Hockey

The Habs may have the worst “bottom 6” in the NHL right now
Marc-Olivier Cook
The Habs may have the worst “bottom 6” in the NHL right now
Credit: Screenshot / X

Jake Evans won't be playing tomorrow.

The Canadiens have announced that he has left the team for personal reasons and will join the club in New York, ahead of Saturday's game against the Rangers.

But we don't know if he'll play either. According to Luc Gélinas, the center forward has left to see a doctor in Philadelphia because of a foot injury. We'll have more news on that front in the next few days.

In Evans' absence, one thing is clear: the Canadiens' bottom-6 is playing hard… and not just about, either.

On the third line at this morning's practice were Alexandre Texier, Owen Beck (taking Evans' place) and Josh Anderson. The fourth line was made up of Brendan Gallagher, Joe Veleno and Jared Davidson.

Among this group, there are players (Anderson, Veleno, and Gallagher) who are struggling. There are inexperienced guys like Beck and Davidson… and there's Texier, who only arrived in town in the last few weeks.

If you'd told me back in September that Texier, Beck and Andy were going to form the team's third line on December 10… I'd have really called you crazy. That's what's happening right now…

Five years from now, we'll look at the Canadiens' current lineup (the one on December 10, 2025) and say this:

Uh… What's that?

It reminds me of when Juraj Slafkovsky and Cole Caufield were injured during the 2022-2023 season and the Canadiens' lineup was awful at the end of the season. You can see for yourself:

There's an important nuance here.

Kirby Dach will return to action soon and Alex Newhook is injured. Those are already two big chunks of the team's top-9… and adding Evans to the list on top of that creates a pretty big hole on the Canadiens' bottom-6.

But the end result is the same. The Habs have a glaring lack of depth in the lineup right now, and that could hurt the team's results by the time the injured players return.

The best players will have to step up, to put it another way. And here, you'll understand that I'm referring to the guys on the team's top two lines…


Overtime

– Nope.

– Good for him!

– Well done.

– Great moment.

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