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At practice this morning, we were obviously keeping an eye on Phillip Danault, who was training with the Habs for the first time since his return. For those interested, he practiced with Alexandre Texier and Josh Anderson.
However, the absence of Cole Caufield and Brendan Gallagher was somewhat overlooked. The club didn't give a reason for their absence… but Martin St-Louis, in his press briefing, may have given a clue.
In front of the media, the coach refused to confirm his line-up for one simple reason: there's a virus running around the dressing room.
As a result, everyone will take part in the warm-up before the match… and that's when we'll know the identity of the line-up.
But according to the coach, there's no need to worry about Caufield and Gallagher. That's a good sign.
Martin St-Louis has indicated that there's a bit of a virus going around the team, and he hasn't confirmed his lineup.
Everyone will take part in the pre-game warm-up.
But don't worry about Caufield and Gallagher, who were absent this morning.
– Patrick Friolet (@PFrioletRDS) December 23, 2025
In reality, this shouldn't affect the club too much. After all, all the other players skated this morning, and you'd think they'd be able to play tonight.
But we know that viruses like this can spread quickly. Maybe one of the guys will wake up from his pre-game nap in pretty bad shape, you know.
The good news is that Phillip Danault, who was battling the flu before being traded (at least that's the official story), may be a little more immune than the rest of his teammates. And since he only recently joined the club, he's not the one who's infected everyone, hehe.
So we'll see what tonight's line-up looks like. The good news, though, is that the club will have three days off after tonight's game.
That should give everyone a chance to get healthy before the trip to Florida.
Overtime
– Interesting.
Leon Draisaitl loves playing the Flames
: Flames vs. Oilers TONIGHT at 9pm ET / 7pm MT on Sportsnet pic.twitter.com/Kuyh0h8fgf
– Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 23, 2025
– Nate Schnarr, a former member of the Habs organization, will represent Canada at the Spengler Cup.
The great Nate Schnarr of Waterloo will play for Canada at the Spengler Cup in Davos over the holidays.
– Tim Wharnsby (@TimWharnsby) December 23, 2025
– $1.8 billion in public money for a new stadium: the state of Kansas really wanted the Chiefs to leave Missouri.
BREAKING: The @Chiefs are set to receive $1.8 billion (!) in public money for a new $3 billion stadium in Kansas. That's the largest public subsidy ever for a U.S. sports stadium project. More coming for practice facility, too.
More at @Sportico
https://t.co/Zvks3Mzrdm
– Eben Novy-Williams (@novy_williams) December 22, 2025
