Jan. 7: The hits just keep coming. Today, forward Alex Belzile and defenseman Kale Clague entered COVID protocol, per the team. Overall on the list, there are now a staggering 24 Canadiens players on COVID protocol.
Jan. 5: Forwards Cameron Hillis and Michael Pezzetta were added to the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol today, according to the team, making it seven Canadiens who have entered protocol in the last two days. It’s another hit to the list of depth forwards Montreal had called up to fill in gaps this season.
Jan. 4: The Montreal Canadiens added forwards Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Jesse Ylonen, defenseman David Savard, goalie Sam Montembeault, and assistant coach Trevor Letowski to the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol on Tuesday, per a team tweet.
Montreal and their AHL affiliate in Laval are already in the middle of a five-day pause in team activities that lasts through January 6. The team isn’t scheduled to return to play until January 12.
That pause is certainly necessary for the Canadiens, who really don’t have an NHL team to ice right now. Quite literally, they don’t have enough players under NHL contracts to field 18 skaters and two goalies. Only Jean-Sebastien Dea and Xavier Ouellet remained in the minors.
Montembeault has a .893 save percentage in 11 games with Montreal this season after he was claimed on waivers from the Florida Panthers early in the season. He’s the team’s backup to Jake Allen with Carey Price currently out of the picture.
Harvey-Pinard and Ylonen, both callups from Laval, had combined for three points through a combined 10 games played. Savard, the team’s big addition on defense in free agency, has a goal and eight assists through 34 games and is averaging 20:32 per game.
At the rate the Habs are going, they’ll have to make up these games sometime in the next century…
Might be time to pull Karl Alzner off the couch and but that buyout spot to work.
@Dave – How about Karl Alzner, Andrei Markov, and even Patrick back in net, just to spite his chance at the GM job! (Patrick, if you can post a sub 2 GAA, .925+ SV% with a 60% workload, we’ll give you the GM job after the season’s over! PLUS – No Mario Tremblay to deal with, either!)
:)
Yuk! can Canadiens fan say 1st Pick in the NHL Draft the Montreal Canadiens select ???? if they don’t loose it to Arizona for worst record in standings. Albiet they play all their games this year
link to capfriendly.com
How do they still have players left to put in protocol? This is nuts.
Seems like some canadian team is not capable of stopping the spread of this deadly virus. Isnt it a crime? Shouldnt we as a society search for ways to punish such organizations and individuals? I’m saying no more Joe Rogan for the members of the habs and let the police track their online activity and browsing history.