The Montreal Canadiens got a big boost at practice on Saturday morning. After missing the past week with concussion-like symptoms, defenceman Sami Niku returned to practice on Saturday, in a normal jersey, meaning he's able to take contact. The 24-year-old had been skating for a couple days this week in a non-contact jersey.
After missing Thursday's shootout loss to the Ottawa Senators, forward
Jonathan Drouin was back on the ice on Saturday in Brossard. Drouin was scratched from the Canadiens lineup on Thursday due to a non-COVID19 related illness.
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As the Canadiens head into their 2021-22 season opener on Wednesday night in Toronto, they still have quite a few injuries that they're dealing with. Defenceman
Joel Edmundson has an undisclosed injury, and head coach Dominique Ducharme announced the other day that he'll likely miss a few weeks. Rookie defenceman
Mattias Norlinder has been out of the lineup since being injured in Montreal's game against Toronto on September 27th and has been listed as day-to-day.
Forward Cedric Paquette has been out of the lineup for just over a week now, and has what the team describes as a "minor lower-body injury". Paquette skated ahead of the main group on Wednesday morning.
Also out with injuries are
Mike Hoffman and Paul Byron. Hoffman is expected to return sometime in October, while Byron won't be back until early-January.
Montreal's lineup on opening night will more than likely look this:Toffoli-Suzuki-Caufield
Drouin-Dvorak-Anderson
Armia-Evans-Gallagher
Lehkonen-Poehling/Paquette-Perreault
Romanov-Petry
Chiarot-Savard
Kulak-Wideman
Allen
Montembeault
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