Suzuki’s 546-Game Ironman Streak Ends: Canadiens Captain Out 2 To 4 Weeks

Nick Suzuki had never missed a game in his NHL career. That run ended on Thursday, when the Montreal Canadiens announced their captain has an upper-body injury and will be out two to four weeks — the timetable the team itself gave. The announcement, posted by the club with no further detail, did not give a specific diagnosis, and none has been reported.

Suzuki was hurt on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre. With 5:34 left in the third period of a game tied 3–3, he blocked a shot by San Jose defenseman Michael Kesselring with his left hand. He finished the game — 21:03 of ice time, a goal and an assist — and was treated afterward. Montreal lost 4–3 in overtime.

The streak that ends is 546 consecutive games, dating to Suzuki’s debut in the 2019–20 season. It was the second-longest active streak in the league, behind Brent Burns’s 1,017, and the 20th-longest in NHL history. Suzuki falls 14 games short of Doug Jarvis’s Canadiens record of 560.

Suzuki, 27, is Montreal’s captain and its leading scorer, with a team-high 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in nine games. Last season he won the Selke Trophy as the league’s best defensive forward and set career highs with 101 points (29 goals, 72 assists), playing all 82 games for a fifth straight year. His career total is 488 points.

At Thursday’s practice, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky skated with Oliver Kapanen at center in Suzuki’s spot, and forward Owen Beck was recalled from Laval of the AHL. Montreal’s other centers are Alex Newhook, Phillip Danault and Jake Evans; the club is also missing Ivan Demidov with a lower-body injury. Caufield: “It’s a huge loss. Nobody can really fill Suzy’s shoes.” Slafkovsky: “We just got to wait and fight for him.”

The Canadiens are 4–3–2. They play at Chicago on Friday night at 8 p.m. Eastern — the first game of Suzuki’s career that he will miss — and then face Winnipeg in the Heritage Classic on Sunday.