National Post (National Edition)
Habs captain Weber back following surgery
Defenceman Alzner placed on waivers
MONTREAL • There are a few question marks as Shea Weber returns to the Canadiens’ lineup after a 345day hiatus and there will be some answers when the Canadiens face the Carolina Hurricanes at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night.
There is little doubt Weber will be an upgrade for the Montreal blue line and the No. 1 question regarding the captain is how long it will take to regain his all-star form after recovering from surgery to his left foot and right knee.
Weber is a defenceman who routinely logs 25 minutes of ice time, but it might take a while for him to feel comfortable with that workload.
“I’ve done enough bag-skating over the last month. I should be all right,” Weber said after practice Monday. “Then again it’s not game situations and it’s going to take a little while to get into that kind of shape. You have to start simple and take baby steps.”
In one respect, Weber is returning two to three weeks sooner than expected, but he was well on his way to recovery from the foot surgery when what was supposed to be a minor procedure to clean out some damage in his knee became a major operation.
“There have been lots of up and downs, it’s been frustrating, it’s been hard, it’s been gruelling,” said Weber. “But we’re here and I can say I’m excited right now to get back. The most difficult part was waiting. I missed all of the summer. It was different watching 20 games and seeing the team battling and not being able to help.”
If there is a silver lining in this situation, Weber, 33, noted that he has played as lot of games and logged a lot of minutes during his career and the rest might be beneficial.
The next question concerns Weber’s defence partner.
It appears that David Schlemko will line up alongside Weber Tuesday, but Canadiens head coach Claude Julien said he also might look at Victor Mete in that spot.
Weber and Mete played together at the beginning of last season and were effective. Julien noted that Mete played his best game of the season Saturday in the loss to the Bruins. Schlemko played one of his worst.
There was a lot of support on social media for Mike Reilly to get the coveted spot on the top pairing but Reilly will be a healthy scratch for a third consecutive game. Julien said Reilly must be more consistent and has to play better defence.
It’s another sign that the early-season emphasis on speed and offence has been replaced by a concern for defence.
Julien also rejected the idea of Weber and Jeff Petry playing together, noting that neither player is comfortable on the left side.
Brett Kulak, who was called up from Laval last week, is a temporary winner in the latest shuffle, but he still has to prove that he can be a regular. Julien noted that Kulak played well in his Canadiens debut Friday in Buffalo, but wasn’t quite as good against Boston. He’ll join Petry on the No. 2 pairing Tuesday, while Mete and Jordie Benn will form the third pair.
The big loser Monday was veteran Karl Alzner. To make room for Weber on the 23-man roster, Alzner was placed on waivers and if he isn’t claimed by noon Tuesday, he’ll probably be reassigned to Laval.
Julien rejected a suggestion that Alzner had reached the end of the line with the Canadiens.
“It was more a question of who we could not lose,” said Julien. “There are a lot of teams that are banged up with injuries on the back end and we have some players that are cap friendly who would easily have been picked up if they were on waivers. We managed to keep our depth.”
Julien noted that Alzner’s contract is less than cap friendly.
He’s in the second year of a five-year deal with an annual cap hit of $4.625 million. Because the deal is front-loaded, Alzner’s salary this season is $6 million.