Injury to William Trudeau: David Reinbacher likely to play more than expected

Last night, everyone was watching David Reinbacher’s debut with the Laval Rocket, as the latter played a very important game against the Belleville Senators.

Obviously, we wanted to see the Rocket win, but we also wanted to see how the 19-year-old defenseman would do in his first AHL game.

Well, not only did the Rocket win 3-2 in overtime, but Reinbacher played a very solid game and scored a goal, his first in North America.

David Reinbacher scores his 1st goal in his 1st game with the Rocket! pic.twitter.com/WFmG4cYR9h

– RDS (@RDSca) March 23, 2024

Let’s just say Reinbacher’s goal came as quite a surprise to everyone, as we clearly didn’t expect him to score one so quickly, especially not such a beautiful goal with such a beautiful feint at the blue line.

In short, the Austrian defenseman had a very solid first game in North America, despite the fact that he quickly had to take on more responsibility than expected with the injury to William Trudeau.

Indeed, early in the game, Trudeau blocked a short-handed shot, which seemed to really hurt him.

He didn’t return to the game, which leads us to believe that things aren’t looking good for him in the Rocket’s next few games.

So, with this unexpected injury, the Rocket had to play with five defensemen for two periods plus overtime.

Not an ideal situation, especially when a 19-year-old defenseman like Reinbacher is making his debut.

But in the end, Reinbacher performed very well in spite of it all.

That’s good news, because if the worst comes to the worst for Trudeau, Reinbacher will surely play more than expected.

Indeed, without Trudeau, the Rocket find themselves with only six healthy defensemen on the road right now, which would force Reinbacher to play the next three games on the road.

These three games will be played in the space of just five days, which will clearly be an unusual situation for the Austrian defenseman who played in Switzerland this season, where games are more distant.

Trudeau’s injury surely changes the plans of head coach Jean-François Houle, who might have liked to rest Reinbacher for at least one of these games, especially now, when the Rocket are playing three games in three days.

Rocket’s four-game road trip:

• Friday, March 22: 3-2 overtime win over the Belleville Senators.
• Saturday, March 23: game against the Senators starting at 2 p.m.
• Sunday, March 24: game against the Toronto Marlies, starting at 7 p.m.
• Wednesday, March 27: game against the Utica Comets, starting at 7 p.m.

In short, if Trudeau is indeed injured and misses games, it means that Mattias Norlinder will enter the line-up today, and that the defensive pairings will change.

It will be interesting to see what role will be assigned to Reinbacher, who started last night’s game as a right-handed defenseman on a third pair.

All this remains to be seen today, as the Rocket play another vital game in the playoff race.

In a gust

– Congratulations to the Rocket’s two young players, who set franchise records.

– Reminder.

– Will the Capitals set a new mark by reaching the playoffs?

– Read more.

– Obviously.

– Coming up.