Mike Matheson’s official debut with the Canadiens will have to wait. What the organization initially described as a “lower body” injury eventually turned out to be a sprained abdominal muscle. The Montrealer will thus have to miss eight weeks of activities.
Posted at 8:07 p.m.
To make up for his absence, the Habs recalled Corey Schueneman from the Laval Rocket.
Matheson played his last game on Monday, October 3, having been sidelined for his club’s three preseason games. On October 6, after a duel against the Ottawa Senators, head coach Martin St-Louis assured that his defender was “healthy”.
However, the new number 8 of CH has not skated with the rest of the formation since. On Wednesday, October 12, hours before the first official game of the season, general manager Kent Hughes indicated that Matheson, who had a “lower body” injury, had to undergo an magnetic resonance imaging test.
The team published the results on Thursday evening. If the deadline mentioned is respected, the defender could hope to return to action before mid-December.
A native of Montreal, Matheson was acquired by the Canadiens during the summer in return for Jeff Petry and Ryan Poehling. During training camp, he quickly stood out from the pack, becoming the coaching staff’s trusted advocate.
Unit decimated
His long-term absence is a blow for the Habs, already deprived of the services of Joel Edmundson, who suffered a back injury just before the start of training camp. Edmundson returned to skating alone earlier this week, but no return date has been estimated at this point.
Without the two veterans, Martin St-Louis was forced to use four rookie defensemen for the club’s first official game on Wednesday night. With Schueneman’s recall, five of the seven defensemen currently in the team’s roster have less than 25 games of NHL experience.
Thursday afternoon, the head coach, without being aware yet of the duration of the convalescence of Matheson, took the situation with philosophy.
Optimistic, he pointed out that his absence would give “more ice time to young defenders”. “And when he comes back, they will be more advanced” in their development, continued St-Louis.
“I know he [Matheson] is disappointed, but these are things he cannot control,” he concluded.