Canadiens Fall 7-2 to Leafs Amid Dobson, Reinbacher Injury Concerns

After two periods, the best thing the Montreal Canadiens had going for them in their 7-2 preseason loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs was they at least had their health. Then offseason-acquisition Noah Dobson left the game on Thursday in Montreal prematurely, presumably as a precaution, soon followed by fellow-defenseman David Reinbacher.

It was almost a repeat of a similar situation last preseason, when, in a game against the Leafs, both Reinbacher and Patrik Laine, who had been acquired the previous offseason, suffered knee injuries. In this case, the Canadiens lost by a much larger margin, but there is reasonable hope at least both Dobson and Reinbacher will be okay, with head coach Martin St. Louis downplaying the seriousness of their conditions to the media following the game.

Game Recap

It was also Kirby Dach’s debut, after a knee injury ended his second straight season early last season. So, all eyes were ironically on him to see how he held up. He formed a line with Patrik Laine and Ivan Demidov, the latter two connected in impressive fashion early in the second. Demidov fed Laine on the power play to pull the Canadiens within one by a 3-2 score.

The momentum was short-lived, though. Soon thereafter Leafs forward Steven Lorentz scored the first of his two on the night in a span of less than two minutes, when he deflected a Scott Laughton shot home, also on the power play. It was his second just past the halfway mark of the middle frame that truly showed how badly the Canadiens were struggling to keep up with their competition, though. Laughton, who also scored two goals to open the scoring and four total points, again got the puck to Lorentz, who uncontested in front of the net, deflected it past starter Sam Montembeault.