BROSSARD, Que. — The Montreal Canadiens are dealing with a couple of injuries in their forward group.
Centre Torrey Mitchell, who missed Friday’s 5-3 win over the New York Islanders (10-7-3), is in the process of having his lower-body injury evaluated. He’s been placed on the injured reserve list.
Right-winger Devante Smith-Pelly, who played 10:51 in Friday’s game and finished his night on Montreal’s top line with Max Pacioretty and Tomas Plekanec, is now listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
As a result, Sven Andrighetto was recalled from the AHL’s St. John’s IceCaps and is getting a plum assignment for Sunday’s rematch with the Islanders. The 22-year-old Swiss native will make his 2015-16 debut with the Canadiens (15-4-2) on a line with forwards Alex Galchenyuk and Lars Eller.
“I’m really excited to play with these two guys,” said Andrighetto. “I’m trying to bring my speed to support them. With my speed, I can forecheck hard and create turnovers and help them create some offence.”
Galchenyuk and Eller have combined for one goal in their last five games. Andrighetto will be the fifth right-winger this season to make an appearance on their line, and he’s fresh off his best performance of his season: Two goals, including the overtime winner, in a 4-3 victory over the Syracuse Crunch Friday.
Andrighetto, who’s managed six goals and nine assists in his first 17 games with St. John’s, scored two goals and added an assist in 12 games with the Canadiens last season.
“I’m not nervous to be here this time,” assured Andrighetto. “I’m really excited right now, I’m enjoying the moment. Everything was new last year for me, and now I know how it goes.”
IceCaps leading scorer George “Bud” Holloway was informed after Saturday’s 2-1 overtime loss to the Crunch that he too would be making his way to Montreal. He got up at 3 o’clock in the morning to catch an early flight and joined the Canadiens for their morning skate.
Holloway, a 27-year-old reclamation project, is originally a 2006 third-round selection of the Los Angeles Kings.
After three seasons with L.A.’s AHL affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs, Holloway made his way to Europe for three seasons in the Swedish Elite League. He then played in Bern, Switzerland under former NHL coach Guy Boucher.
The Canadiens signed Holloway to a one-year, two-way contract in January of 2015, and he rewarded them with 20 points in his first 18 games with the IceCaps this season.
Download it now: iOS | Android | Windows
This is Holloway’s first call up to the NHL.
“I’m really ecstatic to be here right now,” said Holloway. “I got called into the office and [the coaches] said, ‘You’re on the 5 o’clock flight in the morning, so go home and get some sleep and get packed.’ So it was pretty shocking the way it happened so fast.
“Going home and calling my dad, it was a pretty proud moment.”
Canadiens backup goaltender Mike Condon, who wrote his own unexpected story by cracking Montreal’s roster out of training camp as a relatively unknown player, put Holloway’s long journey into context.
“He’s a guy that plays for the love of the game,” said Condon. “Usually when guys go to Europe, it signifies that they’ve kinda moved on from the NHL and they’re ready to travel a different path. It takes a lot of courage to come back to North America to play a style of game you haven’t played in a long time.
“By all accounts, he’s been great in St. John’s and has a lot of heart. He deserves a chance here, and it’s nice to see the organization reward him with one.”
Having played back-to-back games and traveled early Sunday morning, Holloway won’t dress for the game against the Islanders.
Defenceman Alexei Emelin, who missed the last four games with a lower-body injury, was back on the ice with his teammates Sunday morning but will not participate Sunday night.
Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty expects the game to be a particularly steep challenge, considering his team has already met and beaten the Islanders twice this season.
“If the shoe was on the other foot, we’d be coming in here trying to make some noise,” said Pacioretty. “They obviously have some guys that feed off each other’s energy. We saw it in [Friday’s] game that the [Matt] Martin, [Cal] Clutterbuck and [Casey] Cizikas line. They’re guys that — when their team needs a little bit of a boost — they go out there and make some noise, try and get dirty, try and put pucks on net, try and whack away and get guys to take a penalty after the whistle. I think we have to make sure we don’t get caught up in that.”
The Canadiens chased Islanders goaltender Jaroslav Halak from the net with three goals in the first period of Friday’s game.
Thomas Greiss, who made 15 saves on 16 shots in relief of Halak Friday, will start Sunday’s game.
The game is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET on Sportsnet.
