Canadiens Game Day: Ben Chiarot returning home to have injured hand evaluated – Montreal Gazette

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The Canadiens announced Thursday that defenceman Ben Chiarot was flying back to Montreal for further medical evaluation after injuring his right hand during Wednesday night’s 5-1 win over the Canucks in Vancouver.

With the score tied 0-0 at the 15:02 mark of the first period Wednesday night, Chiarot and the Canucks’ J.T. Miller suddenly squared off for a fight after the puck dropped for a faceoff outside the Vancouver blue line.

There didn’t seem to be any reason for the staged fight with Chiarot landing a solid right hand to the middle of Miller’s visor. Chiarot immediately left for the locker room, throwing his helmet to the ground on the way and then looking at his injured hand. He did not return to the game.

“(Miller) just came off the bench and asked Ben to fight,” Canadiens captain Shea Weber said after the game. “Ben stood up for himself and our team and, obviously, the boys fed off of that and ended up scoring shortly after that. So it was a great job by him.”

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Jesperi Kotkaniemi opened the scoring for the Canadiens 32 seconds after the fight.

As a rookie with the Winnipeg Jets in 2014-15, Chiarot broke his left hand in a fight and ended up missing 16 games.

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Victor Mete is expected to take Chiarot’s spot in the lineup Thursday night when the Canadiens play the Flames in Calgary (9 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio). Mete has only played five games this season.

“It’s nice to have Victor,” head coach Dominique Ducharme said after Wednesday night’s game. “He’s got experience and we know what he can bring. He knows what we’re expecting of him. We’re comfortable. We have good depth and that’s the reason.”

Mete has experience playing with Shea Weber, who was Chiarot’s partner.

The Canadiens flew to Calgary after Wednesday night’s game, arriving around 2:30 a.m., and won’t hold a morning skate on Thursday. Ducharme is scheduled to do a video conference with the media at 7 p.m. ET.

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With the back-to-back games, expect Jake Allen to start in goal for the Canadiens. Allen has a 4-2-3 record with a 2.31 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage. The Canadiens were shut out in both of his regulation-time losses.

Carey Price has started the last three games for the Canadiens and has allowed only one goal in each of his last four starts. He now has a 8-4-4 record with a 2.59 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage.

The Canadiens are in fourth place in the North Division with a 12-6-7 record, including 7-1-6 on the road. They are 5-0-2 in seven games against Vancouver while outscoring the Canucks 34-19.

The Canadiens have only played the Flames twice so far this season, winning 4-2 and losing 2-0 in back-to-back games at the Bell Centre at the end of January.

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This Game Day notebook will be updated after Ducharme speaks with the media and again after Thursday night’s game.

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What’s next?

The Canadiens will have a day off on Friday before playing the Flames again Saturday night at the Saddledome (7 p.m., SNE, CITY, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).

Next week, the Canadiens will play the Jets in Winnipeg on Monday (8 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM) and Wednesday (9 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM), before returning to Montreal for six straight games at the Bell Centre.

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