(Brossard) The Montreal Canadiens resumed training on Sunday morning at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard, following a long break caused by a major outbreak of COVID-19 in the team.
The players took part in a few basic exercises at the start of the session, in order to remove the “rust” that had accumulated in recent days. In total, 21 of them, in addition to the coaching staff, jumped on the ice.
Among them were goaltenders Jake Allen and Samuel Montembeault, as well as defensemen Ben Chiarot and Chris Wideman. Forwards Josh Anderson and Mike Hoffman also skated, and they were wearing no contact jerseys.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Samuel Montembeault
Joel Armia and Christian Dvorak, who have already tested positive for COVID-19, wore navy blue sweaters indicating that their state of health is reassessed on a daily basis.
Nick Suzuki, Ryan Poehling, Cole Caufield, Sami Niku, Laurent Dauphin, Jonathan Drouin, Artturi Lehkonen, Michael McNiven, Cédric Paquette, David Savard, Corey Schueneman and Lukas Vejdemo also trained.
For his part, Quebecer Jean-Sébastien Dea, one of the few players to be under contract with the Montreal organization who has not been recalled as an emergency measure in recent weeks due to the many cases of coronavirus, s ‘is trained with the Habs. The Bleu-blanc-rouge announced that Dea had been recalled from the Laval Rocket and assigned to the team’s reserve squad.
The Canadian is not out of the woods yet, since he still has 16 players subject to the league’s protocol to fight COVID-19.
The Canadian had suspended his activities the day after his last match on 1er January – a 5-2 loss to the Florida Panthers. The break, which has become necessary in order to contain the COVID-19 outbreak that rocked the team at the turn of the new year, ended on Saturday.
The team’s next scheduled game is Jan. 12 against the Bruins in Boston.
On the other hand, the ex-journalist Chantal Machabée will pilot her first media availability since she was appointed vice-president of communications for the Canadian, on January 5.