Canadiens’ depth takes another big hit with Kaiden Guhle’s injury

BROSSARD, Que.— It was the first thing Nick Suzuki pointed to when we asked him what led to his team’s most successful run of the season—a 16-8-2 hike up the Eastern Conference standings, which gave the Canadiens the seventh-best points percentage in the NHL from Nov. 15 through Jan. 14.

“I think just the depth,” he said after the team lost 4-1 to the Winnipeg Jets and extended its current winless streak to three games.

It was what we thought he’d say.

If you look back through that 26-game stretch that saw the Canadiens mostly overwhelm their opponents with waves of 200-foot hockey from all four lines and all three defence pairings, that depth was obviously the main ingredient to their success. If you didn’t see any of it and just listened to head coach Martin St. Louis constantly say he didn’t have to worry much about matchups in games that saw the Canadiens facing off against the strongest and deepest teams in the league, you’d know.

But that strength was weakened up front when Emil Heineman was hit by a car in Utah on Jan. 13, and it took a devastating blow on the back end Tuesday when Kaiden Guhle hobbled off the ice unable to place any weight on his right leg.

Wednesday’s announcement from the Canadiens—that Guhle suffered a laceration to his quadriceps muscle and underwent surgery to repair it—was very unwelcome news. It was brutal for Guhle, who’s already suffered his fair share of injuries since debuting in 2022 and is now dealing with another that will keep him out indefinitely, and it was brutal for the team.

We’re talking about a player who plays top minutes against top opposition, a player who’s chipped in four goals and 14 points despite largely defensive deployment through his 44 games, a player who plays a key role on the sixth-best penalty kill in the NHL, and a 23-year-old player that teammates were referring to as a standard bearer prior to Tuesday’s game.

“He shows up every night,” said Alex Carrier. “He plays hard, he’s physical, good stick, and everyone loves him in the room. He’s a younger guy, but he’s so mature. He brings the standard up for the whole team every night, so you want to keep up with him and show up as well.”

When Lane Hutson said, “(Guhle) is a really important piece for our team,” it was another way of saying Guhle’s not one that can be replaced by any single player.

It’s a big problem, and a similar one to the one the Canadiens have faced without Heineman—even if both players play such different roles.

The Canadiens have gone 2-3-1 in the rookie’s absence, and their substandard performance in some of those games has obviously been a result of St. Louis not being able to roll his four lines the way he did when Heineman was healthy.

He hasn’t played Michael Pezzetta more than 7:01 in any single game since, and rotating different forwards into place while Pezzetta has sat on the bench has disrupted flow and execution and reduced the energy the Canadiens have needed to sustain their best effort through an entire game.

That energy reserve was already depleted by the compressed post-Christmas schedule the Canadiens had, and flow and execution were already affected by only being able to hold two practices in two weeks.

Now St. Louis is looking at less depth and balance on defence, where he’ll have to trust that Jayden Struble can prove reliable in an insulated role on the bottom pair and that Arber Xhekaj can take on many more minutes than he’s played on average over the last couple of months.

Both players believe they can.

After being recalled from his conditioning loan and participating in Wednesday’s practice, Struble—who was scratched through most of the Canadiens’ most successful run of play— noted he was better equipped to play the way he needs to in a reduced role.

And after a rocky start to the season, Xhekaj feels he’s found the confidence and stability to remain as effective in an elevated role playing (playing closer to 18 minutes per game) as he has been in a reduced one (playing closer to 12 minutes per game).

“I’ve had a good stick, good gap, I’ve been closing plays and keeping guys in front of me,” he said, “and I think I’ve built a little bit of trust here, and I think that’s how I was able to elevate my game.”

St. Louis appears comfortable leaning on Xhekaj more, too, as he said the player has “had a nice progression” and lauded his defensive improvement and the maturity with which he’s approached his role as an enforcer of sorts for the Canadiens.

But we don’t see St. Louis deploying Xhekaj as a strict replacement for Guhle, and we wonder how distributing extra responsibility to his top three defencemen—Carrier, Hutson, Mike Matheson—might detract from the depth factor that’s been so pivotal to the team’s success.

Just how much is yet to be determined, but it’s fair to say that even the smallest effect puts the Canadiens in pure survival mode for the next six games to be played before the 12-day break for the 4 Nations Face-Off.

St. Louis knows.

“I think it’s a chase to the break and trying to find a way to get some points in these games, and that break I think is going to benefit us with some of the bumps and bruises that we have,” St. Louis said. “I think it’s game by game right now, and of course, it hurts that we lost Emil, and now we lose Guhle. I think it’s part of a season. But you just have to stay the course and keep working on the things we have to work on. You talk about next man up, it’s pretty much what it is. And you feel like with the culture and the collective game that is not always perfect but is in a much better place than it has been—whether we’re getting results or not—and I think it could help get us to the break.”

If it does, perhaps it incentivizes management to help fill some of the holes injuries created on the Canadiens’ depth chart. If St. Louis and the players can navigate these challenges to remain in the mix—they’re currently three points out of third place in the Atlantic Division and two points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference—maybe a trade (or two) comes down the pike and helps restore the depth that carried them to success over those two months that preceded the skid they’re currently on.

Getting Heineman back in February will help, too, with his rehab scheduled to end either just before or during the break.

But until then, we’re going to see what else the Canadiens can lean on to win games and bank points.

Dobes facing Wild for Fleury’s last game at Bell Centre

It’ll be a reunion of sorts for the young goaltender and an idol of his, as Jakub Dobes looks to avenge his first NHL loss while Marc-Andre Fleury hopes to avoid one in his last NHL game in his home province.

“This summer, we skated together for the first time, so I met him,” said Dobes. “It’s kind of funny; he’s probably going to retire soon and be a Hall of Famer, and he took his time to give me advice during the skate and we took a picture. I still have the picture, and now we will play against each other Thursday, so that’s pretty awesome.”

What did Dobes take from his brief time around the 40-year-old, Stanley-Cup winning goaltender who hails from Sorel, Que?

“Just the competing, tracking, and we worked a lot on movements from east to west,” the 23-year-old said. “Just watching him practice, and how hard he tries even though he’s getting older, was impressive. It was a good skate.”

It’ll be an emotional one on Thursday for Fleury, who is 12-6-3 in 21 regular-season games at the Bell Centre.

St. Louis believes he’ll surely get the send-off he deserves from fans in attendance.

“I think Fleury means a lot to the people of Quebec,” the coach said. “I’m sure he’s an idol of many young players, and rightfully so. What he’s accomplished throughout his career, the amount games he got to play, the success he’s had, the championships he’s won, and how he’s conducted himself…They talk about him being one of the best goalies ever, and I think he’s in that category. I don’t know him very well, but what I’ve heard a lot is he’s such a great human. It’s not a surprise that he’s found success, because I think it starts there.”

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