Saturday’s loss to Columbus wasn’t just on the scoresheet but on the injury front as well. The Habs announced Sunday morning that Noah Dobson will miss at least the next two weeks while David Reinbacher has been recalled from Laval.
Dobson suffered the injury in the second period last night after blocking his league-leading 188th shot. While he gingerly finished his shift, he left after that and did not return. Montreal played with five defencemen for the rest of the game, resulting in Arber Xhekaj, Jayden Struble, and Adam Engstrom all seeing season highs in playing time.
This loss is certainly a significant one for the Habs as Dobson is an all-situations player. He sits third on the team in ice time at more than 22 minutes per game while seeing time on both the power play and penalty kill. On top of that, he has 47 points in 80 games, making him one of Montreal’s better offensive threats from the back end.
Additionally, Dobson was the one proven right-shot defenceman that the Canadiens had in their top four. Lane Hutson has played regularly on his off-side lately but he isn’t at his best in that role. Now, they’ll be counting on him to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.
Dobson becomes the third injured Montreal defender, joining Kaiden Guhle and Alexandre Carrier (the other experienced righty on the team). Guhle made the trip to New York in advance of Sunday’s game against the Islanders so he might be nearing a return while Carrier did not, suggesting he will miss the next two games as well.
It’s important to note that Dobson’s return timeline is far from defined. In their announcement, the team only said that he will be re-evaluated two weeks from now. That typically means the player will be out longer, just that they’ll have a better idea of how much longer that might be in two weeks’ time.
As for Reinbacher, this is his first recall to the Canadiens. The 2023 fifth overall pick has been relatively healthy with the Rocket this season aside from an injury sustained in training camp. He has played in a top-four role throughout the year and recently, he has become their number one all-situations defenceman, logging heavy minutes lately in Engstrom’s absence.
In 57 games this season, he has five goals and 19 assists. Two of those games have come in the past two days, meaning that if he plays against the Islanders, he’ll be making his NHL debut while playing his third game in as many nights.
While that’s hardly ideal from a development standpoint, the Habs are going to need to get a look at Reinbacher to see if he could plausibly help cover some of Dobson’s playing time. He should be able to play on the penalty kill to start while as a right-shot defender, playing him might allow the Habs to put another left-shot player on their natural side. Either way, it looks like trial by fire awaits.