Josh Gorges Out Four Weeks After Hand Surgery

Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

The Montreal Canadiens announced today that defenceman Josh Gorges will be out four weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a fracture to his left hand.

Gorges missed the last two games of the team’s West Coast road trip against Phoenix and San Jose to return to Montreal for evaluation and the surgery. It is suspected that the injury occurred against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Gorges injury would explain the need for the Canadiens to acquire Mike Weaver from the Florida Panthers. Gorges would have already been nursing the injury despite wanting to play through it. The fact that Weaver was acquired right before Gorges was sent back to Montreal means that he facilitated the blow of the Canadiens missing Gorges.

Weaver isn’t a perfect replacement – he shoots right while Gorges shoots left – but he is better than Francis Bouillon and allows the Canadiens to have Jarred Tinordi play his natural left side. Weaver is a reliable defenceman and hasn’t played horribly*.

*-Keep in mind he’s playing with Douglas Murray.

The Canadiens lost the last two games since Gorges is out, but things aren’t necessarily hopeless. Yes, Carey Price needs to come back and yes, this team is worse without him. But this is also a team that can make some noise. Right now things aren’t dire. They have a pretty significant lead right now.

However, they can’t afford many more missteps. They can’t afford to lose many more games. They can’t afford many more injuries.

Michael Bournival and Brandon Prust make this team better when they will get healthy. I don’t even have to mention Gorges or Price. This team is set to get better for the playoffs once Thomas Vanek gets accustomed to the team and they get healthy. However, they need to pick it up or there will be no playoffs to speak of.