Matheson Goes Down Again, and the Blue Line Gets Very Thin

Mike Matheson is out two weeks with a lower-body injury, the team confirmed Saturday. It is the same player, a different month, and a familiar problem. I noted his return against Chicago just last week; he played, and now he is gone again.

What makes the timing awkward is the company the injury keeps. Nick Suzuki remains out with his upper-body issue, somewhere in a two-to-four-week window that has not closed yet. The Canadiens are navigating this stretch without their captain up front and now without their top-minute defenseman either. Lane Hutson and Kaiden Guhle are the names left standing on the blue line depth chart, and Hutson — who just broke the franchise record for assists before age 23 — is a remarkable talent, but he is also being asked to carry more than a young defenseman should have to carry.

The defense was already the subject of concern before any of this happened. Matheson being out does not create a crisis so much as it confirms one that was already forming. Two weeks is two weeks; it is not a season. But the schedule does not pause, and the bodies keep thinning.