If the trend continues, and for the second season in a row, the Canadian should finish first in something.
That something is the list of games missed due to injury in the National Hockey League.
In 2021-2022, it was the Montreal club that finished the calendar at the top of this not-so-prestigious ranking, with a total of 731 games missed due to injuries, according to data compiled by the specialized site Man-Games Lost.
This season, with only five games to play on its season schedule, it is this same Montreal club that still comes first in this chapter, with 670 games that have been missed for health reasons, again according to Man-Games Lost. By comparison, the Toronto Maple Leafs rank second, with 532 games lost to various injuries.
For the Canadian, is it poor injury management, simple bad luck or some kind of mixture of the two? This question will have to be asked internally, no doubt.
In the meantime, the facts: the Canadian announced late Saturday evening that the season of another player was over, in this case that of defender David Savard, injured in the right knee.
He’s at least the club’s sixth player to say goodbye to 2022-23 ahead of time, in addition to Cole Caufield, Kaiden Guhle, Josh Anderson, Christian Dvorak and Arber Xhekaj. You have to write “at least” here, because two other members of the team, forwards Juraj Slafkovsky and Sean Monahan, have been missing for a while, and another, Kirby Dach, may not return this season. .
What’s left?
With all this, what remains of this very long end of the season which will continue, unfortunately, against all odds, with the 78e Canadian game, Tuesday night at the Bell Center, against the Detroit Red Wings? There isn’t much left.
A good idea “
Martin St-Louis, after the very humiliating loss on Saturday night at the Bell Center – a thaw of 3-0 during which the Carolina Hurricanes finished the evening with a total of 83 shots attempted, against only 25 for the Canadian –, himself acknowledged that the time for evaluations in view of 2023-2024 was essentially over. To be more precise, he admitted to already having a “good idea” of what he will have on hand for the future.
Nick Suzuki, who remains the only Canadian player to have played all the team’s games this season, still believes that he and his teammates still have several reasons to want to go to the arena, despite All.
“We want to be able to end this season in force, explained the captain, late Saturday evening at the Bell Centre. We want to set the tone for the next season. There are guys here who are fighting for a position, who want to show what they can do… I think yes, you really have to finish strong. »
So that’s going to stay, and that’s all that’s left, really: attempts at pride, simulations of the abacus, and then the promises of a hot summer on the exchange market or the draft market, which could return to promise better days.
There may also be boos, like those we heard at the final siren on Saturday night, probably the loudest of the season at the Canadian’s home. “I agree,” summarized Martin St-Louis about this reaction from the fans.
Strongly September.
Detroit Red Wings v. Canadian, Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Bell Center