TORONTO – If the Montreal Canadiens haven’t cracked by now, it’s fair to assume they’re made of something sturdy.
The Habs are at the tail-end of the longest road trip on their calendar and a few things keep happening every time they hit the ice. For one, there’s always extra hockey to be played, as each of Montreal’s past five outings have been decided in overtime. Then there’s the mounting injuries, the two most recent occurring on Wednesday night against the Dallas Stars when forwards Brendan Gallagher and Paul Byron were deleted from an already depleted lineup.
Through it all, though, the Atlantic Division-leading Canadiens continue to bank points. And if they can scrape out two more against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto on Saturday night, they’ll have claimed 10 of the 14 that were up for grabs when they started this seven-game voyage two days before Christmas.
There might be more good news on the horizon, too.
Both Alex Galchenyuk and Andrei Markov made their first practice appearance in a while on Friday afternoon in Toronto. And though neither will play against the Leafs, it sounds like the team could have its No. 1 centre and one of its most important defencemen back sometime next week.
“They’re really close,” said coach Michel Therrien.
Galchenyuk hasn’t played since Dec. 4, when a seemingly innocuous knee-on-knee collision with Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar put him on the shelf. Markov, meanwhile, hasn’t competed since Dec. 17 due to a groin ailment. Galchenyuk was tracking a breakout 75-point season when he went down and Markov, who turned 38 just days after he was forced out of the lineup, was producing at a 55-point pace.
“That’s encouraging,” Pacioretty said of their return. “They look good out there, too.”
The flipside is that Gallagher will be out for eight weeks thanks to a fractured hand caused by a bomb from teammate Shea Weber. Unfortunately, this is familiar territory for Gallagher. Last year, he was waylaid after blocking a rocket from New York Islanders defenceman Johnny Boychuk . While the 24-year-old right winger—who had surgery Thursday night—absorbed both pucks with his left hand, Therrien said the point of contact is a little different this year compared to last season.
“It’s tough for him to get almost the same injury,” the bench boss noted. “It’s bad luck.”
The same could be said for surprising scorer Byron, who had already set a career high with 12 goals before he was knocked out of the contest versus Dallas with a suspected concussion. That’s the same condition that has right winger Andrew Shaw sidelined, while centre David Desharnais continues to deal with a damaged knee and defenceman Greg Pateryn heals a fractured ankle.
“You’ve gotta have that ‘next man up’ mentality,” said Pacioretty, who certainly did his part with back-to-back overtime winners this week.
In that vein, the Canadiens made an intriguing decision when they summoned Nikita Scherbak from the AHL’s St. John’s IceCaps. The 26th-overall pick from the 2014 draft will make his NHL debut against Toronto. While he’s expected to start on the fourth line, Scherbak has the skill—and, more specifically, the shot—to move up the lineup.
“My game is better than the start of the year,” Scherbak said. “I’m [more of an] all-around player than I was before.”
If that’s true, Montreal will be even better equipped to find wins in the face of adversity.