The Montreal Canadiens will begin the playoffs with a significant gap on their blue line.
Defenceman Noah Dobson will probably be re-evaluated in two weeks after struggling an upper-body damage in Saturday’s 5-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. That guidelines him out for not less than the opening stretch of the post-season.
The Canadiens introduced the information Sunday after Dobson blocked a Zach Werenski slap shot together with his left hand within the second interval and didn’t return.
“It sucks, we’re fearful about him for certain and he’s such a giant a part of our crew,” defenceman Lane Hutson stated after the sport. “He performs large minutes for us, performs towards the highest competitors, shuts down some actually high-end gamers on the opposite facet and pitches in fairly good offensively, too. He does all of it for us.
“Quite a lot of the little issues he does go unnoticed, however not by our group.”
Dobson has averaged the third-most ice time (22:29) on the playoff-bound Canadiens, behind Mike Matheson and Hutson.
The 26-year-old from Summerside, P.E.I., has 12 objectives and 35 assists in 80 video games this season, his first in Montreal after being acquired from the New York Islanders final summer time and signing an eight-year, US$76-million extension.
Usually tasked with the hardest assignments alongside Matheson, the six-foot-four, 200-pound defenceman additionally leads the NHL in blocked photographs, recording his 188th on the play that finally sidelined him.
“He performs large minutes, nice on breakout, transition, he sort of can do all of it,” coach Martin St. Louis stated. “I used to be stunned that he leads the league in blocked photographs, which was one other component, so he brings so much.”
In a corresponding transfer, the Canadiens recalled defenceman David Reinbacher from the American Hockey League’s Laval Rocket forward of Sunday’s highway recreation towards the Islanders.
A fifth total draft choose in 2023, Reinbacher is plus-18 with 5 objectives and 19 assists by way of 57 AHL video games this season, discovering his kind after lacking many of the 2024-25 marketing campaign with a knee damage.
The 21-year-old Austrian, but to make his NHL debut, is the one wholesome right-shot defenceman on the Canadiens roster with Alexandre Provider additionally dominated out for 2 to 4 weeks with an upper-body damage March 31.
Kaiden Guhle, a left-shot defenceman, has additionally missed three straight video games for “upkeep,” the crew stated.
Montreal sat third within the Atlantic Division with two video games remaining within the common season heading into Sunday’s motion. The Stanley Cup playoffs are scheduled to start subsequent Saturday.