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Martin St-Louis missed the Canadiens’ practice
Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

This morning, the Canadiens are practicing at the Bell Centre.

Afterward, the guys will head to Carolina for tomorrow night's game, the first of the third-round series against the Hurricanes.

Are you looking forward to the start of the series?

However, there's something worth noting about today's practice: Martin St-Louis, the team's head coach, isn't with the team.

According to Renaud Lavoie, a family matter is at the heart of the story.

Unless there's a family emergency (nothing suggests that's the case), it's safe to assume the coach simply gave his assistants instructions to lead today's practice.

Anyway, for the past few days, rest has been a bigger weapon than practice. It's never super intense at practice.

Remember that St-Louis's family lives in the United States. Did he choose not to return to Montreal after Monday's game to visit his family, before rejoining his team in Carolina today? Who knows.

But in any case, we'll wait before worrying about it.

Still on the topic of practice, we note the presence of Joe Veleno, who was injured in Game 6. Officially, he was available for Game 7, but he didn't play.

Will he be in uniform tomorrow? We'll see.

Don't expect any clues today regarding tomorrow's lineup. Will Arber Xhekaj and Oliver Kapanen keep their spots? That's a question we'll likely be asking ourselves until tomorrow.

It's been like this for several weeks now.


In a nutshell

– Note.

– Interesting.

– Good point: Vegas had to ask the Philadelphia Flyers for permission to talk to John Tortorella.

– What will Alex Tuch do?

This article first appeared on Dose.ca and was syndicated with permission.

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