HabsWorld.net -- 

Friday saw the Habs return to a full practice and with that came some news on the injury front for a trio of players.

First, the undisclosed injury that has kept Florian Xhekaj out of the lineup for the last week is a lower-body one.  The team announced that he’ll miss two weeks with the issue.  The 22-year-old made the roster out of training camp but has been limited to just two appearances thus far and has been on the ice for four goals allowed in just over 15 minutes of playing time.

Meanwhile, it was acknowledged that defenceman Mike Matheson remains listed as day-to-day as his lower-body injury persists.  As we’ve seen already this season, day-to-day can change into something longer rather quickly but this is at least cautiously good news.  By now, they’ve had time to do full imaging and assessments so if day-to-day remains the prognosis, that should be a good sign.

David Reinbacher remains up with Montreal and wasn’t sent back to Laval for the next leg of their rather lengthy road trip.  It’s unclear if he’ll get a chance to make his season debut on Saturday against Buffalo or if he’ll be scratched for a second straight game.

Meanwhile, Juraj Slafkovsky missed practice for a therapy day.  Presumably, that may have something to do with the collision he had with Tom Wilson in the second period on Wednesday in Washington.  However, he’s expected to play on Saturday.

Lastly, Oliver Kapanen was a full participant in practice, sliding into Slafkovsky’s spot on the top line.  He has been day-to-day with a lower-body issue of his own for the better part of three weeks now and skated on his own the last two days.

It’s unclear if Kapanen will be cleared to return on Saturday.  If he is, Montreal will need to open up a roster spot.  They can easily do that by moving Xhekaj to injured reserve since he has already missed more than the required week already.