Some may say the Montreal Canadiens dodged a bullet with defenseman Kaiden Guhle escaping a long-term injury. You can see why, as he’s just day to day, after teammate Kirby Dach suffered a season-ending injury just two games into 2023-24. However, that’s like trying not to sweat the small stuff after just losing 10 pounds in a sauna to make weight before a fight… one they’ll surely lose by most accounts.
Related: Top Canadiens Ramifications of Kirby Dach Injury
Or, keeping with the bullet metaphor, it’s like having the entire cartridge get emptied only to dodge the last one. And there’s good reason to feel that way. It’s not just because your heart goes out to Dach, who continues to fail to find his footing health-wise in this league.
It’s also not just because the Canadiens have spent the better part of the last two seasons icing an American Hockey League lineup, having set multiple man-games-lost records along the way (Dach’s injury making it seem as though the Habs will never fix what’s wrong with them). Truth be told, it’s some combination of the two.
What it isn’t, or at least what it shouldn’t be, is the sense the Canadiens’ season is wrecked almost before it began. To be perfectly clear, no one should have had expectations so high that the Habs were a playoff team. G-d knows there were always going to be plenty of obstacles in the way of preventing that, including of course the chance of yet another injury-plagued season. That should just go to show this was laughably almost to be expected. And something that was expected is something for which the Canadiens should have conceivably planned/braced.
Dach’s Worth to Canadiens
True, there’s little disputing how much Dach means to the Canadiens. He was the only one who could get Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield consistently going on the top line last season. He had great chemistry with Juraj Slafkovsky in this season’s early going, prompting speculation he could help jumpstart the 2022 first-overall pick’s development.
In some circles, there was speculation Dach could develop into the team’s first-line center, at least a few seasons down the road as a still-22-year-old former high pick, himself. So, there’s every reason to feel concerned for his long-term career trajectory and his long-term health above all else… but, as far as the team’s prospects this specific season? You’re still talking about losing just your No. 2 pivot.
Get a hold of yourself, for crying out loud. All alone, that isn’t enough to fall into a downward emotional spiral, especially when overall expectations for 2023-24 were so low to start. That having been said, barring more injuries, there’s plenty more to look forward to if you’re a fan (other than the playoffs). Most notably, the team’s other young players, of which there are many, are poised to improve by leaps and bounds under the tutelage of head coach Martin St. Louis.
To his credit, St. Louis seems to get it. Based on comments he made in the days prior to the exact nature of Dach’s injury (torn ACL/MCL) getting released, he acknowledges the Canadiens can’t get caught up in feeling sorry for Dach or themselves.
Of course, then the Canadiens went out and laid an egg against the Minnesota Wild the next day, on Oct. 17. They lost 5-2, losing control early, after embarrassingly giving up two shorthanded goals in a matter of seconds. Granted, they were without Dach, who was projected to be a fixture on that power play. Considering his puck-possession prowess, maybe the Wild don’t score shorthanded at all if he’s healthy.
Shades of Sean Monahan from 2022-23
However, the Canadiens can’t afford to go down that road of making excuses. What are they going to do? Give up shorthanded goals each game? Of course not. Second of all, they’ve been down this road before, having lost their second-line center from last season in Sean Monahan for the rest of the campaign pretty early on too.
So, they should already be relative professionals by now regarding how to deal with this specific situation. They should be professionals in general. So, even though it’s all too easy to fall into this trap of steering into the curb and aiming for another high draft pick, there comes a point when enough is enough.
Now, the Canadiens were in an admittedly unique position heading into 2023-24. They could effectively do no wrong. Make the playoffs? Well, that’s unlikely, but if they can pull it off, awesome. Just miss the playoffs? It would suck from a draft-pick perspective, but it would show significant progression in the standings. Fall on their faces? Okay, maybe another high draft pick in a supposedly top-heavy draft wouldn’t be so bad.
Plenty of Habs Hockey Left
However, to resign yourself to the latter outcome, just a few games into the season? That’s ridiculous. It might seem like there’s no point in cheering for the Canadiens right now, but anything can happen. That’s what everyone says at the start of every postseason, right? Well, there’s so much hockey left to be played this regular one, potential trades to be made, potential surges in the games of just about everyone on the roster, that a defeatist attitude shouldn’t be in the cards of anyone’s deck.
The Canadiens were “good” enough to finish fifth from last, last season, without Monahan (and just about everyone else not named Suzuki). They’re good enough to show they’ve learnt that tough lesson and are better for having gotten through it. Assuming Guhle gets back in the lineup relatively soon, Dach remains the only significant injury on the team (for now, knock on wood). That’s another reason they should see improvement in the standings.
Finally, to reiterate once more, Dach wasn’t alone in terms of being a young player on the verge of breaking out. The Canadiens are rife with them and, if even only a few take great strides, the Habs again should be right there… albeit far from realistically in the playoffs in the end. Still, this thing is far from over. Nobody should be acting like it is.
