Habs confirm the Tyler Toffoli injury is worse than originally reported.

When Montreal Canadiens leading scorer Tyler Toffoli was absent from the Habs morning skate on Monday you knew that the questions would soon follow, and unfortunately fans of the team aren't going to like the answers.

The Canadiens have now confirmed, via comments made by head coach Dominique Ducharme, that the injury suffered by Toffoli is more serious than was originally believed. According to the Habs bench boss, Toffoli will now be out for at least this week's games and will be reevaluated over the weekend which could mean he will be out even longer than that.

The timing of this news probably couldn't get any worse for the Canadiens who have a jam packed schedule of games this week, all against one of the top teams in the division in the form of the Edmonton Oilers. The Canadiens are set to play the Oilers later today at 7:00 pm EST, and that will be followed by a game on Wednesday at 7:30 pm EST and a game Friday at 7:00 pm EST.

The Canadiens are currently also teetering on the edge of the playoffs, sitting in fourth place in the North Division despite a red hot start to the season. The Canucks are within just two points of closing the gap, although thankfully for the Canadiens they currently have 4 games in hand on the Canucks which could give them a chance to widen the gap a little.

Toffoli is not just an important roleplayer for the Canadiens but is actually the team's leading goal scorer and point producer. His 18 goals on the season make him by far the team's top scorer and his 27 points are tied for first alongside veteran Habs defenseman Jeff Petry. It seems unlikely that we will know more regarding his status before the weekend when he will be reevaluated by the team's training staff and medical professionals.