{"id":598947,"date":"2026-04-12T10:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T10:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/598947\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T10:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T10:59:12","slug":"canadiens-concerned-about-dobson-injury-ahead-of-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/598947\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadiens concerned about Dobson injury ahead of playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

And no, we\u2019re not referring to the 5-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets in the last regular-season game at the Bell Centre. We\u2019re talking about Noah Dobson<\/a> leaving a little over halfway through the game with an apparent thumb injury caused by blocking his NHL-leading 188th shot.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sucks,\u201d said Lane Hutson after the other half of the game played out rather predictably \u2014 with the Canadiens scrambling to catch up after spotting Columbus a 4-1 lead \u2014 and he was right about that.<\/p>\n

Perhaps more than some people know.<\/p>\n

Despite Dobson being the Canadiens’ highest-paid player, the extent to which he\u2019s played a dominant role for them has gone relatively under the radar.<\/p>\n

At least it has outside of the Canadiens room.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the little things he does goes unnoticed, but not by our group,\u201d said Hutson. \u201cHe 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\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Now there\u2019s fear that Dobson won\u2019t be able to do anything in games that\u2019ll mean much more than this one did.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t 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\u2019ve made the math nearly impossible for them to overcome with two games to play.<\/p>\n

The Canadiens weren\u2019t likely to match the Blue Jackets’ will in this one, and they didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a good game for us,\u201d said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis.<\/p>\n

He knows it was a worse night because of Dobson\u2019s injury.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t even give a reason Dobson wouldn\u2019t return in the third period.<\/p>\n

It was obvious enough, though \u2014 even right as the 26-year-old skated off the ice with trainer and doctor in tow.<\/p>\n

What we saw from the Canadiens from that point on wasn\u2019t all that reassuring. Especially on defence, where they were understandably hampered.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you lose a righty and don\u2019t have any left,\u201d said St. Louis, \u201cit makes it a harder challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s been in his place ever since and has performed reasonably well, but also within his limits.<\/p>\n

That was the case again Saturday, in a game that saw Xhekaj skate a season-high 19:44.<\/p>\n

St. Louis said Xhekaj had \u201ca lot of good minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t have to say Xhekaj had a few rough seconds \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

That would\u2019ve been counterproductive, anyway, knowing Xhekaj will become more important than he\u2019s been all season from this point forward.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

And Kaiden Guhle, who missed the last three games for \u201cmaintenance,\u201d will likely step back in for Sunday\u2019s game in New York, against the Islanders.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

While the Canadiens haven\u2019t confirmed he\u2019s been recalled yet, he\u2019s the most qualified right-hander to join them from the AHL\u2019s 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\u2019t hurt to see just how ready he is to play at this level.<\/p>\n

No one expects Reinbacher, or anyone else, to replace Dobson.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s much more than just that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe plays big minutes, great on breakout, transition, o-zone,\u201d said St. Louis. \u201cHe can do it all. I was surprised that he leads the league in blocked shots, so that\u2019s another thing. He brings a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s played close to 23 minutes a game, usually against the opposition\u2019s best players, and he\u2019s posted 12 goals, 47 points, and a plus-five rating.<\/p>\n

Game 80 of Dobson\u2019s season was meant to be his long-anticipated return to Long Island. Unfortunately, he won\u2019t play it.<\/p>\n

Even more unfortunately, Dobson could be sidelined for Game 83.<\/p>\n

Not the kind of player you want to lose.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re worried about him for sure,\u201d Hutson said. \u201cSuch a big part of our team, so hopefully nothing crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And no, we\u2019re not referring to the 5-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets in the last regular-season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-598947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}