Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki is expected to miss the first game of his NHL career Friday as the club visits the Chicago Blackhawks to kick off a four-game road trip.
Suzuki sustained an upper-body injury in Tuesday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks and is expected to miss 2-4 weeks. The forward tallied a goal and an assist, extending his point streak to four.
Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky also had a goal and assist against the Sharks, but the team’s defense and discipline lagged, as Caufield saw it.
Montreal will aim to tighten those aspects after allowing the tying and winning goals on the power play. An interference penalty against goaltender Jakub Dobes in overtime led to San Jose’s clinching goal.
“I thought we were playing well and stupid penalties and things that we don’t need to do, really just giving them opportunities and chances to get back in the game,” Caufield said. “I thought our overall game in five-on-five, we carried the momentum for most of it and we just gave them opportunities. They got special players that can get them back in the game. It’s on us.”
Montreal coach Martin St. Louis slotted Oliver Kapanen at center alongside Caufield and Slafkovsky on the Canadiens’ top line during practice Thursday.
Kapanen missed the first seven games of the season with a lower-body injury. He returned to the lineup for Saturday’s overtime win against Buffalo and is searching for his first point.
Chicago is seeking more consistency as it prepares for the fifth game of a seven-game homestand.
The Blackhawks have been idle since Saturday’s 4-0 loss to Dallas, following narrow wins over Pittsburgh and Winnipeg.
Captain Connor Bedard, who had an assist in his season debut against Pittsburgh on Oct. 13, acknowledges that the team is aware of the Canadiens’ pedigree. Montreal reached the Eastern Conference Finals last season before bowing out to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina, which downed the Blackhawks 5-2 on Oct. 10 in the homestand opener.
“Every team’s really good in the NHL and we’ve got to start beating those top-end teams,” Bedard said. “You can see when you play Carolina or Dallas where they’ve been in the hunt the last five years probably — you see how structured they are, how few mistakes they make, so it gives us another kind of goal of something to reach towards.
“We know what we need to do to be a good team. It’s just doing that every night and every shift, and I feel like those teams do a good job of that.”
Patrick Kane produced a team-best three shots against Dallas while goaltender Spencer Knight stopped 28 of 32 shots in his fourth successive start.
Defenseman Bowen Byram (upper-body) has missed the past two games and is day-to-day. Coach Jeff Blashill said Byram is not in the concussion protocol.
Montreal swept the 2025-26 season series from Chicago, prevailing by one goal on the road and three at home.
Suzuki has played in 546 successive games, the second-longest active streak in the league behind Colorado Avalanche defenseman Brent Burns (1,017).