Slafkovsky missed the Canadien's last game due to an upper-body injury and after being left out of Monday's practice will not be playing on Tuesday. The 2022 1st overall pick has one goal and four shots through five games so far to start his NHL career.
Laine was expected to be out for 3-to-4 weeks with an elbow injury, but head coach Brad Larsen said that Laine is improving. Laine was able to return to the ice on Monday and Larsen said he'll miss at least the next couple of games.
Montembeault will get his second start in as many games after Montreal announced Jake Allen would not be available for Monday's game due to parental leave. The 25-year-old netminder struggled in his only start of the season, losing 3-1 to Washington while stopping 26 of 29 shots with little offensive help. He will look to get his first win of the season Monday against Pittsburgh.
San Jose's backup goaltender will draw his second start of the season for the winless Sharks (0-3-0) Saturday. The 26-year-old Finnish netminder will be hoping for a bounce-back performance after allowing three goals on 18 shots (.833 SV%) against Nashville last weekend in Prague.
Laine scored just minutes into Columbus' season opener Wednesday but could only complete 7:49 TOI. Before leaving, the star winger collected two shots, a hit and a blocked shot, while adding the earlier-mentioned goal. His month-long absence will come as a massive blow to Columbus who just added Johnny Gaudreau during the offseason.
Matheson underwent an MRI on Wednesday and missed the Canadiens' season opener with a lower-body injury. The MRI must not have revealed positive news, as he hits IR to open up a roster spot for Corey Schueneman to be called up.
Columbus' star left winger will not return after a collision with Brett Pesce of the Carolina Hurricanes. Laine had started the night off hot with the first goal of the contest and two shots before exiting in the second period.
33-year-old veteran Left Winger Paul Byron will be placed on the LTI due to a hip injury steaming from last season. Byron has struggled to stay healthy the last few years playing only 102 games in the last three NHL seasons. He collected seven points in 27 games in 2021-22 as he found himself out of the lineup more often than in. By placing the 12-year veteran on the LTI, the Canadiens free up $900,000 in cap space.
Matheson's rehab from a lower-body injury he suffered in the preseason continues. At this point, it seems unlikely that Matheson will be available for the Canadiens' season opener on Wednesday.
Blais opened training camp on a line with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider but has since dropped down the depth chart and is now banged up. Blais shouldn't carry any fantasy value heading into the 2022-23 season. If he misses the Rangers' season opener, expect Vitaly Kravtsov to get into the lineup.
Kahkonen will get the second of the back-to-back starts for the Global Series in Prague. The 26-year-old will get his first nod between the crease this season after posting a .916 SV% and 2.86 GAA across 16 games after getting dealt to the Sharks' at the trade deadline in 2021-22.
Suzuki has been battling a lower-body injury throughout training camp but returned to the ice on Friday. Suzuki told reporters that he would have played through the injury during the regular season but that they're being careful because it's training camp. This is positive news that Suzuki should be ready to go for the Canadiens' season opener.
Suzuki suffered the injury during offseason training and is expected to be sidelined for a couple of weeks. It seems possible that the newly minted Canadiens' captain could be ready for the start of the season, which is just over two weeks away for Montreal.
Canadiens GM Kent Hughes released a statement on Thursday confirming that Price could potentially miss the entire 2022-23 campaign. Hughes said the "the news in terms of Carey's knee is pretty discouraging in the sense that there hasn't been any improvement through the rehab process all last season." Price, who will be added to LTIR, is expected to have an update on his future in the next month.
