Nick Suzuki will miss two to four weeks with an upper-body injury, the team announced Thursday, per Deadspin. The injury ends one of the longest iron man streaks in league history, as Pro Hockey Rumors put it. Yahoo Sports put the run at 546 consecutive regular-season games and called it the second-longest active streak in the NHL. Pro Hockey Rumors said Montreal won't have the number 14 in its lineup for the first time since a date its summary cut off. Sportsnet's Canadian Press headline says only "multiple weeks" and gives no range. ESPN and the others use two to four weeks. None of the summaries we have say how or when Suzuki was hurt.
The Canadiens have recalled Owen Beck from AHL Laval to fill the roster spot, per Pro Hockey Rumors. Beck is a center like Suzuki. He has played two games for Montreal this season with no points and a minus-2 rating. The summaries don't say whether he will take Suzuki's place in the lineup or on the power play.
Suzuki had been producing before the injury. He has 5 goals and 7 assists for 12 points in 9 games this season, with a plus-6 rating. His last game was Tuesday's 4-3 overtime loss to San Jose at the Bell Centre. He scored a goal, added an assist, put four shots on net and won 12 faceoffs. He played 21:03, including 2:08 on the power play. Montreal went 0-for-2 with the man advantage in that game, and Suzuki's 2:08 was part of those two chances. San Jose scored twice on the power play.
The club is 4-3 and sixth in the Atlantic Division, on a one-game overtime-loss streak. Before the San Jose game it beat Buffalo 4-3 on Oct. 17 and lost 5-3 at Washington on Oct. 14. Suzuki's production came in a team that has been playing close games, and the Canadiens will now be without a center who averaged more than 20 minutes in each of his last four games.
| GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 6 | 2 |
The first game without him is Friday night at Chicago. Montreal then plays at Winnipeg on Sunday, Oct. 25. If the two-to-four-week estimate holds, Suzuki would miss somewhere between about six and a dozen games. We haven't checked the schedule beyond Winnipeg, so that range is only an estimate. Neither the team nor any outlet has given a firmer return date.
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