Canadiens: Can Dach Get Back on Track?

Kirby Dach's season was brutally interrupted before it even really started last season, this year, the Habs' brass will be hoping he hits the ground running.

Kirby Dach was poised to have a solid season in his second campaign with the Montreal Canadiens. He was one of the best players during training camp and was developing an interesting chemistry with linemates Juraj Slafvkosky and Alex Newhook. In the first game of the regular season, he had notched two assists in a 6-5 shootout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs but then, he met Jared Tinordi. 

The former Canadiens' first-round pick lined him up and rocked him into the Chicago Blackhawks' bench. Little did he know, he had just benched him for the whole season. The verdict fell a few days later, anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligament tears in Dach's right knee necessitating season-ending surgery. Just like that, his season had ended almost before it started. 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcuJ9u0C_NI[/embed]

The road to rehabilitation wasn't short, but the Canadiens made sure to keep him around the team as much as possible. Making him take part in coaches meetings to study game video in order to ensure he kept making reads on play. He was often spotted on the Habs bench at practice joking with his teammates. 

Now that it's all behind him, Dach will be able to pick up right where he left off or at least, that's the hope. Both Dach and Newhook could realistically expect to pass the 100-career point mark last season. The latter did it in the last game of the year while the former's milestone watch was frozen in time, stuck on 99 for what seemed like forever.

When he plays his first game this upcoming season, Dach should and will be hungry. Hungry for offensive production, hungry for in-game action and eager to stay healthy. His injury issues didn't start in Montreal, he had to deal with plenty of them before he even set foot in town, but the way Canadiens have been dropping like flies over the last two seasons can't be very reassuring for the big center.

Hopefully, he'll be able to turn over a new leaf in October and picking up his 100th career point would be a wonderful way to go about it. Chances are he won't be reunited with Slafkovsky any time soon, the young Slovak has found himself a home on the Canadiens' first-line alongside captain Nick Suzuki and sniper Cole Caufield. 

No point worrying about that now though, if I was a betting woman I'd put my money on a Dach-Newhook duo completed by either Josh Anderson (if the coaches want to give him the best chance of bouncing back) or Joshua Roy (if they really want to see what the youngster can do in a real top-six role).

Whatever happens linemates-wise though, each and everyone of the Canadiens' players will be rooting for Dach to hit the ground running and get back on the development course he was on.

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