Habs News: Montreal Canadiens, NHL, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Joel Edmundson, Shea Weber, Marc Bergevin, Dominique Ducharme

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GAME DAY: CAR @ MTL

The Montreal Canadiens welcome Jesperi Kotkaniemi and the Carolina Hurricanes to the Bell Centre.

Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET.

Watch for our full game preview available on Thursday afternoon. Post-game we will publish a comprehensive game recap.

Be sure to bookmark AllHabs.net and visit often.

Kotkaniemi returns to MTL

On September 4th, Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin chose not to match the offer sheet made by the Carolina Hurricanes to Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Now as a member of the Hurricanes, Kotkaniemi returns to the Bell Centre. He spoke to the media via Zoom.

“We have a great team and a great group of guys here,” said Kotkaniemi. “I’ve had a blast so far.”

Line Juggling

On Wednesday morning, the Canadiens practiced at the Bell Centre at 11:30 am. with a very different looking set of forward lines and defensive pairs. Head coach Dominique Ducharme said that line shuffling is not a sign of desperation.

“Desperation is not the line combinations,” said Ducharme. “Right now, I feel that we have one line that’s kinda clicking, kind of.”

These were the forward lines, defence pairings and goaltenders:

Mike Hoffman – Nick Suzuki – Brendan Gallagher
Jonathan Drouin – Christian Dvorak – Josh Anderson
Tyler Toffoli – Mathieu Perreault – Cole Caufield
Artturi Lehkonen – Jake Evans – Joel Armia
Cedric Paquette – Adam Brooks

Brett Kulak – Jeff Petry
Ben Chiarot – Chris Wideman
Alexander Romanov –  David Savard
Sami Niku

Jake Allen – Samuel Montembeault

Injury Update

Canadiens defenceman Joel Edmundson has returned to Manitoba to be with his father who is battling lung cancer. Edmundson has missed four games so far this season.

The 28-year-old was also recovering from an unspecified injury during training camp.

“Joel came to me and he’s a big man… you know the way he plays and that’s how he conducts himself and he was very shaken up by the fact that his dad was not doing well,” said GM Marc Bergevin. “So I gave him a hug and I said: ‘Listen, take the time you need. Family comes first.’ So I don’t know when he will be back, but he needs to take the time he has to take with his family.”

With respect to Canadiens captain Shea Weber resuming his playing career, the general manager said, “You never know, but I would say it’s a long shot.” Weber will not play this season.

“I think Shea’s presence means a lot, says a lot. Lots of times just his look, the way he looked at the team or the players would send a message and that’s hard to do from Kelowna,” said Bergevin.

Here is the Canadiens current injury list:

Joel Edmundson (family) – indeterminate
Mattias Norlinder (lower-body) – indeterminate
Carey Price (player assistance program) – early November
Paul Byron (hip) – end of December
Shea Weber (multiple injuries) – out for the season

Will he stay or will he go?

Oddly, Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin had a press availability just four games into the season. When asked why he chose to speak to the media, Bergevin said, “There is no reason, especially, but Montreal is a different market.”

The general manager added that he was there to show his support to the team.

With Bergevin in the final year of his contract, he said that he would like to stay with the Canadiens as general manager “in a perfect world.”

Second win for Rocket

The Laval Rocket hosted the Manitoba Moose at Place Bell for their third game of the season. Five different goal scorers allowed the Rocket to beat the Moose 5-4.

For a complete recap: Victory Despite Penalties | RECAP: BEL @ LAV

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