The Strange Situation of Oliver Kapanen

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
The Strange Situation of Oliver Kapanen
Credit: Capture d'écran/Twitter

Who is the Canadiens' second-line center? It's a question that keeps coming up.

For now, it's Alex Newhook. He's been playing alongside Juraj Slafkovsky and Ivan Demidov ever since Oliver Kapanen got injured before Game 1 of the season.

And he'll be playing with Slaf and Kirby Dach (replacing Demidov) tonight.

In fact, from the very first day of camp, Kapanen had earned the spot. He held onto it for the entire camp… until he got injured.

And now? We're waiting for his return—even though he's been practicing in a regular jersey for the past five days.

It seems like with Oliver Kapanen, it's been all or nothing for the past year. Either things are going really well, or people are seriously questioning his situation.

Last year, he was excellent in the first half of the season. His coaches even said he could be a second-line center in the long run, and his country selected him for the Olympics.

Then he got injured… to the point where he barely played in the playoffs.

That didn't stop the Canadiens from giving him a great opportunity at training camp… only to see him get injured again, with no one really pushing to find out what's going on with him. And this, even though he seems to be in pretty good shape these days.

Martin St-Louis said yesterday that he was day-to-day. But we've seen this before: a guy coming back from an injury who ends up waiting a little longer than expected in the stands, waiting for the famous “green light” to play a game.

Is that what we're seeing here? Who knows: the Canadiens aren't saying much, even though a player who's been skating with the regulars for a few days is normally considered close to a return.

Maybe he really is still a little injured and isn't ready to come back. But the Finnish player's situation is looking more and more strange to us, since what's happening isn't typical. And the silence surrounding the matter isn't helping.

Will we see him back on the ice soon, pushing Alex Newhook to the wing? Who knows, given that we don't know exactly what the nature of his lower-body injury is. #NoMoreMystery


In a nutshell

– Hehe.

– What will he do tonight?

– The Sharks' captain is still out.

– Must-read.

– Ivan Demidov is well-respected.

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