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David Reinbacher: an injury delays his development

 Michael Johnson
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David Reinbacher: an injury delays his development
Credit: Getty Images
Last year, the Canadian decided to send David Reinbacher to Switzerland for the season.

Arguably, playing in Kloten wasn’t optimal for his development. Of course, we can’t rewrite history and we can’t know how things would have turned out for him if he’d spent the whole season in Laval, but…

But playing in Kloten’s unhealthy situation wasn’t exactly ideal.

Reinbacher finished last season in Laval and we saw some progress. It was therefore interesting to see what the young man could offer Pascal Vincent over the coming weeks.

But obviously, with the injury he suffered on Saturday night against Toronto, it looks like that will have to wait.

Reinbacher’s injury is overshadowed by that of Patrik Laine. That said, if the youngster were to miss any playing time, it would be a major blow to his development.

In fact, according to Jean Trudel, Reinbacher’s injury is worse than Laine’s in terms of the impact it will have on his development.

It’s true that if he were to miss several weeks/months of activity, his development in his first two post-draft years would not have gone as planned. This would affect his progression curve and delay his arrival in the NHL.

We’re not there yet, but we have to think about it.

Since Saturday night, I’ve had a lot of ideas running through my head. After all, the two injuries suffered by the Canadiens’ players are a real game-changer.

Why not share some of them with you?

1. Kent Hughes acquired Patrik Laine to help the guys. I remember the words “rewarding the players” being used to describe Laine’s arrival in town.

But in the end, all indications are that the reward did not have the desired effect.

If Laine misses an entire season of hockey, the Habs will have a really rusty player next September, and in the long run, they’ll also have obtained a second-round pick in exchange for the services of Jordan Harris.

But that’s all in the long term. In the short term, should the Habs continue to “reward their players” with reinforcements?

2. If a player isn’t acquired, we’ll have to see who replaces Laine in the lineup. Players like Emil Heineman and Oliver Kapanen are candidates to make the club now.

There may also be room for the guys who start the season strong at the bottom.

But who will play on the top-6? Who will take his place on the powerplay? Could the first line be dismantled to give Kirby Dach some ammunition?

These are the questions we’re asking, and we could get some clues at training this week… or even this morning.

3. There’s a negative wave right now. We’ve clearly found a way to remove the rose-colored glasses that many people wore at the start of camp when the big bad “P-word” was uttered.

I was the first not to believe the Habs were there. And clearly, if one injury makes you change your mind, it’s because the Habs weren’t really #InTheMix. Good teams, which the Montreal Canadiens will one day be, aren’t one injury away from having their season derailed.

4. Not drafting Matvei Michkov for Reinbacher insulted a lot of fans. And seeing what the Flyers prospect is currently doing at his team’s camp adds fuel to the fire.

However, if the Habs didn’t want to draft Michkov, they had their reasons. It may be a mistake, but the last few weeks shouldn’t change everything in the evaluation of the 2023 draft. It’s too early for that.

5. I wonder what Martin St-Louis can blame on Arber Xhekaj, who didn’t jump on Cedric Paré’s back, but attacked him in the face.

I understand that losing another defender for a whole game, after David Reinbacher’s injury, hurt the club. But I think that in a preparatory match that means nothing, getting a message across was more important.

Defending your teammates is part of the Sheriff’s DNA. He did it, and if he hadn’t, he would have been criticized.

If the Habs don’t like rolling with one less defenseman, let them make WiFi a forward. After all, fighting is part of his game and at a time like this, if I’m a teammate of #72, I appreciate his gesture.

Martin St-Louis had seen the lineup the Maple Leafs were going to bring to Toronto, and he knows what identity Craig Berube is trying to instill in the Maple Leafs. He must have known that things would get a little hectic in such preparatory games.

I didn’t like the coach saying he wasn’t sure Saturday night how he was going to talk to Xhekaj about his gesture. Did St-Louis get outcoached on Saturday night?

6. As for what happens next, there’s not much the guys on the ice can do. They can’t make a deal to bring reinforcements to town, and they can’t fix Laine’s knee in a jiffy.

What they can do, however, is show resilience and continue to work hard to show that the club, even without Laine, can be #InTheMix this year.


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