Hockey

Jake Evans is not carrying any injuries, says Martin St-Louis
Félix Forget
Jake Evans is not carrying any injuries, says Martin St-Louis
Credit: Getty Images

Over the past few days, the case of Jake Evans has been rather nebulous. The center forward left the team for what the team described as “personal reasons.”

Except that what made it unclear was that Luc Gélinas, for his part, mentioned that the forward was injured. According to his information, he went to see a doctor in Philadelphia on Thursday.

Injury, personal absence, or both? It was all very peculiar.

And today, Martin St-Louis was asked about it. And the coach was clear: Evans is not suffering from an injury.

So he opted for the club's official version, which makes sense.

Of course, it's quite possible that the coach is saying all this to protect his player. After all, saying out loud that a player is injured when he'll be back in the line-up tonight wouldn't do him any favors.

And maybe the coach is being completely honest, too. But there's reason to believe he may not be telling the whole truth in order to protect his player (and the team, which has never cited an injury to explain Evans' absence).

In any case, Evans' return is a good thing for the Habs, who will have back one of their big men on the penalty kill and one of the guys who helps the club eat tough minutes.

Above all, it will take some pressure off Nick Suzuki, who found himself playing a monstrous number of minutes in Evans' absence. With a two-games-in-two-nights sequence, it would have been intense to have him play that much.

So we'll see what Evans can do tonight, but I get the impression that St-Louis is happy to have him back. And Suzuki can't be too unhappy either, hehe.


Overtime

– Sad news.

– Nice read on Cole Hutson.

– Names to watch.

– This is… special.

– Surreal.

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