Montreal Canadiens: Ryan Reaves, Mike Brown, and the Rebuild Enforcers

The Outdated Enforcer

All of them provided exactly what a rebuilding team needs. Experience, character, a good presence in the locker room, and someone who can give the fans and their team energy when there isn’t much available.

While they couldn’t provide much offensively, or defensively, they served a role which fit well in the context of what the Canadiens were at that time. A rebuilding squad in need of a veteran presence to help mentor the younger players. Reaves has never been a part of a rebuild, even going back to his early days with the St. Louis Blues, and well, it shows.

In Toronto’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Boston Bruins on Thursday, defenseman Timothy Liljegren left the game following a cheap shot from infamous instigator Brad Marchand. Instead of laying a big hit or dropping the gloves, Reaves merely chirped Marchand from the bench briefly and returned to his business.

That business being, averaging 7:49 a night whilst having just four shots on goal over 10 games (yes, really). After Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe rightfully expressed his outrage following the lack of response, Reaves was quoted as saying, “We talked about it, we addressed it in the room, and it will be changed going forward.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but it’s almost baffling that is what Reaves actually did in response to Marchand, and that reply is just a joke, and not a particularly funny one at that, especially to Keefe.