Screen Shots: Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Green Armbands for Young Officials

Welcome again to Screen Shots, an ongoing series of THN.com files in which we tackle a few different hockey topics and analyze them in shorter paragraphs. We’ll get right down to it now with the Montreal Canadiens, followed by the Toronto Maple Leafs and a pilot project gaining traction in youth hockey:

The Montreal Canadiens received bad news this weekend when it was revealed first-year Habs center Alex Newhook would be sidelined 10 to 12 weeks with a high ankle sprain. 

The 22-year-old suffered the injury in Friday’s 5-1 loss to Florida, and it was the latest in a steady stream of health woes the Canadiens have suffered this season: Top pivot Kirby Dach had his season ended after only two games this year, veteran defenseman David Savard has missed 18 games, D-man Chris Wideman has yet to play even a single game this season, and blueliners Jordan Harris and Arber Xhekaj have also missed more than a few games.

Montreal has had a decent start to the year, but their battle against the injury bug reveals exactly where they are in their full rebuilding plan and the overall lack of depth in the organization at the moment. Their best-laid plans under coach Martin St-Louis have been derailed by injuries, and they would’ve needed near-perfect health to even have a remote shot at playing meaningful games in the later part of the season.

The Canadiens now almost certainly will be behind the eight-ball to stay competitive, and if there are more injuries on top of the ones they’re dealing with now, they could well be in the race for the best odds at drafting first overall in next summer’s NHL draft. That’s not a bad thing, all things considered. If it means landing a generational player, the short-term pain will be worth it.

The Toronto Maple Leafs recalled goaltender Martin Jones from their AHL affiliate Saturday on an emergency basis, as veteran Ilya Samsonov was dealing with an undisclosed illness that left him unable to compete in the Buds’ game against the Boston Bruins. 

No. 1 goalie Joseph Woll got the starting assignment against the Bruins, but with Jones on board, Toronto can rest easy that it’ll have an NHL-caliber understudy to rely on if anything goes awry.

The Leafs signed Jones in the summer exactly for scenarios like this one, but there could be another angle to the recall of Jones to consider. If Samsonov doesn’t return right away and Jones gets some action at the NHL level, he could be showcased in a trade made by GM Brad Treliving as he searches for help for Toronto on defense.

This is not to say every team that has defensemen the Leafs want will also want Jones, but there could be a circumstance in which Jones is included in a trade for a D-man, and the team that acquires Jones subsequently flips him to a different organization that needs help in net. If that helps solve Toronto's problem on 'D,' it'll make the off-season signing of Jones well worth it.

Finally, we want to once again spotlight this great green armband initiative by participating youth hockey associations throughout Canada to curb the abuse toward amateur officials. Youth hockey associations in the Waterloo region in Ontario are some of the latest to launch the pilot program.

We first discussed this program last year, and the program – which places green armbands on young on-ice officials just learning how to call games – deserves the attention of fans again this season.

Putting armbands on officials might not completely end the abuse of them, even though it should absolutely never have to be that way, but we have to take whatever steps we can to protect kids brave enough to choose to officiate games. 

It'll be interesting to see data on whether the green armband initiative system brings on more youngsters choosing to officiate as a job and staying, but it can only help in that regard. The culture in all sports is to moan about the refs, but if we can create more empathy and understanding for them, we'll be making for a better sport and a better all-around experience at the amateur level.