The Montreal Canadiens are about to start the playoffs with a big hole in their defense and that promises to be quite a challenge for Martin St-Louis and his staff.
The Montreal Canadiens have had an exceptional season, whichever way you look at it. Getting 106 points, so early in a rebuilding process, and qualifying for the playoffs two years in a row is nothing short of exceptional. While Martin St-Louis and his staff accomplished tremendous work, there’s another factor that helped the Habs along the way: their core players remained healthy. Nick Suzuki didn’t miss a single game, just like Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov, and Lane Hutson. Cole Caufield only missed one, Mike Matheson three, and Noah Dobson none, until Sunday.
Unfortunately, nobody is immune to the injury bug, and it finally caught up with the Habs at the worst of times. Just when the Canadiens managed to turn one of their weakness, their goaltending, into a position of strength by putting all their chips on Jakub Dobes and Jacob Fowler, their defense was attacked by the Injury Ninja. First, Alex Carrier went down to an upper-body injury, and the Habs announced he would be out for two to four weeks. Then, on Saturday, Dobson, who leads the NHL in blocked shots, appeared to block one with the inside of his hands, and unsurprisingly, also went down to an upper-body injury. At this stage, there is no set timetable for his return; the Canadiens only said that he will be reevaluated in two weeks. Thankfully, Kaiden Guhle was able to return to action on Sunday.
But that still leaves St-Louis in quite a pickle. Both injured blueliners are right shots, the Canadiens’ only two right-shot defensemen. As a result, Montreal called up David Reinbacher, who was thrown into the deep end with no safety vest for his NHL debut, with the team playing very high-stakes hockey, fighting for home-ice advantage in the playoffs. The youngster responded very well in the limited ice time he received; he played 11 minutes and change and even got his first point, but clearly, the coaching staff was shielding him and not putting him in the tougher situations.
The intensity is only going to go up from here, though, with the playoffs right around the corner, and while it looked like Carrier might have struggled to get his spot back on the roster when everyone was healthy, the Habs need him to return as soon as possible. Having three left-shot blueliners play on their off-side is not a winning formula.
As things stand, Guhle is playing alongside Mike Matheson, Hutson is playing on the right with Jayden Struble on the left, and Reinbacher is playing on the right alongside Arber Xhekaj. At least those were the combinations on Sunday, and they are likely to stick for the last game of the season since Carrier didn’t make the trip with the team.
When Carrier is ready to return, the coaching staff will need to reassess. Do you take out Reinbacher because of his lack of experience and pair Carrier with Xhekaj? That has not been a winning formula in the past. Do you keep the rookie in? Then you still need someone to play on their off-side, and you have to take for granted that Reinbacher is not ready for top-pairing duty. But Carrier shouldn’t be on the top pairing either, and nor should he play with Hutson, as that would make for one very undersized pairing.
For now, at least, Guhle seems to be the most suited to play alongside Matheson. Since Carrier with Hutson wouldn’t be a pairing cut out for the playoffs, that probably means Struble stays in the lineup, which would lead to Carrier playing on the third pairing with either Xhekaj, Adam Engstrom or Reinbacher. If it’s the latter, it means that one of the two defensemen must play on his off-side. Engstrom’s last three games haven’t been all that convincing…
Whichever way you look at it, this is quite a headache for St-Louis and his staff. Dobson has been playing such an important role for this team that he’s going to be incredibly hard to replace, especially if it turns out to be lengthy.
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