Reinbacher’s return to Canadiens practice a key step in redeeming lost development time

BROSSARD, Que.— Nobody loves practice, but we can guarantee you that David Reinbacher was elated to be participating in one with the Montreal Canadiens on Monday.

There was concern this would be a lost season for the defenceman, who was taken fifth overall in the 2023 NHL Draft. It appeared to be confirmed when he was told it would take five-to-six months to recover from knee surgery on Oct. 1.

But Reinbacher’s graduation from solo skates over the last 14 days to practice on Monday — less than four months after his pre-season collision with Toronto’s Marshall Rifai put him under the knife — put an end to his delay in development.

There are no guarantees the 20-year-old will get into games with the Canadiens before the end of February, but what he’ll get out of these skates between now and then will enable him to regain footing in his progression. And you could tell what that means to him just by watching him go through this first one on Monday.

Brendan Gallagher, who’s fought through his fair share of long-term injuries over 12 years in the NHL, summarized it well.

“He’s been around all year,” Gallagher said. “But for him, mentally, it’s a big day…”

You can only imagine what Reinbacher’s mental state was after his dream of starting his NHL career was halted in such dramatic fashion.

To go from ramping up to needing a ramp is a terrible feeling.

Patrik Laine knows it. He and Reinbacher were both wheeled out of the Bell Centre within minutes of each other during that game in late September, and they were both stuck on crutches for weeks afterward.

“It’s a terrible feeling,” Laine said. “Arms definitely get tired, but it’s not ideal (mentally or physically). He had the crutches longer than I did, so for him it sucked even more. It just makes everything harder. I think he was, at times, by himself, so trying to get groceries or do anything that you need your legs for is impossible. Crutches everywhere is not easy.

“But I think he handled it really well and stayed positive the whole way.”

The Canadiens helped Reinbacher get through it, too.

Juraj Slafkovsky said the players included him in all team dinners in Montreal. And the coaches have included Reinbacher in team meetings and video meetings like they had done for all players who had suffered long-term injuries over the past couple of seasons.

Nothing beats getting back on the ice with the team, though.

“It gives you some sort of purpose and a way to contribute somehow,” said Laine, “but nothing replaces doing that. Still have to experience it on the ice and make those reads.”

Waiting at least another couple of weeks to do it was the original prescription for Reinbacher, but he has to be thrilled to be ahead of schedule.

At least two other Canadiens happy there was practice on Monday

One would be Martin St. Louis, who hadn’t been able to run a normal practice since two Mondays ago in Utah.

The head coach of the Canadiens said last Wednesday’s skate “felt like a youth hockey practice” after five players were held out of for treatment, and he acknowledged the lack of time to refine things on the ice rather than exclusively in the video room hurt the team in losses to the Detroit Red Wings and New Jersey Devils that followed.

So yeah, St. Louis was happy to get the Canadiens back out there to work on specific details that began slipping even before those losses to Detroit and New Jersey.

That’s really what practice is about — the finer details of the game — and one of them was addressed before it officially got underway.

That’s when all Canadiens’ centres stepped on the ice with the other guy who was happiest there was practice on Monday: Former Canadien Marc Bureau.

He was initially brought on as a consultant but, as Marc-Antoine Godin of Radio Canada reported a little over two weeks ago, he’s since been hired as a full-time employee to work with players in Laval and Montreal on faceoffs.

It was a little over two weeks ago that we ran into Bureau in the Canadiens’ press box and asked him about the improvements being seen in the dot. He noted they were evident since he first stepped on the ice with the team on Nov. 4, and that was supported by the numbers.

Prior to that date, the Canadiens ranked 25th in the NHL in faceoffs. But from Nov. 4 to Jan. 10, they ticked up to 15th in the league.

Still, when we spoke to Bureau on Jan. 11, after the Canadiens won just under 50 per cent of their draws in a 3-2 win over the Washington Capitals a night prior, he said he was looking forward to an opportunity to get back on the ice with the centres so he could help them avoid slipping in the category.

“It’s been a month,” Bureau said.

It would be another 16 days of Bureau exclusively working with the centres through video and conversation, and in between then and Monday’s practice Montreal’s efficiency in the dot dropped by 1.2 per cent.

Even if that’s a very slim margin, games at this level are won and lost on such marginal things.

“It plays a huge factor in the game,” said Jake Evans, who’s won 51.5 per cent of his 664 draws this season. “He was telling us the last couple of games we’ve been under 50 (per cent), and we lose those games. It’s not (necessarily) a direct correlation but does have a pretty big impact on helping us win.”

So working on it with an expert like Bureau matters.

Evans felt the reps were valuable after he won just nine of 20 faceoffs and was scored on after losing one in Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the Devils.

So did Alex Newhook, who is looking for all the help he can get in the department after only winning 132 of the 310 faceoffs he’s taken so far this season.

Newhook has also taken other things from the discussions he’s had with Bureau.

“One thing he’s pretty adamant about that maybe I didn’t think was as important before is going backhand regardless of whether you’re on your strong side or off-side.” he said.

Even if Newhook brought up Sidney Crosby as a counter to that, he said he saw always going backhand as logically taking advantage of leverage you have in that position.

“But the most important thing is figuring out which technique works for you and working on it,” Newhook concluded.

That’s something you mostly do in practice — or right before it, with a guy who was a master of it in the NHL before joining the Canadiens’ staff.

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