Practice: Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky absent, but Oliver Kapanen present

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Practice: Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky absent, but Oliver Kapanen present
Credit: Cook

The Olympics are over, and in two days, the Islanders will be at the Bell Centre. So it's about to start again.

This morning, the Canadiens practiced and welcomed a newcomer: Oliver Kapanen. The Finnish player was among the first to show up at the CN Complex in Brossard.

The Olympic bronze medalist is back to work.

Since the Finn played alongside Juraj Slafkovsky in the consolation final, there was some speculation as to whether Slaf would be present at practice.

But in the end, both the Slovakian and Nick Suzuki (who played for gold on Sunday) were conspicuous by their absence. They were the only two players missing from the entire group: the 13 other forwards, seven defensemen, and two goalies were all there.

Logically, this could mean that the Canadiens wanted the two players, who played a lot of minutes throughout the Games, to get some extra rest. Kapanen only played in the bronze medal game, and Alexandre Texier was eliminated early.

This is not a bad thing for the two leading players on the Canadiens.

It should be noted that Samuel Montembeault (who was recently absent from practice) was there, as was Patrik Laine. Alex Newhook, for his part, showed up in a regular jersey.

The two injured players are clearly making good progress.

Details to come…

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