Injury update for the Montreal Canadiens: special team statement

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David St-Jean
October 20, 2023 (9:03 PM)

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Given all the rumors and speculation surrounding the injuries to Kirby Dach and Kaiden Guhle, the Canadiens have decided to issue a statement instead of leaving room for doubt.

It's true that it took quite a while for the team to provide updates on Dach and Guhle, which allowed for a lot of rumors to circulate.

Today, they took action before it could become another issue by releasing a statement on Christian Dvorak and Kaiden Guhle.

"Kaiden Guhle skated before his teammates, along with Canadiens' Director of Hockey Development, Adam Nicholas. The 21-year-old defenseman is evaluated daily for an upper-body injury.

Christian Dvorak, who hasn't played a game so far this season, was wearing a regular practice jersey, suggesting he's ready to receive contact again. The forward underwent knee surgery in March last year. The team had announced during training camp that he shouldn't officially be ready to return to play until November.

The Canadiens will host the Washington Capitals at the Bell Centre on Saturday. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m."

It's worth noting that no one has been called up from Laval yet, and the coach declined to confirm if Justin Barron would play on Saturday night. This could mean that Guhle might be ready to return to play. At the very least, he didn't appear to be bothered on the ice.

As for Dvorak, it's very encouraging, but he'll need more than one contact practice before being ready. It would be very surprising if he played on Saturday, even later this week.