Ivan Demidov stayed off the ice for Canadiens practice Monday, and the timing is hard to ignore with Carolina coming to Montreal Tuesday night.
The club called it a therapy day and left it at that.
Fair enough. Two games into the season, the 20-year-old forward already has a goal and an assist, so every missed skate gets noticed in this market.
And the schedule doesn't wait for anybody. Tuesday's puck drop against the Hurricanes is Montreal's first home game of the season after opening with two straight on the road.
That trip went fine on paper. Montreal beat Toronto 3-2 on September 29, then dropped a 6-5 overtime decision in Pittsburgh on Saturday.
Eight goals for, eight against. Through two nights, the Canadiens have been fun to watch and hard to trust.
Think of a therapy day like a mechanic popping the hood before a long highway drive. Nothing has to be broken for it to make sense.
Carolina arrives with Sebastian Aho rolling and a homestand looming
Rod Brind'Amour's group isn't exactly arriving in great shape. The Hurricanes sit at 1-1-1 with a -3 goal differential.
Sebastian Aho is the problem. He owns three of Carolina's five goals, and two of them came on the power play.
The rest of that lineup has gone quiet. Andrei Svechnikov has three assists and is still looking for his first goal.
Montreal's own concerns sit closer to the crease. Jakub Dobes carries a .862 save percentage through two appearances, and that number won't hold up over a long homestand.
The blue line is thinner too. Alexandre Carrier is listed day-to-day with an undisclosed issue, and he owns the team's only game-winning goal so far.
That's where the young Russian matters most. If Carrier can't go, Martin St-Louis loses a defenseman and needs offense from somewhere else to cover the gap.
If there's any doubt at all, pushing Demidov into Tuesday's lineup would be a bad idea. He's on a $940,834 cap hit, and Montreal's long-term plans run straight through him.
Nick Suzuki has carried plenty already with four points. Lane Hutson has chipped in three assists of his own from the back end.
Can that duo handle the load if No. 93 sits?
The homestand runs four games deep, with Nashville, Detroit and Buffalo following Carolina. Then comes a trip to Washington the very next night, a back-to-back that will test everybody's legs.
One therapy day doesn't mean much on its own. But if Demidov is still missing when the Canadiens hit the ice Tuesday, the conversation in Montreal changes fast.
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Should Martin St-Louis keep Ivan Demidov out against Carolina if there's any doubt?
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