MONTREAL — This was the last thing the Montreal Canadiens were hoping for.
And no, we’re not referring to the 5-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets in the last regular-season game at the Bell Centre. We’re talking about Noah Dobson leaving a little over halfway through the game with an apparent thumb injury caused by blocking his NHL-leading 188th shot.
The only worse sight was seeing the Canadiens’ trainer follow Dobson down the tunnel to the dressing room and then doubling back to grab one of the doctors from the bench.
“It sucks,” said Lane Hutson after the other half of the game played out rather predictably — with the Canadiens scrambling to catch up after spotting Columbus a 4-1 lead — and he was right about that.
Perhaps more than some people know.
Despite Dobson being the Canadiens’ highest-paid player, the extent to which he’s played a dominant role for them has gone relatively under the radar.
At least it has outside of the Canadiens room.
“A lot of the little things he does goes unnoticed, but not by our group,” said Hutson. “He plays big minutes for us, plays against the top competition, shuts down some really high-end players for us on the other side, and pitches in pretty good offensively too. He does it all for us…”
Now there’s fear that Dobson won’t be able to do anything in games that’ll mean much more than this one did.
It wasn’t quite life and death for the Blue Jackets, but they had to play like it was. They came into the night with their path to a wild-card position in the Eastern Conference blocked, down four points to the Philadelphia Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division, and a loss would’ve made the math nearly impossible for them to overcome with two games to play.
The Canadiens weren’t likely to match the Blue Jackets’ will in this one, and they didn’t in the end. Even with ground to be gained in the race to the top of the Atlantic Division, the urge to sprint never quite kicked in.
“It wasn’t a good game for us,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis.
He knows it was a worse night because of Dobson’s injury.
Of course, at this juncture of the season, with the playoffs just days away, there was no status update post-game. Heck, the Canadiens didn’t even give a reason Dobson wouldn’t return in the third period.
It was obvious enough, though — even right as the 26-year-old skated off the ice with trainer and doctor in tow.
What we saw from the Canadiens from that point on wasn’t all that reassuring. Especially on defence, where they were understandably hampered.
“Once you lose a righty and don’t have any left,” said St. Louis, “it makes it a harder challenge.”
Righty Alex Carrier last played seven games ago, when he suffered an upper-body injury for which he was given a two-to-four-week recovery timeline. Lefty Arber Xhekaj’s been in his place ever since and has performed reasonably well, but also within his limits.
That was the case again Saturday, in a game that saw Xhekaj skate a season-high 19:44.
St. Louis said Xhekaj had “a lot of good minutes.”
He didn’t have to say Xhekaj had a few rough seconds — particularly when the 25-year-old needlessly iced the puck before giving it away on a disastrous second-period sequence that led to an Oliver Kapanen penalty.
That would’ve been counterproductive, anyway, knowing Xhekaj will become more important than he’s been all season from this point forward.
Jayden Struble, who jumped ahead of Xhekaj on the depth chart in March, has played the best hockey of his career in April. So, that helps.
And Kaiden Guhle, who missed the last three games for “maintenance,” will likely step back in for Sunday’s game in New York, against the Islanders.
More opportunity knocks for Adam Engstrom, who played 17:21 Saturday and is at least accustomed to playing the right side as a lefty. And some opportunity should be in the offing, too, for David Reinbacher.
While the Canadiens haven’t confirmed he’s been recalled yet, he’s the most qualified right-hander to join them from the AHL’s Laval Rocket. And while they were hoping to let the fifth overall pick in the 2023 Draft the chance to continue developing, after two major injuries stalled his career, it wouldn’t hurt to see just how ready he is to play at this level.
No one expects Reinbacher, or anyone else, to replace Dobson.
He topped out at 70 points in a season with the Islanders and had built up a great profile as an offensive weapon before being traded to Montreal last summer, where he immediately signed an eight-year, $76 million contract and started proving he’s much more than just that.
“He plays big minutes, great on breakout, transition, o-zone,” said St. Louis. “He can do it all. I was surprised that he leads the league in blocked shots, so that’s another thing. He brings a lot.”
Dobson has brought it consistently, too, while averaging three times less ice-time on the power-play time and three times more ice-time on the penalty kill than he ever got in New York. He’s played close to 23 minutes a game, usually against the opposition’s best players, and he’s posted 12 goals, 47 points, and a plus-five rating.
Game 80 of Dobson’s season was meant to be his long-anticipated return to Long Island. Unfortunately, he won’t play it.
Even more unfortunately, Dobson could be sidelined for Game 83.
Not the kind of player you want to lose.
“We’re worried about him for sure,” Hutson said. “Such a big part of our team, so hopefully nothing crazy.”
