The Montreal Canadiens are all tied up with the Tampa Bay Lightning as they head back to Tampa for Game 5 on Wednesday night. So far through the first round, the Canadiens have had to play without a key part of their defense in Noah Dobson due to an upper-body injury. However, on Monday, he took another step towards returning to the ice for Montreal.
According to Patrick Guillet, Dobson was skating on Monday for the first time since his injury. The Canadiens defenseman was skating by himself and seemed somewhat limited, but it is certainly a positive step in the right direction.
The Canadiens traded for Dobson this summer, and in his first season with Montreal appeared in 80 games and had 12 goals and 35 assists, second behind only Lane Hutson, while averaging 22:29 of ice time per game.
Montreal Canadiens likely have to solve the Lightning without Noah Dobson
The series is currently tied at two after the Lightning came back to win Game 4 by a final score of 3-2. At this point, it is a three-game series with Game 5 on Wednesday, Game 6 on Friday, and if needed Game 7 on Sunday.
While it was great to see Dobson back on the ice, it is hard to imagine that he will be completely healthy and ready to go before the end of the week. That means that if the Canadiens want to see one of their top defenseman back, they are going to need to get past the Lightning and onto the next round, likely without him.
The good news is that the Canadiens' issues in this series haven't really been in the defensive end. They have seen players like Hutson, Alexandre Carrier, and Arber Xhekaj step up in Dobson's absence, but no question that having another offensive-minded defenseman would help.
The status of Dobson is something worth watching, and maybe he can be back in time for Game 6 or Game 7, if it gets that far. When he is able to get back, it will be a big boost for the Canadiens and help their chances in the playoffs.
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