Montreal’s Bourque Out 8-12 Weeks After Ab Surgery

The two-language fan criticism could hit Montreal sooner than normal this season.

An already struggling second line for Montreal will appear to start the season (if it does start on time) weaker as the team announced forward Rene Bourque will be sidelined for up to 12 weeks following surgery to repair a tear in his abdominal wall suffered during off season training. Even factoring a quick recovery and time to get game-ready, mid to late November will be the earliest he could return. For the ever hopeful Canadien’s fan, if there is a work stoppage it will lower the amount of games he will miss. The downside is there will be no hockey for everyone else.

Last season he struggled to become the scoring source on the second line when he was brought over from Calgary midway through the season. In 38 games last season in Montreal, he recorded a 5-3-8 stat line along with a -16 rating compared to 13-3-16 stat line and -3 rating in the same amount of games with the Flames. When he was traded for proven commodity Michael Camillieri in January, the team was looking for the game player that lit the lamp 27 times in 2009-10 and 2010-11. While new general manager Mard Bergevin isn’t ready to give up and write off Bourque, there isn’t much time or options available to find a suitable replacement.

Bourque is also a major player on the Hab’s shootout lineup. The team converted 13 of 59 shots last season, and he was one of four players to score more than twice. David Deshnarnais led the way with five goals on 12 shots, while Bourque, Brian Gionta, and Max Pacioretty each scored twice.

3 Comments

  1. Correction: Marc Bergevin came in after the season so he couldn’t have been “looking for the game player” in January. That was Pierre Gauthier. The ex GM of the Montreal Canadien.

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