lost 751 man-games to injury. That broke the NHL record the Canadiens had set the previous season when they lost 720 man-games to injury.
This report will be updated after the Canadiens practice finishes.