This pick was not welcome surprise
They’re restless in Montreal. That’s not news, not after what is now a 30year Cup drought for the Canadiens. Remember, Les Glorieux won it five times in their first 30 years, and rattled off a record five straight (1956-60) in what Habs fans considered normal times.
The reaction of the fan base was exceptionally nasty after last month’s decision by Jeff Gorton, Kent Hughes, et al, to use the fifth pick in the draft on
David Reinbacher, a 6-foot-2-inch Austrian-born defenseman out of Switzerland’s top pro league. Let it not be overlooked that the kid literally has CH in his name.
The reaction: David who?!
Actually, it was more emotional than that, but we’re going by old-school Sunday newspaper rules. Habs fans had their minds set on the far more hyped
Matvei Michkov, the Russian right winger who some believe could be the next Kirill Kaprizov (a fifth-round choice in 2015 by the Wild).
Michkov, who might not be able to break his contract in Russia for at least two years, went No. 7 to the Flyers.
Reinbacher, with the size (6-2/185) and game that encouraged the Bruins to select Charlie McAvoy at No. 14 in 2016, got lambasted by Habs fans on social media, in part because he’s unknown, in part because he’s not Michkov, in part because of the aforementioned 30-year drought.
Every draft, unless it’s Connor McDavid at No. 1 to Edmonton in 2015 or even Connor Bedard at No. 1 to Chicago this year, places fans in a position of faith — the trust that a club’s infrastructure of talent assessment knows what it’s doing.
Faith and trust are low in Montreal, albeit only a year removed from the Canadiens delighting most everyone up there by using the No. 1 pick to select
Juraj Slafkovský, the highly touted Slovak left wing. As a rookie, Slafkovský proved that like most 18-year-olds, he’ll need time for his game to grow into its promise. He finished a modest 4-6–10 in 39 games, his season coming to an end in mid-January because of a lowerbody injury.
Nick Bobrov, the former Bruins scout who is now co-director of amateur scouting for the Canadiens, reminded one and all in Nashville that it’s “not a trivial matter” that the Canadiens are trying to create and build a team culture — one they feel Reinbacher fits.
“We all watch the playoffs,” Bobrov added, “and for two months of the year we get reminded of what works and what wins [and] maybe we tend to forget that for 10 months.”
Unlike McAvoy, Reinbacher’s draft profile was low, to the point of being barely existent last summer. But it began to lift during his performance in the World Junior Championships last summer in Edmonton and throughout his second season playing for Kloten in the Swiss League. All things considered, the Canadiens felt Reinbacher was the best defenseman available.
Try not to “get caught up in shiny objects, I guess,” Bobrov recently told The Athletic, explaining the Canadiens’ decision-making process.
Prior to heading home for the summer, Reinbacher signed his entry-level contract, worth $6.35 million if he’s on Montreal’s roster for three full seasons. Like Leo Carlsson, the Swedish center who recently signed after being selected No. 2 by Anaheim, Reinbacher could play in North America for the coming season or remain in Europe.
Free agency not a big boon
Forwards Tomas Nosek and Tyler Bertuzzi played much different roles in the Bruins’ offense, and now both have moved on to new clubs for prices that have left some Black-and-Gold fans scratching their heads.
No need to scratch: In both cases, market forces in free agency played out much differently than either player expected.
Prior to prices sagging, especially at the top end of the market where Bertuzzi rightfully was shopping, Don Sweeney was in a position of having to secure bona fide NHL talent for the Bruins amid the annual mad merry-goround July 1.
We can argue over what the likes of oldsters James van Riemsdyk, Milan Lucic, and Kevin Shattenkirk will offer. But while Bertuzzi and Nosek were shopping with deep pockets wide open, Sweeney opted to fill roster spots with guys willing to take huge late-career financial haircuts. Otherwise, he risked having to fill the lineup with kids who could have proven not quite ready for prime time.
Imagine the head scratching among the fan base if the record at the Christmas break read something like 11-19-2? Bad in normal times, but after a recordsetting 65-12-5 campaign?
Nosek, who played here the last two seasons for a $1.75 million cap hit, on Wednesday finally grabbed what he could, a one-year, $1 million deal with the Devils. In a more typical market (perhaps to return next season?), the trusty Nosek, even as a fourth-liner, reasonably could have expected a modest bump of $500K, or perhaps a total of $5 million over two years.
A frustrated Bertuzzi, wise enough to spot where the market was headed, opted for a one-year deal with the Leafs July 2. Price: $5.5M, or less than a 20 percent hike over the $4.75 million cap hit he came to Boston with from Detroit — a deal he negotiated as a restricted free agent. Bertuzzi, remember, tied Brad Marchand (10) for the points lead during the Bruins’ all-too-brief playoff run.
No big secret to winning
What was the secret sauce that led the Golden Knights to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup title?
“Ah, boy, tough question,’ said their coach, Bruce Cassisdy, the former Bruins bench boss, back on Cape Cod for the summer. “Because I thought we had good Bruins teams — and I’m sure they thought they had the best chance to win this year. I think it’s just elevating your game at the right time.”
For the Golden Knights, added Cassidy, timely goals across the lineup, along with timely saves, made the difference.
“We were able to make the difference — making plays when we had to,” he said. “Some games I think we were just flat-out better than the other team, and other games we lost that we didn’t deserve to win. But in important games, we just made the play. And it wasn’t one guy — it was [Jonathan] Marchessault, Jack Eichel ,[ Ivan] Barbashev ,[ Chandler] Stephenson, [Mark] Stone ,[ Brett Howden ],[ Michael] Amadio scores in double OT. So I think you need stories like that, where everyone’s pitching in.”
By and large, the roster grew healthier as the postseason extended, contrary to standard playoff attrition. One exception was in net, where Adin Hill
(11-4) picked up for an injured Laurent Brossoit (5-2). The Knights bucked conventional wisdom, essentially winning the Cup on the shoulders of two goalies who entered the postseason as career backups with no playoff experience.
“That conversation’s going to start changing here soon,” predicted Cassidy. “Colorado won with [Darcy] Kuemper
and used their other guy [Pavel Francouz] along the way, too, so maybe it’s not like you need your Patrick Roy and Marty Brodeur from years ago, where they’re going to carry the team. Yes, you need good goaltending, but I think general managers are looking at that and maybe you won’t see the big deals for the goalies like maybe you did years ago.”
Loose pucks
For the 11th year running, the Bruins will dispatch their rookies to Buffalo for the Prospects Challenge, this year with Montreal, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and New Jersey in the September mixer.
The WannaB’s open against the Penguins on Sept. 15, face the Canadiens on Sept. 16, then close it out Sept. 18 against the Devils. Varsity camp then opens two days later in Brighton . . . Ross Colton, ex- of the University of Vermont and the Lightning, signed a four-year extension with the Avalanche with a $4 million cap hit — big leap over the $1.125 million he made with Tampa Bay. Technically, that put the Avalanche well over the cap, but with Gabriel Landeskog ($7 million cap hit) expected hors de combat for the season, Colorado should fit comfortably under the $83.5 million threshold . . . Nosek in New Jersey will join an expanding group of former Bruins that includes Erik Haula and Curtis Lazar up front and Dougie Hamilton and Colin Miller on defense.