After David Reinbacher made his home debut with the Laval Rocket on Friday night, a 2-1 win against the Belleville Senators, his defence partner, Tobie Bisson, addressed the media.
Once he was done answering questions in French, I asked him three questions in English about Reinbacher, how he’s playing, how he’s adapting and how many questions he asks on the bench.
In all three answers, Bisson mentioned how smart of a defenceman Reinbacher is. None of the questions were specifically about his intelligence, but Bisson went there anyway, all on his own.
Here’s the last part of answer No. 1:
“I think he showed up every single game, made really good plays,” Bisson said. “He’s really fun to play with, he talks a lot, he doesn’t try to do too much. He’s a really smart defenceman. For a young guy, I’m really surprised about his game.”
Here’s answer No. 2, about his ability to adapt:
“I feel like he makes quick plays,” Bisson said. “Usually guys, when they come back from Europe, they have so much time on the big ice that when they come here, they’re surprised about having guys in their face. He told me about it, how you don’t have that much time with the puck, but to be honest, he’s quick to the puck, he makes really fast plays, simple plays. When it’s time to skate up, he takes his ice. He’s a really smart defenceman.”
And, finally, part of answer No. 3 on the questions Reinbacher asks on the bench or in the dressing room:
“Yeah, a lot of questions,” Bisson said. “Today was the biggest day, he’s kind of starting to feel how the team’s going, how the coaches coach, how we rotate. But to be honest, they’re really good questions. He’s a really good kid. You can see he’s a smart defenceman. For a young guy, not scared to be physical.”
To start your North American professional career with six games in nine days in the heat of a playoff race, Reinbacher has impressed more people than just Bisson. Two NHL pro scouts we consulted about Reinbacher’s game were extremely impressed with his ability to move the puck and make quick decisions. And his coach, Jean-François Houle, as big of a straight shooter coach as you will find, was effusive in his praise for Reinbacher after the Rocket game Friday, especially when it came to his ability to absorb information and apply it on the ice.
“A-1, excellent,” Houle said. “He’s a quick learner. We’ve talked about a few structure things, and right away he knew. Outlet passes that are supposed to be there, he knows they’re there and he’s passing the puck hard. His adaptation to our team and the structure has been excellent.”
There are three plays Reinbacher made in his home debut Friday that we’ve isolated because of what they say about his future with the Montreal Canadiens.
Moving the puck under pressure
Prior to facing the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis was talking about their high-pressure style and noted he feels it’s the direction the NHL is moving toward — eliminating time and space with intense, aggressive forechecking. The way the Hurricanes do it, playing a lot of dump-and-chase, puts a lot of pressure on defencemen to retrieve pucks and get them moving north with very little time to execute plays.
“A lot of young players, they want the puck on their stick,” St. Louis said. “You get to this level, and the game is played without the puck. If you have the puck on your stick a lot, you’re probably leaving a lot of other stuff out there and you’re probably exposing yourself to more hits, exposing yourself to more turnovers. But that’s why the collective game is so important, so that the puck does the work. The puck travels much faster.
“The puck beats pressure way more than the player.”
This is how Reinbacher beats pressure. He lets the puck do the work, and he does not have a dying need to have the puck on his stick.
Watch this play midway through the second period Friday where Reinbacher initially gets beat on a zone entry (we’ll get to that) but recovers well, moves the puck under pressure and the Rocket score what winds up being the game-winning goal on a two-on-one.
What’s important to look at there is the moment when Reinbacher began scanning the ice to see what his options would be if he wound up with the puck. It came long before he got the puck. In fact, it came before the Senators had even lost the puck. It happened here, as Reinbacher looks behind him while Jacob Larsson is still handling the puck in the corner.
This is something Reinbacher does regularly. Houle mentioned after the game how the Rocket’s zone exits have improved since Reinbacher arrived, and according to their own internal data, that checks out. The Rocket’s success rate on zone exits off dump-in retrievals is up since Reinbacher arrived, and their defensive zone giveaway rate is down.
The puck beats pressure.
Zone entry denials
This is another metric that’s improved since Reinbacher arrived in Laval, and this is why.
Reinbacher’s ability to identify and attack a zone entry attempt, whether it’s in the neutral zone or, as it is here, in the defensive zone, also takes intelligence. Decisiveness is a skill, and Reinbacher has it.
Also, the player Reinbacher cut off there is Zack Ostapchuk, 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds, and he pinned him against the boards very effectively, something he did a couple more times in that game.
“For a young guy he’s doing well, and the small ice doesn’t seem to be affecting him too much,” Houle said. “And I like that he goes in the corners. That’s very, very important for a young defenceman, to show you can play physical.”
Keeping it simple
When Reinbacher went back to Switzerland after being cut at Canadiens training camp, he admitted he felt a need to prove the Canadiens right for drafting him at No. 5, doing things on the ice with EHC Kloten that were uncharacteristic and, ultimately, mistake-prone.
It took a visit from Canadiens director of player development Rob Ramage to show him video of Shea Weber to prove to Reinbacher that playing a simple game is a path to NHL stardom.
Playing in his first home game in Laval, it would have been tempting for Reinbacher to have those same thoughts, to want to prove to the fans in attendance and those watching at home on television the extent of his talent, his game-breaking abilities, his No. 5 pick worthiness. But he didn’t do that. He played within himself.
When asked after the game what adjustments he had to make from how he plays in Switzerland, this is what Reinbacher focused on. His experience in Kloten was valuable in this sense, despite all the losing and coaching changes and chaos.
“It’s the simple plays you’ve got to do,” Reinbacher said. “Pick your guy. Good sticks in D-zone. Pin it. Do a quick pass. Inside of chip-ins, you’ve got to retrieve the puck really well. That’s all. Just do the simple things and be ready for it.”
That is music to Houle’s ears.
“First stick you see, you make the pass. Jump up in the play at the right moments. When you’re asked to play physical, or get a stick on a puck, he did it several times tonight,” Houle said Friday. “Keep it simple. You don’t need to be flashy.
“The good defencemen in the NHL are not flashy.”
David Reinbacher kicked off his North American professional career with six games in nine days. (Rocket de Laval)
When should Reinbacher make the jump?
One of the pro scouts we spoke to about Reinbacher felt he would benefit from starting next season in the AHL. Another felt he would have no problem having Reinbacher on the opening night roster in the NHL next season. The Canadiens will have to make that decision in training camp, one where Reinbacher will benefit from having a normal offseason of preparation as opposed to the draft-year circus he went through last year.
But something else St. Louis said about facing the pressure of the Hurricanes made us wonder if Reinbacher would not benefit all that much from more time in the AHL. To be clear, St. Louis was not asked about Reinbacher here, but more generally about young defencemen and their ability to face the kind of pressure the Hurricanes apply.
But it’s not hard to see how this answer might apply to Reinbacher next fall.
“You can have all the abilities, but if you don’t understand that you’re under pressure, your abilities don’t matter,” St. Louis said. “To me, it’s how you process the game. But you’ll never experience this kind of pressure until you get here. I don’t care what level you play, you’ll never get forechecked consistently until you get to this level at that kind of pace. So you can have guys that look really good in time and space, but they’re never able to figure out how to play under pressure. But you have to give them the tools, the opportunity, the teaching a little bit. Because to play versus pressure, it’s not one guy. You need five guys as part of the equation, and that takes time. But obviously, the puckhandling, picking up pucks off the wall, the feet and courage, right? Because guys are coming hard, so it takes some courage to take some hits to make plays sometimes without totally exposing yourself. So there’s so many things that come into play that need to be taught a little bit, but it needs to be felt.
“You have to be in that environment and see a player in that environment.”
The Canadiens have time before having to make this decision. They hope to have evaluation time in the AHL playoffs to see how Reinbacher responds to that environment, and they have development camp in July, rookie camp and training camp. But for Reinbacher to learn how to perform in an environment that only exists in the NHL, it’s at least possible, based on that answer, that the NHL would be the best place for him to do that.
Nick Suzuki celebrates a goal with Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovský. Will all three play in the world championships this spring? (Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
The world championships and how they impact the Olympics
Our Michael Russo published a piece last week on Minnesota Wild and Team USA general manager Bill Guerin saying players who want to play for the United States in the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament next year and the Olympics in 2026 would be wise not to turn down an invitation to play in the IIHF World Championship in Czechia this spring.
Cole Caufield had not seen the story. So, when asked Saturday morning whether he would be interested in playing in the worlds after the Canadiens’ season is done, he was somewhat non-committal.
“It’s in the back of my mind,” he said. “Let’s finish the season here and we’ll see.”
When told of Guerin’s comments, however, Caufield’s stance changed somewhat.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Caufield said of playing in the world championships. “Maybe this year is the year.”
Caufield has never really had an opportunity to go to the worlds; he was recovering from shoulder surgery last year and hadn’t been invited in years prior. But it was interesting how quickly his mindset changed once he heard about Guerin’s comments.
The 2026 Olympics have that kind of power, and Caufield is definitely on the bubble to make that roster.
The same could be said of Nick Suzuki, and the same question was asked of him after the Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night. He had said last Monday in Seattle that the Canadian Olympic team was something he thought about a lot, that it was a goal of his, as it would be for any player.
But when told Thursday that in that same Russo article, Team Canada GM Doug Armstrong expressed a similar sentiment as Guerin, that playing in the world championships would not hurt players in Suzuki’s position, he still did not seem all that enthused about going.
“I don’t know, that’s a hard question,” Suzuki said. “Olympics are two years after.”
But the 4 Nations is next year, and the team selected to go there will surely have an influence on who is selected to go to Italy in 2026, and this year’s world championships is the last international tournament before the 4 Nations.
“If I feel like if I need to go to prove myself, I can go to the (world championships) tournament,” Suzuki said. “I think a lot of the scouting of the players, we play against the top talent in the whole world here (in the NHL). It’s hard to say … There’s guys that are pretty much locks. Yeah, it’s tough. I haven’t made my decision.”
Juraj Slafkovský has said he would like to represent Slovakia at the event — their pool in Ostrava is roughly a four-hour drive from his hometown of Košice — and Kaiden Guhle was emphatic in his desire to play for Canada, while Sam Montembeault was non-committal when asked in Edmonton last week.
The world championships start May 10, or a little over three weeks after the Canadiens season will end April 16. Prep time would come even sooner.
If the Olympics are as important to Suzuki and Caufield as they say they are, they would be wise to reply in the affirmative when their country comes calling this spring.
Proficiency in the faceoff circle
The Canadiens, prior to Monday night’s games, were eighth in the NHL in faceoff percentage at 52.1 percent. The last time they finished top 10 in the league was 2014-15, when they were fourth, also at 52.1 percent.
Alex Newhook has been a big part of that, winning 52.3 percent of his draws since returning from his high ankle sprain on Feb. 10. But overall, what’s been weird about this improvement is the Canadiens traded away their beast faceoff guy, Sean Monahan, on Feb. 2. Since then, the Canadiens are still at 50.2 percent, which is 17th in the league over that span but has been good enough to crater their overall percentage on the season.
What’s also weird about it is the Canadiens almost never work on faceoffs in practice. It used to be a regular element after any practice to have the centres gather around one of the dots with Alexandre Burrows and do faceoff work. We never see that anymore.
“We talk about it, we watch video on it,” Newhook said. “That’s probably the biggest way you can learn, video, see how you get beat and see how you’re beating guys and come up with new ways to be reliable in there.”
Newhook, Jake Evans and Suzuki will also spend time talking about it during games to understand how the linesmen are operating and how their opponents are doing things.
“I think we just chat about it,” Evans said. “Even in intermissions sometimes, the linesmen’s timings are different, sometimes certain guys are doing certain things that might be working. So we chat about it, Nick and I, too. If I see Nick is doing really well, I’ll ask him what’s going on. Same with Newy, too.”
Juraj Slafkovský celebrates with Kaiden Guhle after scoring against the Blackhawks. (Kamil Krzaczynski / USA Today)
Another little taste of Slafkovský’s sense of humour
We already gave you a little nibble of how funny Slafkovský can be in interviews, but he had a couple of other moments that are worth sharing.
After the game against the Flyers last Thursday, Slafkovský came to his locker for interviews while Suzuki had a full media scrum going on. Before the mass arrived, we pointed out to Slafkovský how many tap-in goals he has set up for Suzuki this season, just after he set up Suzuki for his 30th goal of the season on a tap-in.
“So, he’s got 30 now?” Slafkovský said. “So, around 15?”
When it was pointed out he’s set up several more that didn’t go in, Slafkovský turned to the Suzuki media scrum.
“Suzy, you can’t miss!” he yelled. “He could have 40 right now.”
And then, on Saturday morning, Slafkovský was asked if he felt any different celebrating his 20th birthday. He immediately went into performance mode.
“I woke up and my back is more sore, both knees,” he said, before beaming a big smile. “But, here I am.”
Slafkovský really is made to play in this market. His personality is perfect for it.
(Top photo of David Reinbacher: Rocket de Laval)
