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While the news that Noah Dobson was going to be out for at least two weeks was disappointing, it did give the Canadiens a chance to view David Reinbacher in the NHL for the first time. Montreal had two games left this season before the playoffs begin on the weekend.
The Canadiens are still fighting for home-ice advantage in the first round. They had to get a result against the Islanders in New York, and they did. It all came together beautifully for the Habs, winning 4-1.
Wilde Horses
It was the third game in three nights for Reinbacher. The defenceman played both Friday and Saturday in Laval for the Rocket. As a result, fatigue was certainly a talking point for his first NHL game. Exhaustion is not what a player has in mind when they consider the night they will make their NHL debut.
It often doesn’t work out perfectly in terms of preparation, but the Canadiens needed Reinbacher, so he got on a plane at 10 p.m. for New York City to start his career at Belmont Park in Nassau County on Long Island.
It was a night when everyone could have made excuses for him if he played poorly. It was a lot to ask. However, the truth is he passed his first NHL test beautifully. He was excellent. In fact, he played exactly to the scouting report on him.
Firstly, his decision-making was top-notch. He made the right play all the time. The game had a ton of pace, but he was not short of his own pace to keep up. His gap control was also strong. He didn’t give up the blue line needlessly.
His skating was all that scouts said it is. He has a smooth and beautiful stride for a big man. His reads were also sharp as he predicted the course of the action time and time again. His vision was strong as he found the outlet pass, whether it was to his fellow D-man or up ice.
Statistically, certainly, the head coach had obvious knowledge that his newest recruit already had a big weekend, as Reinbacher had only 11 minutes on the night. He partnered with Arber Xhekaj and they had the best expected goals among the three pairs with an 85 per cent share.
The one worry there is about his game — that he could be intimidated by the physical nature of a hungry team — wasn’t an issue either. He handled it beautifully. The first forechecker came in hard and with mustard, and Reinbacher had no trouble finding options, and outlets.
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Reinbacher even eventually got in on the scoring. It was scoring that took a while to get going, but when it finally did, the Canadiens pounced. Montreal scored three goals in only 55 seconds to blow the game wide open late in the second period.
Firstly, Nick Suzuki has done it. He scored his 100th point of the season on his 29th goal of the year. Suzuki becomes the first Canadiens player to hit the 100 mark since Mats Naslund in 1986. It was 40 years between 100-point players in Montreal.
Suzuki wasted no time getting point 101 as he set up Ivan Demidov for his 19th goal of the year. It’s a big moment for Demidov, as he would like to lead the rookie scoring this year. With his 62nd point, Demidov moves two points ahead of the Anaheim Ducks’ Beckett Sennecke.
More milestones came as blue liner Lane Hutson counted his second assist of the contest. Hutson moved to 66 assists on the season. That ties the mark set by Larry Robinson for the greatest assist season for a defender in the history of the franchise. Remarkable! Hutson moved to 78 points on the year.
The milestones concluded with another tally 27 seconds later. In his own zone, Reinbacher fed Zachary Bolduc, who fed Alex Newhook. He scored far side for his 13th goal of the year, and promptly picked up the puck to save it for the Austrian’s history-making moment.
How Newhook had awareness that Reinbacher started that play is pretty spectacular in terms of hockey sense, and camaraderie. A tight game was over. The Canadiens had destroyed the Islanders will; their shoulders slumped.
In the third, the Islanders recovered, knowing their season was over with a loss, so Montreal relied on yet another outstanding goaltending performance. It’s one of the reasons the Canadiens’ season went from pretty good to fantastic. They have received good netminding nearly every contest.
Jacob Fowler had a sparkling night in net with 31 saves on 32 shots. His goals saved above expected was 2.76. Fowler also has a good sense of when to kill the play to stop momentum against his club. It’s not spoken of enough how a goalie can calm a game down when it’s wise to, and get it flying when that’s wise. Fowler has a good sense of the moment, as well as a strong ability to stop the puck.
Fowler has a compact style with great balance. He is always ready for the second shot on a fast sequence. Montreal has two rookie goalies who look like they’ll be fighting each other for the net for the next decade. It will be interesting to see how Samuel Montembeault can fight back next season to reclaim a part of the workload. These two kids are simply too strong at the moment.
Wilde Goats
The team had an outstanding recovery from the Dobson news. They refocused to play a strong road game. The Canadiens still are in the hunt for first place in the Atlantic. They have 106 points. The Buffalo Sabres have 106 points. The Tampa Bay Lightning have 104 points. The Canadiens have one game left, while the Sabres and Lightning have two games remaining, and the tie-breakers.
No goats.
Wilde Cards
The Laval Rocket will want Bryce Pickford to join the club even more now, with Reinbacher and Adam Engstrom promoted to Montreal. However, Pickford doesn’t appear to be close to finishing his run in the Western Hockey League.
Pickford’s Medicine Hat Tigers are off to a strong start in their second-round series against the Calgary Hitmen. In Game 1, Pickford scored twice, including the overtime winner, as the Tigers beat the Hitmen 3-2.
The second game, the Tigers were down by two goals, but roared back to win it 4-3. Pickford picked up an assist in that one. Pickford has five goals and two assists in seven games in the playoffs. He leads the Tigers in goals.
The Prince Albert Raiders are also two games up in their series over the Saskatoon Blades as the two clubs are on a collision course in the Eastern Conference.
As soon as Pickford is finished with his WHL playoffs, he will join the Rocket for their playoffs. The AHL playoffs should start on about April 22, so it is possible that Pickford plays in Laval this spring. The Tigers would have to make it all the way to the league finals for Pickford to still be in the WHL when the AHL is playing its first round.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
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