Nick Suzuki will miss the Montreal Canadiens' game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday after being sidelined for 2-4 weeks with an upper-body injury. The announcement arrived on Thursday and immediately changed the shape of Montreal's night at United Center, where the Canadiens will have to play without their captain and leading scorer.
The injury also stops Suzuki's pursuit of Doug Jarvis' Canadiens ironman record at 546 consecutive games, 14 short of the mark Jarvis set from Oct. 8, 1975 through April 4, 1982. For Montreal, that is the core of the news: Suzuki is out, and the first game he will miss in his NHL career comes against Chicago.
Suzuki carried Montreal into the week with a goal and an assist in Tuesday's 4-3 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks. He stayed in the game after getting his left hand in the path of a shot by Michael Kesselring with 5:34 left in the third period, then finished the night before the injury was later listed as the reason he would be out for 2-4 weeks.
That detail gives the decision its weight. Suzuki did not leave the game in San Jose, and the loss against the Sharks looked like just another night in a long streak that had become part of Montreal's identity. Instead, the aftermath turned that sequence into the end of a run that had reached 546 games and had left him within striking distance of one of the Canadiens' oldest records.
Jarvis learned the news while finishing a 14-day, 185-mile hike with his wife, Linda, in Porto, Portugal. He said he had not met Suzuki but loved watching him play, describing him as a team player who covers 180 feet of the ice. Jarvis also said he felt bad for Suzuki and guessed the Canadiens record still standing was surprising, even if it was not.
The broader durability picture only sharpens what Montreal lost. Lane Hutson had the longest active Canadiens ironman streak at 175 games, followed by Juraj Slafkovsky at 164. Across the league, Phil Kessel's 1,064 consecutive games remain the NHL all-time ironman record, with Brent Burns at 1,017 and Keith Yandle listed third at 989.
For now, Montreal moves on without the player it has leaned on most, and Suzuki's return date remains the thing that matters next. The Canadiens can replace a body for Friday, but they cannot replace the end of a streak that had made every night feel routine until the final shot in San Jose changed it.
