Defenseman Jaroslav Spacek announced his hockey retirement over the weekend. He spent 13 seasons in the NHL, just over two of them with the Canadiens before he was traded to Carolina for Tomas Kaberle in December.
Of the nine Canadiens players who were facing unrestricted three agency at the end of the year, five have received contracts for the coming season. The Canadiens re-signed three of them. Mathieu Darche, Andrei Kostitsyn, Chris Campoli and Jaroslav Spacek are still awaitiing offers.
In a swap of Czech-born defensemen, the Canadiens traded Jaroslav Spacek, an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season, to Carolina for Tomas Kaberle, who siigned a three year 12.75 milliion dollar deal with the Hurricanes in July. Spacek was due to come off injury reserve for the game against New Jersey tomorrow afternnoon. Kaberle will join the Canadiens in New Jersey tonight.
Two more names were added to the Canadiens injury list last night against the Buffalo Sabres. Jaroslav Spacek appeared to re-injure his ribs and forward Andreas Engqvist suffered a lower body injury in the game’s second period. The Canadiens were already playing without Michael Cammalleri, Andrei Kostitsyn, Hal Gill and long term casualties Andrei Markov, Chris Campoli and Ryan White.
The Canadiens played four games in six days last week, winning the last three against Conference rivals Philadelphia and Boston. It was a week that saw the dismissal of Perry Pearn from the coaching staff, the end of a six game losing streak.
In today’s NHL, they come and they go. In two games the Canadiens have lost three players and gained one. Michael Cammallleri and Jaroslav Spacek have joined Chris Campoli on the sidelines. Lars Eller will return to the lineup Thursday night in the home opener against Calgary.
It could have been worse. Cammalleri has a deep laceration is his right leg and will miss ten days to two weeks. Spacek has a probable rib injury which will keep him out three weeks.
Defenseman Jaroslav Spacek and forward Mathieu Darche were quietly placed on the Canadiens injury reserve almost immediately after they were hurt, which should have been the first sign that their lack of availability was not going to be short term. Spacek faces arthroscopic surgery and will be gone for six weeks. Darche has a troublesome groin injury.
The Canadiens will spend most of the next week in Western Canada starting tomorrow night with a game in Edmonton. Spacek has been left in Montreal to undergo treatment for an unspecified lower body injury. Hal Gill is with the team but is not expected to play until at least Sunday in the Heritage Game at Calgary’s McMahon Stadium.
Yesterday in Hamilton Max Pacioretty scored a goal an assist in a win over Toronto with Canadiens coach Jacques Martin watching. Apparently Martin saw enough. Right after the game Pacioretty was called up to the Canadiens where he will not be seeing third and fourth line ice time when the team takes on the Flyers on Wednesday.
Including his big day against Toronto in Pacioretty’s last twelve games he has scored thirteen goals and five assists for eighteen points with a rating of plus-2.
For the Montreal Canadiens it might have been a perfect week except…..Andrei Markov was hurt again, Dustin Brown was put on waivers and Ryan O’Byrne was traded.
The week started with a 2-0 shutdown of the Vancouver Canucks at the Bell Centre. Carey Price stopped all 35 shots, 20 of them in the third period. Markov and Hamrlik scored the goals. On Thursday in Boston another defensive masterpiece and a 3-1 win over the Bruins. Saturday night Carey Price kept the Canadiens in the game with 15 first period saves’
