"In my head, I want to play. Sometimes, though, the body doesn't necessarily follow what the head wants. We'll see what happens. I'm going to talk to Claude [Julien] later," said Hudon, following the Canadiens' optional skate on Thursday morning at Little Caesars Arena.
"Sometimes, when decisions are made, a player isn't happy. But, health is the most important thing," added Hudon.
The 23-year-old forward has been dealing with an injury for about a month to a month-and-a-half. He feels ready to suit up, but sometimes he can't offer up the effort he'd like to.
"Mentally, I was able to play. I want to play and be the best I can be on the ice. But, I wasn't completely comfortable in some spots, not 100 percent. I'm very hard on myself, so it's definitely been tough to swallow," he admitted.
Hudon has missed the Canadiens' last two games.
Meanwhile, Julien shared some kind words about Alex Galchenyuk on Thursday. Galchenyuk is on the verge of reaching the 20-goal plateau for the third time in his career, sitting just one goal shy of the mark with two games to go.
The veteran bench boss isn't planning on changing his game plan to give the American sniper a better shot at lighting the lamp, though.
"The guys who've hit these marks [Paul Byron and Brendan Gallagher] did it themselves, and you want Galchenyuk to do it, too. If he doesn't score his 20th goal, during a season like this, I don't think it will change a lot of things. But, it's always flattering for a player to post round numbers. I'm going to coach a hockey game, though, and not just focus on watching him accomplish what he has to accomplish. I think over the next two games he's going to have good chances to score," explained Julien.
