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Arber Xhekaj wasn’t at practice this morning and the Habs kept schtum about his status until late this afternoon when they tweeted that he would be out indefinitely with an upper-body injury. Now, just for clarity’s sake, Xhekaj actually pointed to his shoulder as he exited the ice on Sunday and was seen leaving the building with his arm in a shoulder brace, so there’s no big mystery about which part of his upper-body is injured. As for the length of his absence, the team said that he needs to undergo some tests before a timeline can be established for his injury rehab.
Last season on Valentine’s day, the Canadiens traded Tyler Toffoli and this year, they put out this update about Xhekaj, the conclusion is obvious here Habs fans; love hurts. Michel Therrien would probably agree as well, having been fired by the Habs on Valentine's day in 2017. Xhekaj’s absence means that Chris Wideman will be back in the line-up tonight, likely alongside Jonathan Kovacevic on the 3rd pairing while Harris and Savard will be the top one and Matheson and Barron the 2nd.
If Xhekaj wasn’t at morning skate, the Ukrainian peewee team was as the youngsters are participating in the Quebec peewee tournament and they were the Canadiens’ guests this morning. Both Jonathan Drouin and Martin St-Louis spent time with the kids after practice and they were all smiles with their brand new Canadiens’ jersey. This team’s story has touched Quebecers as the crowd turned up to cheer them on, filling up the Centre Videotron.
In net, Jake Allen gets the call for a second consecutive game and one can wonder if the team is trying to give him plenty of exposure to show that his injury trouble of the last couple of seasons are behind him and that he could help a Cup contender make a deep playoffs run. After all, anyone will tell you that goaltender depth is quite important in the Spring dance (remember the Avalanche a couple of years ago? They had to go with their 3rd string goalie) and perhaps Allen could interest a team.
Apparently, Vegas had scouts in Montreal this weekend with their sights set on the goaltenders which makes sense considering Logan Thompson is injured and his status is week-to-week. Would Vegas be comfortable going into the postseason with Aidan Hill and Laurent Brossoit as their tandem? An interest in Allen seems more likely than one in Montembeault as Hughes has already said that he’s in Montreal to stay, I know, hockey is a business and people can change their mind quickly, but still, he said it.
Furthermore, François Gagnon reported last week that Cayden Primeau would probably get an extended look in Montreal before the end of the season so that the organization knows where it stands with him. Perhaps it will be sink or swim time soon for the 7th round pick. The Canadiens don’t have much depth in the net as things stand and decisions will have to be made.
Meanwhile, the Blackhawks come to town as the second worst team in the league, they’ve got 37 points through 51 games and the Blue Jackets are only trailing them by one point with a game in hand. This is hardly surprising though as the Hawks did go into full tanking mode, unloading plenty of talent in the offseason which allowed the Canadiens to pick up Kirby Dach. Asked about Dach, Patrick Kane had this to say today about his recent surge:
“I’m not surprised. What is he? 21? 22? It takes some time sometimes, and he was probably rushed into the league. And playing fourth-line minutes, getting sat out games, it’s probably not the best thing for your development. It’s not surprising that all of a sudden he’s starting to play a lot of minutes and playing in a good position and he’s producing. Happy for him.”
Sounds about right and in this rather difficult year, Dach’s development and “hatching” has been one of too few feel-good stories. Last time the Habs and the Hawks played, Dach scored the game winner in the shootout and he’d probably like to do it again, although the Canadiens’ last two wins have taken them further away than some would like from Connor Bedard and a loss against the lowly ranked Hawks would help tank team’s agenda.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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