October 18, 2025
On Saturday morning the Montreal Canadiens announced injuries to core players. Kaiden Guhle will be out four to six weeks while Kirby Dach and Patrik Laine are day-to-day. With the New York Rangers in town, Owen Beck was called up from the Laval Rocket, Joe Veleno drew in, and Arber Xhekaj was back after a night in the press box. The result was a 4-3 loss.
Here is what caught my attention.
Veleno has “day-to-day” to show he belongs in the line-up.
It wasn’t a bad showing. Logically, Joe Veleno is best suited for the bottom six of this team, and against the Rangers Veleno consistently did the things you want him to do there. In the meanwhile, the Habs have had a guy playing in the bottom six who really does not belong there.
With Laine out day-to-day, Veleno has a small window to show he deserves that role.
Did the second wave of the power play miss Laine?
The power play has been whispering that it might need some attention. With Laine out, Marty chose to play Suzuki on both waves. Probably not the switch fans wanted to see, but they had quick success with the captain scoring his first of the season.
It has to be said. The only reason the Canadiens should manage Laine at 5-on-5 is so that he can deliver on the power play. So far he has not been able to do that. It’s possible that the Suzuki goal supported Veleno’s case.
Monty is still looking for his game.
When you lose by a goal, one banana is too many.
HuGo must be concerned about another Guhle injury, right?
This is Guhle’s fourth year in the league and over three previous seasons he has played 169 of a possible 246 games. 77 games is nearly one of three seasons lost.
That’s not nothing.
Pundits say you shouldn’t call a defenseman’s ceiling until he has played at least 300 games in the NHL. When might we realistically expect Guhle to get there?
The current projection is that Guhle will miss somewhere between 12 and 19 games for this injury. If all else goes well, Guhle should reach that 300-game threshold by the end of next season, his fifth in the NHL, when he’s 25 years old.
The situation is not exactly catastrophic. His early start means he will likely still be quite young when he’s seen enough games to hit his peak. He will still have four years left on his current contract.
Speaking of that contract, is it still a bargain if the player is in 75% of your games. Should we pro-rate that?
I’m being facetious. But the guys who say it’s no big deal because Guhle “is a beast” also cannot be taken seriously. Surely one characteristic of a beast is that you’re still standing after a beastly encounter. Never mind when no one can find the play where you were actually injured.
I’m not saying he’s soft, or even injury-prone. I’m also not saying the situation is concerning in the way Dach’s or Reinbacher’s situations are. I’m saying he’s not reliably present in the line-up. That’s indisputable, and that’s a pretty big deal for a top-4 D-man.
Hab At Her 