The Canadiens have announced that defenceman David Reinbacher had surgery on his left knee Tuesday morning and that his rehabilitation period is expected to be 5-6 months.
Reinbacher was injured in the first minute of Saturday night’s 2-1 pre-season loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre when he was checked into the boards in front of the Montreal bench and twisted his left knee while falling awkwardly. Reinbacher, the No. 5 overall pick at last year’s NHL Draft, was expected to start this season with the AHL’s Laval Rocket.
As of Tuesday at noon, the Canadiens still hadn’t provided an update on the injury forward Patrik Laine suffered less than five minutes into Saturday night’s game.
Laine was injured when the Canadiens were on a power play and he made a move at the blue line while entering the offensive zone. The Leafs’ Cédric Paré stuck out his left knee while trying to stop Laine, resulting in a knee-on-knee collision. Laine fell to the ice clutching his left knee and had to be helped off the ice, unable to put any weight on his left leg.
Laine watched the Canadiens practise Monday at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard while on crutches with a brace on his left knee.
During an appearance Monday on The Sick Podcast — the Eye Test with Pierre McGuire and Jimmy Murphy, Canadiens executive vice-president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton said it could be a few days before injury updates would be provided on Reinbacher and Laine.
“These kind of things, we have more than one opinion,” Gorton said. “We’ll send out for reports. I would hope in the next few days we’d have some more information. But it’s a little too early to kind of come out with what’s going on. We’ll take all the time we need, we’ll get these guys to the right doctors and then we’ll have something.”
The question now remains how long will Laine be sidelined?
Injuries have haunted the Canadiens for the last three seasons. During the 2021-22 season, the Canadiens lost an NHL-record 720 man-games to injury, then broke that record in 2022-23 when they lost 751 man-games to injury. Last season, the Canadiens lost forward Kirby Dach in the second game of the regular season when he suffered a season-ending knee injury that required surgery.
The day before the Canadiens hit the ice for the first time at training camp this month, defenceman Kaiden Guhle had surgery to have his appendix removed.
“It’s frustrating for the players, too,” Gorton said on the podcast about the injuries to Laine and Reinbacher. “You’re out there and you’re watching what’s going on Saturday night and it’s only natural — I was going through it, too — it’s only natural for players to be like, ‘Here we go again.’ So you’re just trying to stay as positive as you can and understand that most teams are going through something and injuries are going to be part of the game and we’re all crossing our fingers that at the end of the day when we get the final results on these injuries it’s not as bad as we think it could be.”
When asked on the podcast if there were any other disappointments so far at training camp, Gorton said: “Just this weekend the injuries that we had … but no, other than that it’s been good. The guys, the returning players, are all dialled in to having a good year and they know it’s a big year for them and ourselves. Everybody’s on the same page and Marty’s run a really good camp. Things are moving in the right direction.
“We got to get over this injury bug that seems to be following us around,” Gorton added. “But other than that it’s all good.”
On Tuesday morning, the Canadiens announced they have recalled forwards Lucas Condotta and Luke Tuch from the Rocket ahead of a pre-season game against the Ottawa Senators at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., TSN2, TSN5, RDS).
The Canadiens have a practise scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard before heading to Mont-Tremblant, where they will practise Thursday and Friday ahead of their final pre-season game Saturday against the Senators in Ottawa (7 p.m., TSN5, RDS).
The Canadiens will open the regular season next Wednesday against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., SN, TVA Sports).