Canadiens return to practice on Sunday, several players taken out of protocol

The Montreal Canadiens returned to the ice for the first time in New Year's Day when they lost 5-2 to the Florida Panthers. Since then, the Canadiens have had their facilities shut down and stopping team activities temporarily due to the amount of players they had in the league's COVID-19 protocol.

Several players were taken out of the National Hockey League's COVID protocol on Sunday morning, which allowed the Canadiens to re-open their practice facility in Brossard, Quebec.

Among those taken off the list were Laurent Dauphin, Ben Chiarot, Jake Allen, Samuel Montembeault, Artturi Lehkonen, David Savard, Chris Wideman and Mike Hoffman.

Injured players Joel Armia (undisclosed), Christian Dvorak (lower-body), Josh Anderson (upper-body) and Mike Hoffman (upper-body) were all on the ice this morning in non-contact jerseys. Armia and Dvorak are currently listed as day-to-day, while the status of Anderson and Hoffman is unclear.

#Habs practising:
Drouin
Suzuki
Poehling
Caufield
Lehkonen
Dauphin
Paquette
Vejdemo
Dea

Chiarot
Savard
Wideman
Niku
Schueneman

Allen
Montembeault
McNiven

Day-to-day (navy): Dvorak, Armia
Non-contact (merlot): Anderson, Hoffman@TSN_Edge— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) January 9, 2022

According to Sportsnet's Eric Engels, Jeff Petry is among a handful of players that are stuck in the United States and the plan is for those players to meet the team in Boston on Wednesday. Engels also added that Paul Byron is back in protocol due to a positive COVID test and Brendan Gallagher is having a therapy day and is still day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

Byron had previously been placed in protocol due to exposure. He's now there due to COVID.— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) January 9, 2022

The team also announced on Sunday that they've called up forward Jean-Sebastien Dea from the Laval Rocket and placed him on their taxi squad. In 24 games for Laval, Dea has 12 points (8 G, 4 A), 10 penalty minutes and is a -5.

Montreal will be back in action on Wednesday night when they take on the Boston Bruins at TD Garden. Puck drop is set for 7pm ET on Sportsnet.

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