Broken canister by back of drive shaft

Can a busted emission canister cause my 98xj to run like crap? Surges, stutters, runs fine.....stutters, surges, fine etc..... Looks like the rear U joint had broke at some point and bounced the shaft into the canister shroud and thru ti the "black box" shattering it. I read there is a temp sensor that opens vacuum to it/???? any ideas???

Yes that could cause it to run bad, but if it were broken to the point of making it run bad, there would be a check engine light on, indicating that.