Avalanche – Canadian | Gallagher and Niku on the sidelines, Perreault back

Another day, another bad news in the Canadiens camp.

Richard Labbé
Press

Among the tiles that have fallen on the club since the start of the season, we must add this one: the COVID-19 which invites itself among the players, this time by attacking Brendan Gallagher and Sami Niku.

The two men returned a positive test on Wednesday, and will therefore not be in uniform during Thursday night’s game at the Bell Center against the Colorado Avalanche.

Gallagher and Niku are the first CH players to end up on the COVID-19 protocol this season. Former CEO Marc Bergevin also suffered the same fate.

“We are waiting for their results from the tests they had to pass this morning, but they will not play tonight,” explained Dominique Ducharme. They had tests this morning and will have to have another one tomorrow morning. ”

According to the Canadiens coach, the two players would not be struggling with symptoms related to COVID-19. If ever the two players report another positive test, they will have to undergo a period of isolation of 10 days. They will be able to return with the club after two negative tests.

The good news, despite everything: three other players will be able to return to the game Thursday night at the Bell Center: Mathieu Perreault, Chris Wideman and Brett Kulak.

All this has also forced Ducharme to rethink his training for this match against the Avalanche, in which Mattias Norlinder should not participate, whose immediate future with the club remains uncertain.

“It also depends on what will happen with the test results,” replied Dominique Ducharme. Mattias is here, he’s getting experience. I would like to make plans, but in our situation, it takes a plan B, C, D, E, F… We are preparing to return to the bubble for 10 days. ”

Perreault will play his first game since October 30, after having undergone two eye surgeries.

“I missed a good end, and after the operations, I had to be at complete rest,” he explained. But I started skating again last week and I feel ready. ”

We will also notice that Cole Caufield will be on the fourth line on Thursday evening.

“With everything that is happening, we had to rethink our training,” added Ducharme. Think about it trio by trio, how we can face the trios of the Avalanche. We made sure to distribute our trios that way. Cole, he needs to be active, dynamic with the puck. ”