The Montreal Canadiens, who have struggled scoring goals this season, will have to continue to try to do so without winger Brian Gionta for the foreseeable future.
The winger has a fractured bone in his left foot and will be out indefinitely.
"The players will have to raise their game to try to make up for it," coach Jacques Martin told reporters after practice. "It opens a door for someone. We've been waiting for that since the start of the season."
Gionta, who the Canadiens' signed to a five-year, $25 million contract, was skating on the top line with other new Canadiens, Scott Gomez and Mike Cammalleri.
Despite missing the last two games with the injury, Gionta is still tied with Cammalleri for the most goals on the team with eight, and is their third leading scorer with 13 points in 19 games.
In other Canadiens' news, defenceman Ryan O'Byrne looks to be ready to the return the lineup after missing the last 19 games because of sprained knee.
The club cleared up room for him on the roster when they sent Mathieu Carle to the Hamilton Bulldogs.
Georges Laraque, who has been out of the lineup since mid-October, was also on the ice at practice on Wednesday, skating with Guillaume Latendresse and Maxim Lapierre.