Suzuki's Streak Is Gone, and So Is the Captain for the Road Trip

Nick Suzuki is out two to four weeks with an upper-body injury, the team announced, ending an ironman streak of 546 consecutive regular-season games. That number had become one of the quiet points of pride around this franchise — a captain who simply showed up, every night, for the better part of a decade. Now it's over, and the timing is about as bad as it gets.

The Canadiens recalled Owen Beck from AHL Laval to help fill the void at center. That's the move available to them. The center position was already a concern before this — Luke Mittelstadt has been the nominal top pivot but hasn't produced at anything close to a starter's level — and Suzuki's absence makes a moderate roster need feel considerably more urgent. Laurent Dauphin is the third name on the depth chart. This is not a group built to absorb a two-to-four-week absence from its best forward.

The road trip now becomes the immediate test. Matheson has been banged up, Florian Xhekaj was out as recently as last week, and the Canadiens gave up a late lead before losing in overtime to San Jose on Tuesday. The injury list has been rotating all month. Losing the captain on top of it doesn't change the structural problems this team has — those have been well-documented — but it removes the one player most capable of steadying things when they get loose.

Two to four weeks is the window. Beck gets his chance. The rest of the roster finds out what it's made of without Suzuki in the lineup for the first time in a very long time.