MONTREAL — Veteran defenseman David Savard is will miss six-to-eight weeks with a fracture to his left hand, the Montreal Canadiens said on Tuesday.
Savard left Monday’s win in Buffalo midway through the third period after blocking multiple shots, one of which knocked off his skate blade, on the penalty kill.
The 33-year-old Savard joins center Kirby Dach (knee) and defenseman Kaiden Guhle (upper body) as a recent addition to the Canadiens’ lengthy injured list.
Montreal recalled 25-year-old Gustav Lindstrom its AHL affiliate prior to the Canadiens’ 5-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night.
“He’s disappointed,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said of Savard. “He’s been around the league for a long time, he knows this is the game. And the kind of game he plays, he knows he exposes himself to that.”
Playing on the back end of back-to-back games, the Canadiens struggled against New Jersey. Former Montreal forward Tyler Toffoli had a hat trick as the Devils won their second straight game.
“It was nice to get the first one, having not scored since coming (back),” said Toffoli, who failed to score in his first game against his former team. “Once that happened, it felt like I was just getting a ton of opportunities and very fortunate for sure.”
Alexander Holtz and Nico Hischier also scored for New Jersey, and Jack Hughes continued his hot start to the season with four assists. Vitek Vanecek stopped 27 shots.
The Canadiens were 1 for 4 with a man advantage in the loss.
“We fought,” St. Louis said. “We had a tough start to the third (period), and they were on top of us. And it could have been easy to quit. And we didn’t quit.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.