The Montreal Canadiens advanced to the playoffs last season with 91 points. It was a low total, but it was good enough in an odd season. On average, the final spot in the Eastern Conference wins with 95 points. This season, it is even more bizarre, but on the upside.

The Canadiens are in a fight for their lives for the playoffs, even though they are on pace for 103 points this season. They went into the night with only a three-point cushion to make the postseason. If they were on pace for 91 this year, there would be cries of a critical pullback in their talent level.

This is why, with only a month left in the campaign, it promises to be stress-inducing and nail-biting. The Canadiens hosted the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night and the defence struggled yet again, with the Ducks posting a 4-3 win.

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The Canadiens provided their usual thrills on offence. Down 2-0, the goal scorers found their touch. The usual suspects provided. Lane Hutson started it with a tremendous pass to Alex Newhook, who went upstairs for his ninth of the season.

Exactly one minute later, it was Noah Dobson with a 140-foot stretch pass to free Cole Caufield on a partial breakaway. He went far side for his 39th goal of the season. That’s the best total since Max Pacioretty more than a decade ago. However, the real milestone is Vincent Damphousse with his 40 total in 1994. Only one goal more for that ignominious statistic to be referenced no more.

The Canadiens then took the lead on a play that showed all the skills of Juraj Slafkovsky. He is the quintessential power forward in the NHL. He had Jackson LaCombe draped all over him from inside the Canadiens’ zone. He dragged LaCombe up the ice before finally discarding him. Slafkovsky then fed Nick Suzuki, who ripped a shot home.

The first line has been reunited for six games. They are on fire with 11 goals in that time. It’s a phenomenal total. It’s been since 1993 that the Canadiens had a line with 100 goals, with Brian Bellows, Kirk Muller and Damphousse reaching the plateau.

The three will get there if they are allowed to play a season together.

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Kirby Dach took a blindside hit during his opening shift of the game from Jeffrey Viel. As he left for the players’ bench, he could not hold his stick on his left side. That could be a shoulder injury, a wrist injury, or a hand injury. It’s impossible to know, as being unable to hold a stick can be all of those injuries.

All we know is that Dach simply cannot avoid injury. He had just returned from a serious injury to his foot after blocking a shot. Before the foot injury, he had just returned from a knee injury that required surgery, which is why he missed the rest of last season. Before the knee injury, he had another knee injury that also required surgery, losing a full season to an ACL and MCL major reconstruction.

Dach is injured more than he plays. The hope was that Dach would return for the rest of the game after getting the big hit from Viel. He did not return. It could be another significant injury for Dach.

This injury comes at a crucial moment for Dach. He is a free agent at the end of this season. Dach wanted to prove before the end of the campaign that he has a lot to give. GM Kent Hughes wanted to see what he could give.

If this is significant, and Dach doesn’t get to prove his worth the rest of the season, it will be a mystery what the organization should do. Hughes just can’t throw a big contract at a player when they have no idea how good he is. Every time he threatens to show his talents, he gets injured.

Dach was playing extremely well recently, but it isn’t a big enough sample size to scream commitment from the Canadiens. To be continued.

Overall, defensively, the Canadiens have some bad habits they seem unable to stop. They’re the 24th-ranked team defensively, and consistently they demonstrate why. Firstly, they back off at the blue line almost as a matter of pride. No one wants to get beaten for speed, but backing off to give the blue line creates chaos as well.

Secondly, the Canadiens allow so many players to find their way freely to the front of the net with the puck. Troy Terry scored a lucky goal off of Josh Anderson, but what wasn’t lucky was the lead-up. Chris Kreider was given the blue line. Terry was given the slot area. No one was touched.

On the winning goal, both Kaiden Guhle and Lane Hutson went to the corner to chase the puck, leaving Cutter Gauthier alone to score from five feet. An absolute gift from the Canadiens with two minutes left.

That brings us to thirdly. In front of the net, attackers set up camp. Shea Weber used to punish players so hard for heading to the net that they didn’t want to go there. This Canadiens team punishes no one in front of the net. No one gets hammered. No one feels the pain of being in that area.

This is how playoff hockey is won. Penalties won’t be called in the playoffs for physical contact in front of the net, so initiate some. Win that battle to win the game.

The popular pastime in Montreal is to talk about man-on-man strategy used instead of zone coverage. It doesn’t matter. Don’t back in at the blue line. Don’t allow free passage to the front of the net. Don’t let players stand in front of the goalie untouched to screen and deflect.

Take care of that, and the 24th-ranked defence won’t be, regardless of whether they are man-on-man or zone. Take care of what has been fundamentally good defence in the NHL for 75 years.

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If a player is in his proper seat, he has a much higher chance of success. When he has to rise higher than his standing, that’s when issues arise. There’s a level of competition where he feels comfortable, and a level where it is too much.

Recently, the best example is Dach. On the top line with Suzuki and Caufield, Dach struggled. Facing the best players all the time, Dach found he was not enough of a player to succeed there. He brought down the line.

Dach is now playing with Jake Evans and Zachary Bolduc. Suddenly, Dach looks great. Dach didn’t change. The level of competition did.

Everyone needs to face the competition that they can handle. Here’s another example, but this time to the downside for the Canadiens: Whereas Martin St. Louis has the luxury of simply dropping Dach down the lineup, he doesn’t have the same luxury with his blue line corps.

Alexandre Carrier is the second-best natural right-side defender on the team. He is often forced to face the other club’s top players. It’s not his proper seat. Carrier has the capacity, over the long term, to face only the second-tier of attackers to find success. Asked to face Macklin Celebrini’s line Saturday night, it was too much on the winning goal for San Jose.

There isn’t anything St. Louis can do about this conundrum. He doesn’t have the players. Kaiden Guhle and Mike Matheson were asked to move to the right and they were horrible. They moved back. Lane Hutson is asked to move to the right side and he finds some success, but certainly his game drops a couple of notches.

The answer is the 28th-ranked prospect, David Reinbacher. The former fifth pick overall is ready. It’s time. His services are required at the NHL level, and he is ready for at least a look after levelling up significantly recently in Laval.

Reinbacher is the only one of the top-13 picks from the 2023 draft to not play an NHL game yet. This isn’t because he’s been weak but because he has suffered two significant injuries to slow his development.

Reinbacher, in his last 18 games for the Rocket, has been a minus player in only a single contest. He is plus 15 in that time. Reinbacher won’t be an offensive force in the NHL. He will be a reliable defender, making smart decisions and moving the puck up ice effectively.

Reinbacher doesn’t possess a wicked shot. He doesn’t make rushes up the ice with excitement. He goes about his job smartly and handles his duties. That’s just fine on a team that already has a rusher in Matheson, a shot in Dobson, and an all-around genius in Hutson. They don’t need more offence on defence. They need more defence on defence.

The Canadiens are the second-ranked offence in hockey but the 24th-ranked defence. They need Reinbacher to help the 24, not the two.

He’s in the pipeline. He’s ready to be delivered.

Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.