Cautious Gomez hopes rest is tonic for injury
Canadiens centre could face Wings
"It's my ankle," Canadiens centreman Scott Gomez called back into his team's Brossard dressing room yesterday as he vanished through a door.
No, it's not Gomez's ankle that's had him in treatment the past two days, his status not yet known for tonight's game in Detroit against the Red Wings (7 p.m., CBC, RDS, CJAD Radio-800).
It seems more likely, though the team will never confirm it, that it's a mild groin injury that had Gomez play an abbreviated game in Tuesday's 4-1 victory over the visiting Ottawa Senators.
"He's improving," head coach Jacques Martin said yesterday, without embellishment.
Whether Gomez will be available tonight won't be known until after today's morning skate or this evening's pregame warmup.
"I was kinda skating down the ice, was hit in the lower body and that was it," Gomez said yesterday, dressed to charter out mid-afternoon with his teammates.
Martin gave his squad the morning off the ice, a workout in the gym preceding the trip to Detroit via a flight to Windsor, Ont.
Gomez spent his morning with the team's athletic therapists, then strolled coyly into the empty dressing room where cameras and notebooks surrounded him as the day's sacrificial quote.
"I think it was someone's leg that got me," he said of what ails him, playfully sparring. "It was kinda fishy. I've got a pretty big lower body, it sticks out a little more."
Joking aside, Gomez knows there's no upside to rushing back from any injury. He played nine shifts for 6:50 vs. Ottawa, clipped in the first period and trying for a bit in the second before calling it a night.
"I've been around a while and you don't mess with it," he said. "There's a difference (between) being out a couple days or a couple months, so you have to be cautious."
With two days off the ice, Gomez is eager to see this morning how his body responds to treatment.
"You want to play," he said, "but you don't want to take a step back. I think I've got a pretty good track record. If I can play, I play."
The Gomez update was one of several news items Martin shared yesterday:
Defenceman Andrei Markov's right-knee operation Wednesday in Birmingham, Ala., was declared a success, surgeon James Andrews with repairing the meniscus and reconstructing the anterior cruciate ligament. Markov was expected back in Montreal yesterday and is to begin rehabilitation today.
Goaltender Carey Price gets
the start tonight vs. the Red Wings, Martin saying he's "not decided yet" whether he uses Price or backup Alex Auld tomorrow in Toronto. The Canadiens don't play again until next Wednesday, so Price would have plenty of recovery time should he get back-to-backs.
The return of defenceman P.K. Subban, a healthy
scratch the past three games, is "a possibility" this weekend, with Martin enjoying the fact his team is "in a good position with seven healthy defencemen."
And the coach has full confidence in Dustin Boyd. The very well-rested centre could be inserted back into the lineup should Gomez prove unable to go.
Boyd has been a press-box spectator for 19 of his team's past 22 games, a span during which he was unclaimed when placed on waivers.
Acquired last July from Nashville as a free agent, the 24-year-old has impressed Martin with his work ethic in practice and attitude in the dressing room as he's awaited the call to play only his 10th game.
"I don't have anything negative to say about Boyd," Martin said. "He reminds me a little of Mathieu Darche last year -he's worked hard, had a positive attitude and has been good around his teammates while waiting for an opportunity.
"He's keeping himself ready (for) when he gets his opportunity to step in, (when) hopefully, he'll have an impact."
Martin is wise to have serious respect for tonight's opponent. Western Conference leading Detroit is angry, having lost two straight at home, but is a formidable 10-3-2 this season at Joe Louis Arena.
"The Red Wings remain a force in the league," he said. "(Pavel) Datsyuk, (Henrik) Zetterberg, (Niklas) Lidstrom, (Niklas) Kronwall -this is a team with a lot of depth.
"They have stability, play very well on the puck and their best players are their best workers. They'll be a good challenge."
Canadiens defenceman Roman Hamrlik is riding a four-game point streak, having scored twice and assisted on four more. Captain Brian Gionta has four goals and two assists in his past five games, while Johan Franzen and Datysuk are hot for Detroit.
The Canadiens and Red Wings rank a respective 11th and 10th on the power play and first and eighth on the penalty-kill. Montreal has a stunning 95.6-per-cent kill rate on the road, yielding only two goals in 45 shorthanded situations.
