Cries of pain and a blue foot: do not hope to see Kaiden Guhle again this season

Dose
Crédit: Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

Kaiden Guhle will not be returning to the Canadiens in the short term. His severe cut should keep him out of action for a considerable amount of time.

Why do I say this? Because… it’s evident. But more importantly, I say this in light of what Tony Marinaro (who was among the first to talk about a cut) reported on TVA Sports.

In short, he reported that Kaiden Guhle was bleeding so much at the scene that there was blood everywhere on the stretcher used to transport him to the hospital. He also had a tourniquet on his knee and his foot was blue.

There was a lot of blood and his foot was blue. He was screaming in pain and a tourniquet was applied [to his knee]. There was blood everywhere on the stretcher. — Tony Marinaro

I don’t think I need to draw you a picture to understand that it’s not tomorrow that the defender will be back on the ice. Marinaro has also been told that Guhle’s season is over.

And I’m not surprised.

Even though it would be unfair to say that Guhle cut himself due to being injury-prone, it remains that in three years in the National Hockey League, he has only played 158 games so far.

If he doesn’t return to play, he will have played only 64% of the games in his entry-level contract… before his $5.55 million per year deal for six years comes into play. That’s not many games.

We must wonder to what extent the Canadiens, who have often seen Guhle leave a game for a few minutes after a hit from an opponent, are concerned about his injury history.

This question can be raised, in any case.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that all is certainly lost for the Canadiens since there exists a world in which Guhle returns to play. Dr. Pierre Ranger, on the airwaves of BPM Sports, analyzed the possibility, indeed.

But in a realistic world, Martin St-Louis must still understand that the playoff race will happen without one of the most reliable defenders in the organization. This is definitely a tough blow.

At the time of writing these lines, the Canadiens have six defensemen up. We can expect a call-up before the departure to California… but for tonight’s game, here’s what I would do if I were in Martin St-Louis and Stéphane Robidas’ shoes.

What do you think?

Hutson – Matheson
Xhekaj – Carrier
Struble – Savard

Hutson and Matheson have been successful together, and this would allow Xhekaj and Struble to play with a more experienced and reliable defenseman. I don’t mean to knock Savard and Wi-Fi, but I don’t see Struble on a top-4.

This demonstrates that the Canadiens did well not to wait until they were in trouble to acquire Alexandre Carrier.

But more importantly, as colleague Marc-Olivier Cook wrote yesterday, the Canadiens simply can no longer consider trading David Savard – unless they find a replacement in the same mold.

That would be a very poor decision.

After all, aside from the fact that the CH wants to make the playoffs and aside from Savard’s positive influence on others, if Savard is traded and Mike Matheson or Alexandre Carrier gets injured, it would put too much pressure on the young defensemen.

That wouldn’t be serving them well, and I’m sure Kent Hughes knows it.

In brief

– It won’t be easy, that.

– Four Nations confrontation: who will be the captains?

– Yes.

– Pascal Vincent is having fun. [98.5 FM]

– Martin Necas says goodbye to the Hurricanes.