Canadiens’ Slafkovsky day-to-day with upper-body injury, will miss game vs. Stars

Montreal Canadiens' Juraj Slafkovsky celebrates his goal against the Arizona Coyotes with teammate Jake Evans during second period NHL hockey action in Montreal, on Thursday, October 20, 2022. (CP)

The Montreal Canadiens announced that forward Juraj Slafkovsky was listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

The top pick in the 2022 NHL Draft wasn’t on the ice for morning skate at the Bell Centre and will miss Saturday night’s game against the Dallas Stars.

Slafkovsky scored his first NHL goal on Thursday in a 6-2 Habs win over the Arizona Coyotes.

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Rem Pitlick took Slafkovsky’s spot, skating alongside Jake Evans and Mike Hoffman on Montreal’s fourth line. This will be a third game this season for Pitlick after spending the three games as a healthy scratch.

“It’s about communication,” said Habs coach Martin St. Louis. “Last year, we had less traffic at that position, less depth and now we’re healthy so it lessens the ice time. We need to think about that on the day-to-day.”

The Canadiens also announced that forward Joel Armia and defenceman Joel Edmundsson resumed training but were not yet cleared to play. Both players featured in Saturday’s morning skate wearing non-contact jerseys.

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