David Reinbacher ought to attain a milestone this weekend. The Laval Rocket defenceman is anticipated to play his twelfth regular-season recreation on Sunday at Hershey.
Though
Reinbacher is sort of two years into his professional profession
, he solely has 44 profession video games — together with playoffs — to his credit score as a result of accidents. He hasn’t performed greater than 11 regular-season video games in any season.
Chosen fifth total by the Canadiens in 2023, the Austrian suffered a severe knee damage that required surgical procedure in an exhibition recreation in opposition to Toronto final season and didn’t return till February. This 12 months, in one other pre-season match in opposition to the Maple Leafs, he
suffered a damaged hand
after blocking a shot.
Reinbacher, 6-foot-3 and 200 kilos, missed 4 weeks, making his AHL debut on Oct. 31 in opposition to Rochester. Reinbacher is coming off a productive weekend in opposition to Belleville. He had a aim and an help final Friday and he scored twice in Laval’s 7-2 victory on on Saturday.
“One or two occasions you suppose, ‘Why is it me?’ ” Reinbacher mentioned this week after observe. “Nevertheless it’s not in your fingers. It’s God’s determination. One door closes and one other opens up. Don’t really feel sorry for your self. Make the perfect of it. Rise up once more.
“I wouldn’t name these setbacks,” added Reinbacher, 21. “For certain, I missed a while, however you study on the opposite facet. You develop as a human. You develop from a child to a person. That was necessary, for certain, for my improvement.”
Reinbacher has three objectives and 7 factors in 10 video games and might anticipate to be counted on closely this weekend and maybe past. Laval’s two-game highway journey begins Saturday night time in opposition to Lehigh Valley, and the crew is with out
Adam Engstrom, who was promoted to the Canadiens
and made his
NHL debut on Wednesday in opposition to Utah
.
Reinbacher is aware of his time with the Canadiens will come as nicely and, as a right-handed shot, will present a helpful commodity on a crew stacked with left-shooting defencemen. However Reinbacher wants to realize expertise and stack some AHL video games. He has been paired with William Trudeau of late.
“I see the massive image,” Reinbacher mentioned. “It’s not a dash. It’s a marathon. You could have a protracted profession, hopefully. I don’t wish to go up there and get despatched down once more. I wish to go up and keep for a protracted, very long time. Go up there and have success with the crew.
“For certain, it’s nonetheless a protracted approach to go. I feel we’re getting there slowly; time will inform. If I proceed to be constant on the ice and have good performances — particularly within the defensive zone — make performs and convey my A recreation, I feel it is going to come sooner reasonably than later. I don’t wish to look too far into the long run. That’s not good for your self.”
Whereas Reinbacher’s knee has totally recovered — he additionally suffered a knee damage initially of the 2023-24 season whereas taking part in within the Swiss League — he admitted on the Canadiens’ coaching camp final September that the damage remained at the back of his thoughts.
Laval head coach
Pascal Vincent
denied the prospect is injury-prone.
“The primary one, he’s making a play and will get hit,” Vincent defined. “He’s keen to take hits to make performs. It was within the impartial zone. The opposite one, he’s blocking a shot. That’s what we ask from all of our gamers. He simply received unfortunate. He’s fairly robust on himself and his physique. It simply occurred that manner. I hope in 5 years, we received’t even bear in mind this.”
There’s little doubt Reinbacher can create offence and it was one of many major causes he was chosen so excessive. Now, he should develop an intensive two-way recreation and change into sound defensively. Reinbacher additionally realizes there will likely be strain to satisfy expectations, however seems mature sufficient to deal with these.
Vincent mentioned Reinbacher is clever and straightforward to educate.
“He will get the expectations,” Vincent mentioned. “Now we have to depart that on the facet and look the place we’re at in the present day, contemplating what he has been via. If we wish to choose any individual, we’d as nicely have all of the details in entrance of us so we are able to have an actual clear, trustworthy analysis. He has been injured for nearly a full 12 months. And he’s a younger participant adapting to North America.
“The final recreation, he scored two objectives. That’s fairly good, for my part. And he’s getting higher. Let’s give him video games earlier than we are able to really consider him. I don’t wish to put a timetable on it.”
hzurkowsky@postmedia.com
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