Reinbacher Gaining Momentum In The AHL

Reinbacher is actually just coming off a hot streak that spanned 4 games, where he scored 3 goals and 6 points from November 21st to November 30th. This was the longest point streak of his professional hockey career thus far. While a 4-game point streak isn’t much for many other players, for a defenseman like Reinbacher, who is better known for his defensive abilities, it is still impressive that he was starting to show consistent offence.

The Austrian defenseman may not have recorded a point in the month of December yet, but he has shown great defensive abilities by cutting off plays and just preventing the opposition from getting on the board for the most part. It’s just nice that he has been continuously showing improvement nearly every game since the season started.

The only exception to that may be the last one, where he and the Rocket struggled early on in the game, going down 3-0 in the first period before the offence finally got going. However, for Reinbacher, he wasn’t able to bring much at either end of the ice for the Rocket on Saturday, as he finished -2 with 2 penalty minutes in a 4-3 OT loss. On the other hand, every player can have a down game every now and then; it’s going to be a matter of how he bounces back in the next game to see just how he deals with those off nights.

The positive is that he had been showing signs of elite defence in the previous three games as he shutdown his opposition and helped the forwards on his team create offence with good breakout passes. It makes you wonder just how long it will be until he gets his first taste of NHL action. The continuous improvements to his game make it seem like a call-up could happen this season if he can just manage to stay healthy. If he can stay healthy for another 20 games or so, it may be enough for him to get his game to the level it needs to be before he forces the Habs’ hand to call him up.

After starting the past two seasons with an injury, he has never been able to keep good momentum with his progression. This is why he has not been able to get to the level expected of him yet. Nonetheless, it is looking like it is all falling together slowly.

Reinbacher and the Laval Rocket’s next game will be on Wednesday against the Toronto Marlies. This should be a game where Reinbacher will get to show off his strong presence from the backend yet again.

Are you impressed with Reinbacher’s improvement over the last few weeks?