Juraj Slafkovsky Misses Practice; Florian Xhekaj Update

As for Florian Xhekaj, St. Louis told reporters on Friday that the younger brother of Montreal Canadiens defenseman Arber Xhekaj will miss at least two more weeks with a lower-body injury. The younger Xhekaj has not played since October 8 in the Canadiens’ 5-2 loss to the Nashville Predators and hasn’t skated since this past Monday when he left practice early. After being called up from the Laval Rocket earlier this month, Xhekaj has played in two games this season and hasn’t registered a point.

Ivan Demidov, Mike Matheson and Samuel Montembeault did not skate, and St. Louis said that their statuses remained the same.

While the Montreal Canadiens were without Florian Xhekaj and Juraj Slafkovsky on Friday, they did get another forward back taking regular reps in forward Oliver Kapanen. Kapanen skated on the right wing on the team’s top line with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield.

Here’s what the forward lines and defensive pairings for the Montreal Canadiens looked like on Friday:

Forwards:

Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Oliver Kapanen

Chris Kreider – Alex Newhook – Josh Anderson

Zach Bolduc – Phillip Danault – Alexandre Texier

Kirby Dach – Jake Evans – Owen Beck

Defense:

Lane Hutson – Noah Dobson

Kaiden Guhle – Alexandre Carrier

Arber Xhekaj – Adam Engstrom

Reinbacher

Goalies:

Jakub Dobes

Jacob Fowler