The Montreal Canadiens have announced that defenseman Mike Matheson will not return to tonight’s game against the Los Angeles Kings due to an upper-body injury.
Matheson logged 7:35 minutes of ice time with one shot and one blocked shot.
Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli was on Prime Monday Night Hockey and reported that Matheson’s injury is minor and he will be ready for Saturday’s game against the New York Islanders.
The 30-year-old has notched three assists in four games to start this season while playing on the top defensive pairing with Justin Barron. Matheson has been on the top powerplay unit as well.
Last season, Matheson racked up a career-high 11 goals and 51 assists for 62 points in 82 games.
Matheson was part of the trade that sent Jeff Petry to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2022. Matheson was originally selected No. 23 overall by the Florida Panthers in the 2012 NHL Draft, he spent the first five years of his NHL career with the team before landing in Pittsburgh for a two-year stint starting in 2020-21. Matheson has a $4.875 million cap hit and a modified no-trade clause is under contract until 2025-26.
Throughout his career, Matheson has 68 goals and 169 assists for 237 points in 551 NHL regular season games and another seven points in 20 postseason outings. Internationally, the Pointe-Claire, Quebec native has 13 points in 20 games with Canada’s World Championship team over two years, winning gold in 2016 and silver in 2017.
An official update will follow after the game or in the coming days from either Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis or general manager Kent Hughes.
Montreal is set to face off against the Islanders on Saturday and the New York Rangers on Tuesday.
Predators’ Luke Schenn plays in 1,000th career NHL regular-season game
Hunter Crowther
When the puck dropped Thursday night between the Nashville Predators and Edmonton Oilers, defenseman Luke Schenn became the 398th player in NHL history to reach 1,000 career regular-season games.
Schenn told NHL.com independent correspondent Robby Stanley before the game that it hasn’t been an easy road.
“I’ve kind of experienced the highs, as far as winning in the League, and the lows of lows and being in the minors halfway through my career,” Schenn said. “To be resilient and get to this number, it’s not so much the game but I guess just more so proud of the journey. I wouldn’t have drawn it up or predicted the way it’s gone.”
Schenn was taken No. 5 overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. Making the team as an 18 year old, Schenn was deemed the cornerstone franchise defenseman the Leafs desperately needed.
After four seasons with the club, Toronto traded Schenn to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for James van Riemsdyk. The move would be the first in a number of short stops with a number of clubs, including the Los Angeles Kings, Arizona Coyotes, Anaheim Ducks and Vancouver Canucks.
He joined the Tampa Bay Lightning ahead of the 2019-20 season, where he would win back-to-back Stanley Cups.
Predators’ forward Steven Stamkos, who played with Schenn in Tampa, told Stanley that Schenn is a guy who “brings people together.”
“He loves being a part of a group of guys that share a common goal in trying to be the best. He brings that out in himself and other people,” Stamkos said. “It’s contagious watching the work that he puts in every single day, whether it’s in the gym or on the ice or off the ice being the family man that he is.”
He would briefly re-join the Canucks before being traded back to the Maple Leafs at the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline. From there, he would sign a three-year, $8.25 million contract with the Predators, where he’s now in his second season.
Now in his 17th NHL season, the 34-year-old Schenn has 43 goals and 155 assists for 198 points and 807 penalty minutes.
Blue Jackets’ defenseman Erik Gudbranson expected to miss significant time
Tyler Kuehl
Tyler Kuehl
Not the best news for one of the veterans on the Columbus Blue Jackets blue line.
According to Daily Faceoff insider Frank Seravalli, defenseman Erik Gudbranson is expected to miss significant time. The 32-year-old was placed on injured reserve on Wednesday with an upper-body injury, retroactive to Oct. 15.
In the Blue Jackets’ home opener on Tuesday against the Florida Panthers, Gudbranson awkwardly collided with teammate Sean Monahan. Gudbranson immediately skated off the ice and down the tunnel, visibly favoring his right arm.
Per Seravalli, Columbus’ initial diagnosis wasn’t promising, and that he might be out for months. However, they are waiting for Gudbranson to see a specialist on Friday to determine an exact timeline.
It will be interesting to learn the extent of Gudbranson’s injury, as he was relatively healthy in the 2023-24 season, playing 78 games, scoring six goals and 20 assists for 26 points, all career highs. So far, in three games this season, he has yet to register a point, averaging 15:46 of ice time with a plus/minus of +2.
In the Ottawa native’s 13-year NHL career, he has only played less than 50 games once. That came during the 2016-17 season, when Gudbranson only played in 30 games with the Vancouver Canucks.
Gudbranson is in the third year of his four-year contract with a $4 million cap hit that he signed with the Blue Jackets in July 2022.
He has bounced around the league throughout most of his career. The Panthers took Gudbranson in the first round, third overall, of the 2010 NHL Draft. He played five seasons with the Panthers before being traded to Vancouver in May 2016. The odyssey began in the 2018-19 season when Gudbranson was dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Since then, he has made stops with the Anaheim Ducks, Ottawa Senators, Nashville Predators, and Calgary Flames.
In 792 NHL games, Gudbranson has scored 34 goals and 99 assists for 133 points.
