After the Canadiens victory over the Devils, Michel Therrien let loose an interesting tidbit of information about one of the team's defensemen. He informed the hockey world that Alexei Emelin had been playing on a fractured foot for as long as three weeks.

Michel Therrien says Alexei Emelin played with a fracture in his foot for two to three weeks. — Eric Engels (@EricEngels) January 7, 2016

I suppose a measure of credit is due to Emelin for being very tough. A fractured foot hurts quite a bit, especially for a defenseman who is taking pucks off the foot regularly. He also had a few decent games over the last few weeks. That said, it is dangerous, and isn't really something you want to see a player at all, much less during the regular season.

With players like Greg Pateryn and Jarred Tinordi waiting in the wings, it is pretty hard to figure out why they were letting Emelin play. Perhaps they only just found out about the fracture, and he hadn't gone for an examination of the foot yet. But if they knew and let him play anyways, that's just not very smart.

I'd be inclined to give the Canadiens the benefit of the doubt. They have one of the better medical staffs in hockey, and I tend to doubt that they'd allow a player to get in a game if they thought it was serious enough that he might end up with something more substantial.

There's no word yet on if he'll be missing any time, but given that Therrien decided to divulge this information after the game, it wouldn't be surprising to see Emelin miss the next few games.