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First-round pick at NHL Draft presented with a notebook full of positive messages from Habs fans after a negative reaction on social media.
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Patricia Néron was so upset she was ready to stop being a Canadiens fan.
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Néron wasn’t upset the Canadiens selected David Reinbacher with the fifth overall pick at last Wednesday’s NHL Draft in Nashville. It was the vicious reaction from some Canadiens fans on social media that upset her.
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“As a Habs fan, I got very, very, very frustrated because of all the negativity,” Néron said Sunday after watching Reinbacher and the Canadiens’ other top prospects in action on the first day of development camp in Brossard. “It honestly made me very sad to see it.”
Néron said she didn’t know anything about Reinbacher before the draft, but she also didn’t think the Canadiens would pick Russian forward Matvei Michkov, the player many fans wanted. The 31-year-old Néron said she has “100 per cent trust” in what Jeff Gorton, the executive vice-president of hockey operations, and GM Kent Hughes are doing and figured the Canadiens would pick the “best option possible.”
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“I was very happy (when they drafted Reinbacher),” Néron said. “But when I opened Twitter, all I could see was negative tweets and insults towards him and the organization. It made me really sad because the kid is super-young.”
After some thought, Néron decided she wouldn’t stop being a Canadiens fan. Instead, she’d try to show support for the 18-year-old Reinbacher, who is from Austria. Néron’s favourite player is Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki and her Twitter handle is @suzukipizza. Néron took to Twitter asking Canadiens fans to share some positive messages for Reinbacher.
“I just decided to tweet something and see where it led,” Néron said. “I wanted to give visibility to the good Habs fans and show that we’re not all like that.”
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Néron said she received more than 200 comments within 24 hours and she put them together in a notebook she was able to present to Reinbacher on Sunday with help from Chantal Machabée, the Canadiens’ vice-president of hockey communications.
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“He was very, very happy and I almost saw tears in his eyes,” Néron said. “He was very emotional.”
When Reinbacher met with reporters after coming off the ice Sunday, he didn’t want to talk much about the negative reaction to him being drafted on social media. But he did mention the gift from Néron.
“I got a nice gift before,” he said. “They’ve written some nice messages. So I will look at it afterwards. It’s a warm welcome, so thank you for all the fans who made it special.”
As for the fans who had negative comments, Reinbacher said: “If they talk negative, probably I will prove them wrong one day. I’ll work for it. I’m excited to be here. It’s the next step for my dream to play one day in the NHL with this franchise.”
The many Canadiens fans who were in attendance Sunday in Brossard might have got a glimpse of the future with Reinbacher, who is 6-foot-2 and 194 pounds, being paired on most drills with fellow defenceman Lane Hutson, who is 5-foot-9 and 158 pounds. Reinbacher had 3-19-22 totals in 46 games last season with Kloten HC in the Swiss-A League, while Hutson had 15-33-48 totals in 39 games at Boston College.
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They could definitely make an interesting defence pairing in the future.
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“He’s a really nice kid,” Reinbacher said about Hutson, who was selected in the second round (62nd overall) of last year’s NHL Draft. “He’s so good. He’s good on his skates, he can create something. It’s crazy. It was nice to meet him, nice to play with him. We had a lot of fun on the ice.”
One of the big adjustments for Reinbacher in the NHL will be getting used to the smaller North American ice surface.
“For sure, it’s something different,” he said. “It’s faster and it’s harder, it’s quicker. You got to be making quicker decisions. I think it’s a thing of process, how fast you can get used to it.”
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Life has been a whirlwind for Reinbacher since getting drafted and he said he’s only had five to six hours of sleep each night since then. He was looking forward to visiting the Bell Centre for the first time later in the day Sunday and the players will be back on the ice at 11:15 a.m. Monday in Brossard, followed by an 11 a.m. scrimmage on Tuesday to wrap up the camp. Reinbacher is planning to spend an extra day in Montreal after the camp so he can get to know the city a bit before returning home for a summer break.
The teenager said he has received a very warm welcome from management and the players at camp.
“They’re happy that they have me,” Reinbacher said. “It was their plan to get me. I’m happy to be here. … It’s so nice to be here. Thank you for Montreal, thank you to all the guys, especially to the GM Kent. It’s so nice to be here.”
scowan@postmedia.com
twitter.com/StuCowan1
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