BROSSARD, Que. — It’s a tough blow for David Reinbacher, suffered in yet another pre-season game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Austrian sustained a serious left knee injury in his first one against Toronto last September. One that forced him under the knife and limited him to just 23 games (regular season and post-season combined).
Now, one year later, he’s been diagnosed with a broken bone in his hand that will sideline him for four weeks.
It’s the last thing the fifth-overall pick in 2023 needed, with his development already stunted at such critical stages since he was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens.
There was the upper-body injury that kept Reinbacher off the ice for weeks in his first post-draft season with Kloten in the Swiss League. That year presented other challenges, too, with the hockey club getting off to a terrible start and forcing all sorts of personnel changes that made it anything but an optimal environment for development.
Then came last year’s injury, which Reinbacher returned from in February but didn’t fully recover from during the summer.
He came to Canadiens camp feeling physically strong but admitted earlier this week that what he went through last pre-season was still present in the back of his mind.
Considering that, prior to Reinbacher’s first game, on Tuesday against Philadelphia, he said he was feeling “kind of a little bit of jitters.”
Ultimately, Reinbacher handled them well, finishing plus-1 through 19:13 of the 4-2 win for the Canadiens.
He said earlier in the day, “I want to be a two-way defenceman, killing plays, sending my forwards off with a good breakout pass, good first pass, and trying to join the rush and create something there, and just defend really well and be hard to play against, and I think that will bring success to my game,” and he mostly achieved that against the Flyers.
Thursday’s game against Toronto didn’t go quite as smoothly, and it ended for Reinbacher after just 17:40 of ice time.
This was after Noah Dobson, the prized off-season acquisition of the Canadiens, left late in the second period with a groin injury, and after Kaiden Guhle was scratched from the lineup with one of his own.
Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis was unconcerned about those two, saying after the 7-2 loss to Toronto, “I don’t think it’s serious stuff, so I’m not too worried about it.”
But Canadiens management is probably a mix of relieved and concerned about Reinbacher’s status.
On one hand, it won’t set him back as long as his last injury did. On the other, it will set him back.
It’s one more delay for Reinbacher — this one coming in a crucial year, over which there was hope he’d take his first NHL strides and pick up the type of valuable experience that would enable him to begin proving he’s a key member of the Canadiens’ core.
There’s hope that will still happen, but not before another injury rehabilitation and another challenging return-to-play that will force Reinbacher to play catch-up.
The good news for him is he won’t have to play any more pre-season games against the Maple Leafs.
