Is the medical team doing the job?

The announcement of Cole Caufield’s package for the rest of the season is another tile that has come down on the Canadian. Since the start of the campaign, the Habs infirmary has seemed busier than the emergency room at Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital.

• Read also: Long recovery for Caufield

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• Read also: Canadian: Cole Caufield will miss the rest of the season

Including Carey Price and Paul Byron, who didn’t play a game, the Habs currently have 12 injured players. Besides the Vegas Golden Knights, who are without 10 players, no other team has more than seven players on the sidelines.

How to explain such a disaster? Especially since this is not the first time that the Habs have flirted with the top of this unenviable category.

Last year, according to the site mangameslost.com which compiles the absences of all NHL players, the absenteeism rate for the Canadiens was the highest with 731 missed games. The Arizona Coyotes followed with 627.

Of course, it’s not always a matter of injury in the classic sense. The absences of Price and Jonathan Drouin, for mental health reasons, and the cases of COVID in recent years, are not evils that arise in the heat of the moment.

Hughes wonders

Nevertheless, that the Canadian ranks among the worst in this ranking year after year raises question marks. To what extent the Habs medical team can be singled out for these recurring problems!

Could the jobs of the members of this medical staff, headed by Graham Ryndbend, the chief sports therapist, be threatened?

Questions which, apparently, have now reached the management of the team. During his mid-season review, Kent Hughes seemed somewhat tickled when asked about it.

“We will continue to assess the situation at the end of the season. It’s really surprising the number of injuries we have, ”said the general manager of the Canadian.

Beyond injuries, a normal situation in a sport like hockey, it is the management of these that seems to be lacking. Who doesn’t remember the saga surrounding Shea Weber’s injury?

Victim of a broken left foot, the result of a blocked shot, from the first game of the 2017-2018 campaign, he had endured the pain until mid-December (missing games on occasion) before withdraw for the remainder of the season.

The operation undergone in March 2018 then required a consultation to assess the condition of his right knee. Knee which finally had to be operated on in July of that same year, keeping the captain on the sidelines for two months and very possibly mortgaging the rest of his career.

Byron banged up

Byron also paid dearly for his stubbornness in wanting to continue playing despite injuries. Two hip operations have greatly harmed his future.

Which makes you realize that, yes, the players also have their share of blame on occasion.

“Sometimes we have players who want to come back to the game, who want to push the limits. With them, we have to do a better job of protecting them 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 issues much closer to us in time. Starting with last year.

2021-2022

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 will be reassessed daily. Finally, with a back injury, the defender will miss the first 57 games of the season.

Jonathan Drouin

Injured in the right wrist, he misses a month of activity 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 intense. He has to undergo an operation which causes him to miss the rest of the season.

Samuel Montembeault

Keeping the net in relief of Jake Allen, first injured in the lower body, then in the groin (was it the same injury?) Samuel Montembeault has several difficult outings. We feel hesitating in front of his net. First believing in a weakened confidence, we will eventually learn that he played despite an injury to a right wrist for three months. In May, he underwent an operation.

Jake Allen

Injured in the lower body in mid-December, he is trying to return to the game quickly. On January 12, he was injured again. He will miss the next 25 games.

David Savard

On January 12, in Boston, he suffered a right ankle injury while blocking a shot. He played seven more games despite this injury before being retired. He will miss seven weeks of activity.

2022-2023

Mike Matheson

On October 13, the Canadiens placed Matheson’s name on the injured reserve list for eight weeks. Five weeks later, three before the schedule initially planned, he returned to the game. This return lasted only nine games. He leaves on the sidelines for five weeks. In that time, he attempts a comeback. Only one match in which he played more than 22 minutes.

Sean Monahan

Not wanting to miss his return to Calgary, he continued to play despite a broken right foot. By removing him from training immediately, the Canadian would have avoided a lot of trouble in this case. His absence would have been minimal. Possibly two weeks. However, earlier this week, the organization placed his name on the long-term injured list, retroactive to December 6, the day after his last game, nearly seven weeks ago. In the last workout, he spent the first 10 minutes stretching his hips and groin, a sign that his body has compensated for his initial injury.

Brendan Gallagher

We understand that his pain tolerance threshold is high and that he would like to play even if he had to have both legs amputated. At the beginning of December, the Canadian announces that Gallagher, injured in the lower body (we know that it is in an ankle) will miss at least two weeks of activity. The Albertan returns to the game a month later. After three games, the same injury again forced him to forfeit.

Jonathan Drouin

He suffered a broken rib Nov. 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.