Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki was a full participant at practice Monday, skating on the top line alongside Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky as he nears a return to lineup.
Suzuki has missed the past five games after blocking a shot with his hand on Oct. 20 in a 4-3 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks.
He was originally given a recovery timeline of two-to-four weeks, which ended his ironman streak of skating in 546 consecutive regular-season games since cracking the NHL in 2019-20.
The reigning Selke Trophy winner, the 27-year-old centre scored 29 goals with a career-high 101 points in 82 regular-season games last season before adding 16 points in 19 postseason contests.
Before the injury this season, Suzuki had five goals and 12 points in nine games.
Without Suzuki, the Canadiens have gone 5-0-0, including a four-game road trip where they picked four straight wins against Chicago, Winnipeg, St. Louis and Dallas.
A big piece of that success was the play of goaltender Jacob Fowler, who earned the NHL’s Rookie of the Month award for October, after he went 7-1-0 with a .932 save percentage and a 1.84 goals-against average.
Montreal is currently second in the Atlantic Division at 9-3-2, one point back of the Boston Bruins for first place.
The Canadiens are back in action at home on Tuesday night against the Jets, who have dropped nine straight games.