Report: Habs get a surprise return at practice on Saturday.

The Montreal Canadiens got some pretty good news on Saturday. 

According to a report from Montreal Canadiens' insider John Lu of TSN veteran forward Tomas Plekanec returned to the ice today for the first time since he suffered some lower back issues back on the 18th of October. The issues had not only kept Plekanec's out of game action until this point but had also made it impossible for him to participate in practice with his teammates, putting him further and further behind this season. 

Now in any situation missing significant time during the first month of the season can cause a player to have a slow start, with every having a full month of fast paced game action under their belt, but in Plekanec's case it's even worse. There's no question that the 36 year old center has slowed down considerably in the past few seasons, although he remains a valuable National Hockey League center, and a slow start to the 2018 - 2019 NHL regular season is just about the last thing that he needed in his return to Montreal. 

Prior to being injured Plekanec's had only appeared in 3 regular season games for the Habs, recording just a single goal and no assists for a total of 1 point on the season thus far. The veteran forward also boasted a plus minus rating of 0 but it seemed like he would be used sparingly as a depth option for the team moving forward into the season as the Habs looked to give some younger guys more ice time. Now with him back on the ice I assume he is only a short while away from eventually returning to the line up and coming off of injured reserve, but how he will be used moving forward by Habs head coach Claude Julien and the team moving forward remains to be seen. 

Many believe that the Habs offered Plekanec's a contract primarily in the hopes of allowing him to play his 1000th career NHL game as a Montreal Canadien. Now that the veteran center has achieved that milestone it remains to be seen how much ice time the Habs are willing to commit to him, even when healthy. 

[pub]