David Reinbacher won’t be playing tonight

Since Reinbacher wouldn't have played for the Rocket until Friday anyway, this means he's making a pointless trip to Washington—without losing any playing time with the team. And it also increases the amount of his next paycheck.

Good for him.

The Canadiens also announced that Mike Matheson is still being evaluated on a day-to-day basis. This obviously comes as no surprise to our regular readers, of course.

We didn't expect to see him play tonight.

We suspect the Habs needed a healthy seventh defenseman in the medium term anyway, which also explains Reinbacher's recall this morning.

But if the Habs—who could very well have brought just six defensemen for a short 24-hour trip to the U.S.—chose to bring a defenseman “just in case” as early as today, it might mean there's something else going on.

Is Noah Dobson, who took a puck to the face yesterday, someone to keep an eye on? Perhaps.

We'll see in due time how Martin St-Louis manages his defensemen. But clearly, he won't want to keep the Austrian in the stands for too long.

In a nutshell

– Makes sense.

– Hehe. #FrenchConnection

– Excellent point.

– He's doing better than his team.