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Mike Matheson

Snapshots: Matheson, Schneider, Andersson

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Head coach of the Montreal Canadiens Martin St. Louis has announced that Mike Matheson is a game-time decision for the team’s Monday night matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights. The defenseman has been battling a minor lower-body injury that drew his availability into question.

Matheson has become a top defender in Montreal, with a blue line-leading six points through eight games on the season. The tally brings him to 40 points in 56 games since joining the Habs last season, making him the second-fastest Habs defender to reach the 40-point mark. The milestone speaks to Matheson’s scoring ability – something that’s come to the surface in recent years, with Matheson setting career-highs in scoring in both the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, despite being limited by injury in both years. His presence on Montreal’s back end is a necessity, given the team’s string of defenseman injuries. Matheson will look to avoid that list on Monday night.

Other notes from around the league:

Canadiens’ Mike Matheson Out Day-To-Day

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The Montreal Canadiens have announced that defenseman Mike Matheson is out day-to-day with a lower-body injury. The 29-year-old suffered the apparent injury during the club’s 4-3 shootout win over the Winnipeg Jets. Matheson has been on a tear to start the season with two goals and four assists in his first eight games of the campaign. Matheson dealt with several injuries last year in what was a shortened season for the Pointe-Claire, Quebec native. He dressed in just 48 games in 2022-23 registering eight goals and 26 assists and was a +7.

The Canadiens are already missing David Savard with a broken left hand and can ill afford to lose Matheson for any length of time after a surprising 5-2-1 start to their season. The Canadiens were expected to be in a transition year but have impressed thus far winning a lot of close games.

The severity of Matheson’s injury is unknown; however, early indicators are that his ailment isn’t of the serious variety. Matheson will travel with the Canadiens to Las Vegas today for their upcoming road trip, which indicates that he will likely play in the next week in one of the three games on the trip. Arpon Basu of The Athletic has tweeted that the team is saying that Matheson’s injury is nothing serious.

Matheson missed much of the Canadiens training camp with an injury that seemed to linger for longer than expected. This was also the case for several of the injuries he dealt with last year, including the abdominal strain that occurred at a morning skate and eventually caused him to miss the first month of the season.

While Matheson’s injury frequency must be of concern, his play on the ice is not. Since a difficult final season with the Florida Panthers, Matheson has been extremely responsible and creative with the puck which has led to him posting solid offensive numbers in recent years. And should the Canadiens’ assessment be correct, Matheson will return later this week to hopefully continue his solid start to the season.

Red Wings Healthy Scratch Jeff Petry

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It’s been a strange 14 months for Detroit Red Wings defenseman Jeff Petry. The 35-year-old defenseman was traded in July 2022 by the Montreal Canadiens to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for a package that included defenseman Mike Matheson and forward Ryan Poehling. Petry spent one uneven season with the Penguins only to be traded back to Montreal 13 months later in a salary dump as part of the Erik Karlsson trade. Petry was then flipped to the Red Wings for a fourth-round draft pick and Gustav Lindstrom.

Now, just two games into his time with Detroit, Petry already finds himself a healthy scratch as per the Red Wings X account. Petry was in the press box during the Red Wings 4-0 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight as Detroit dressed six defensemen and 12 forwards for the game.

The Red Wings traded very little to acquire Petry, but it is difficult to understand the logic of the move given how many other NHL veterans are currently signed to play on Detroit’s blue line. The Red Wings made several moves this summer to acquire veteran defensemen with Petry coming into the organization along with Justin Holl and Shayne Gostisbehere.

Petry was a bit of a wild card as he hasn’t been overly effective since the 2020-21 season when he was with the Canadiens and has been shuffled through multiple organizations in that time. Last year in Pittsburgh he wasn’t terrible, but he wasn’t particularly good either, which prompted the Penguins to make the Karlsson move to replace Petry and add more power to their offense.

In his first two games in Detroit, Petry has really struggled posting no points and a -2 while averaging 16:44 of ice time. A dramatic decline from the 22:14 he has averaged throughout his career. While his ice time is down substantially, his play hasn’t warranted additional ice time as he has found himself on the wrong side of puck possession more often than not in the first two games.

How Detroit handles their defense going forward could make for interesting theatre. Moritz Seider and Jake Walman aren’t coming out of the lineup for Petry and given their play as of late it seems unlikely that Olli Maatta or Gostisbehere are coming out of the lineup either. The likeliest candidate is Holl, but like Petry, he was just brought in this summer, and it wouldn’t be a great look to scratch him after a handful of games.

Detroit has alternated using six or seven defensemen this season and may continue to do so with the logjam in their defensive core. However, constantly sitting newly acquired veterans is often frowned upon and could lead to some bitter feelings among veterans.

Injury Notes: Norris, Perfetti, Matheson

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Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia is reporting that Ottawa Senators center Josh Norris is practicing once again in a normal contact jersey today. The 24-year-old shed his yellow non-contact jersey for yesterday’s practice after he tweaked something two weeks ago at the start of training camp. Norris has missed 90 games over the past two seasons with a shoulder injury and has continued to deal with the ailment despite several surgical and rehabilitation efforts.

Last season, Norris injured the shoulder while taking a faceoff against the Arizona Coyotes in October, he attempted to do rehab and came back to play in January, but then re-injured his shoulder after three games. He finished the year with two goals and a single assist in just eight games in what was a very disappointing first year of an eight-year $63.6MM contract.

In other injury notes:

  • Sportsnet is reporting that Cole Perfetti left the Winnipeg Jets preseason game last night against the Calgary Flames after taking a dangerous hit from Martin Pospisil. Perfetti didn’t return to the game and was absent from practice this morning when it began. However, according to Winnipeg Sun reporter Scott Billeck, Perfetti did practice in a smaller group of just five players. Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press is reporting that Perfetti is day-to-day at the moment.
  • Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports is reporting that Montreal Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson didn’t practice today with the team. The 29-year-old was a late scratch last night for the Canadiens preseason game against the Ottawa Senators in what was said to be precautionary. Matheson dealt with several injuries last season, which makes any scratch worrisome at this point. Eric Engels of Sportsnet reported last night that Matheson is dealing with a lower body injury that is unrelated to the groin and abdominal injuries he dealt with last season and would’ve played through the injury had the game been a regular season matchup.

East Notes: Palmieri, Laine, Matheson

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The New York Islanders may not have forward Kyle Palmieri available to them to begin the season, head coach Lane Lambert told reporters today (link via Ethan Sears of the New York Post). Palmieri has yet to practice with the team during training camp, and this certainly seems like a more significant injury issue than what the Islanders called “maintenance” almost a week ago.

Palmieri has been skating on his own throughout camp but has not come close to appearing in a preseason contest. It does seem unlikely that Palmieri’s absence will stretch into something significantly long-term, but missing the season opener would mean at least a three-week absence from the original undisclosed injury, which is certainly nothing to brush off. It will be a significant hole for the Islanders to fill if he does miss time, given the 32-year-old winger is again ticketed for a top-six role, likely alongside Pierre Engvall and Brock Nelson. Palmieri was limited to 55 games last season due to injury, but he did manage to increase his production pace after a poor 2021-22 campaign, recording 16 goals and 33 points.

More updates from around the Eastern Conference tonight:

  • Even after the departure of Mike Babcock and Brad Larsen behind the Columbus Blue Jackets bench, the Patrik Laine at center experiment hasn’t ended yet. The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline reports that Laine has taken line rushes at center during each of the past two Blue Jackets practices and today was centering the team’s top line between Johnny Gaudreau and Kirill Marchenko. Shifting Laine to center full-time would certainly take the load off rookie Adam Fantilli, who could start the season in a more sheltered third-line role down the middle. It would also relieve the responsibilities of captain Boone Jenner, who was forced into averaging over 20 minutes per game last season thanks to the team’s thin depth down the middle. Laine did play a few games at center last season before an arm injury ended his campaign in late March.
  • Montreal Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson was a late scratch for tonight’s preseason tilt against the Ottawa Senators, and Sportsnet’s Eric Engels reports the circumstances surrounding said scratch are still unknown. If it’s injury-related, Habs fans can hope it’s only precautionary for their de facto number-one defenseman. If the team has any hopes of making noise with their young core in a suffocatingly tight Atlantic Division, Matheson’s play will be a huge part of it. The 29-year-old notched a career-high 34 points last season despite playing in just 48 games and still managed a +7 rating on a bottom-feeding team.

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