Nick Suzuki’s remarkable availability run is over at 546 games, leaving Doug Jarvis’ Canadiens record untouched for another season. Montreal’s captain is expected to miss two to four weeks with an upper-body injury after blocking a Michael Kesselring shot late in Tuesday’s overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks.
Key takeaways
- Suzuki will sit out the first NHL game of his career when Montreal visits the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night.
- The Canadiens captain had five goals and seven assists through nine games, leading the club with 12 points.
- Jarvis holds Montreal’s franchise consecutive-games mark at 560, set between 1975 and 1982.
- Defenseman Lane Hutson now owns the longest active Canadiens streak at 175 games, with Juraj Slafkovsky next at 164.
- Suzuki’s 546-game run ranks 20th in NHL history and second among active players behind Colorado defenseman Brent Burns.
A captain forced out after 546 straight
Suzuki played through the final minutes against San Jose after taking the shot off his left hand with 5:34 remaining in regulation. The score was tied 3-3 at the time, but the Sharks went on to claim a 4-3 overtime win at Bell Centre. Montreal announced Thursday that Suzuki would be unavailable for two to four weeks, without offering additional detail on the injury.
The timing stops Suzuki 14 appearances shy of Jarvis’ Canadiens standard. Jarvis, now 71, learned that his old club record would survive while hiking with his wife, Linda, in Portugal. The couple had just completed a 14-day, 185-mile trek that crossed into Spain.
Jarvis said he has never met Suzuki, but has been impressed by the way Montreal’s captain handles the full sheet of ice. He called Suzuki the definition of a team-first player and said the injury will sting emotionally as much as physically for a competitor who clearly wants to be in uniform beside his teammates.
“Please wish Nick my best,” Jarvis said. “Tell him to get healthy quickly, get back in there and get started on another streak. We all love watching him play.”
The Canadiens hope Suzuki can return before U.S. Thanksgiving. When he does, his next consecutive-games stretch will begin again at one.
Hutson’s current run began April 15, 2024, while Slafkovsky has not missed a game since Oct. 29, 2024. If Hutson plays every night, he would not approach Jarvis until approximately three-quarters of the way through the 2030-31 campaign.
Jarvis’ mark remains a Montreal mountain
Jarvis played 560 consecutive games for Montreal from Oct. 8, 1975, through April 4, 1982, then carried his NHL run through stops with the Washington Capitals and Hartford Whalers. His full league streak reached 964 games, beginning with his NHL debut and ending only when Hartford made him a healthy scratch on Oct. 11, 1987.
At the time, Jarvis had surpassed Garry Unger’s previous NHL benchmark of 914. He moved ahead on Dec. 26, 1986, during a 1-1 tie between the Whalers and Canadiens in Hartford, a fitting opponent given Montreal had been his first NHL home. The following night, he played game No. 916 back at the Forum and received a standing ovation from Canadiens fans.
Jarvis’ NHL record stood for more than 34 years. Keith Yandle passed him with his 965th straight game on Jan. 25, 2022, eventually reaching 989. Phil Kessel then took over first place on Oct. 25, 2022, and finished with 1,064 consecutive games from 2009 through 2023. Burns moved past Yandle for second all-time on March 14, 2026, and has played 1,017 in a row since Nov. 21, 2013.
Jarvis said modern training and conditioning should make long streaks more attainable, but he also sees the factors that continue to make them rare: heavy travel, bigger bodies, a hard-contact game and the random injury that can end a run in one shift.
“I played the game that I loved, one game at a time,” Jarvis said in 2022, when Yandle was approaching his record. “There are just so many things out of your control that can have an effect on it.”
Suzuki now sits one place behind Detroit Red Wings great Alex Delvecchio, who played 548 straight. Among Canadiens, the next-longest completed streaks belong to Dickie Moore at 379, Steve Shutt at 347, Donnie Marshall at 327, Jeff Petry at 321, Peter Mahovlich at 313, and Mark Recchi and Aurel Joliat at 312 each. Nine Montreal players have reached 300 straight, but none came particularly close to Jarvis or Suzuki.
Jarvis was a four-time Stanley Cup winner during Montreal’s championship run from 1976 through 1979, won the Selke Trophy with Washington in 1984 and earned the Bill Masterton Trophy with Hartford in 1986-87. He played well beyond his listed 5-foot-9, 170-pound frame, building his reputation on reliable two-way work.
He sees some defensive common ground with Suzuki, though he believes Montreal’s captain possesses much greater offensive vision and skill. Jarvis instead compared Suzuki’s leadership and responsible game to Patrice Bergeron, whom he coached during his time as a Bruins assistant. Bergeron won six Selke Trophies and a Stanley Cup in 2011; Suzuki won the Selke last season.
“Seeing how Nick handles himself and his game, I see the kind of player that Patrice was,” Jarvis said. “A great leader within the team who sets a great example for the rest of the group.”
Montreal faces Chicago at United Center on Friday at 8 p.m. ET, with the Canadiens heading into the night without the player who had not missed one since entering the League.
