ELMONT, N.Y. — It was roughly 6 p.m. when David Reinbacher stepped off the Place Bell ice in Laval on Saturday after a big AHL win for the Rocket, or an hour before the Montreal Canadiens would take the ice against the Columbus Blue Jackets about 20 minutes south at the Bell Centre.

As he made his way home, Reinbacher spoke to his father, Harald, who was at home in Switzerland. It was around midnight for him, but he never misses one of his two sons’ games, and this one was no different.

Or at least he thought.

Harald and David finished their phone call, Harald went to bed, and David settled in on his sofa to watch the Canadiens game.

When Noah Dobson blocked a shot with his hand midway through the second period, Reinbacher thought nothing of it at first, until he got the call he’s waited for ever since he was selected by the Canadiens with the No. 5 pick at the 2023 NHL Draft.

“Suddenly I get a call, and they just said, ‘yeah, you’re going up,’” Reinbacher said after collecting his first NHL point in his first NHL game Sunday, a 4-1 win against the New York Islanders. “My emotions were going like a roller coaster up and down. I just tried to pack, call my family, I was ringing the phone probably like 200 times. Met the team at the airport, and I came right here.”

Harald’s phone rang about 200 times since it was the middle of the night in Switzerland. When he woke up at 7 a.m., or 1 a.m. ET, he had the shock of his life and knew he had to get moving.

The first flight out of Zurich to New York was at 10:30 a.m. Harald lives about 20 minutes from the airport. He needed to secure the required documentation to enter the United States, and had just woken up. Making all that happen in that time frame was not realistic.

The next flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York wasn’t until 1:30 p.m. local time, with a scheduled arrival of roughly 4:30 p.m. ET, or 90 minutes before the start of Reinbacher’s debut with the Canadiens.

Harald made sure he was on that plane.

But as David took the ice for his rookie lap during warmups, Harald was not yet at UBS Arena, and David had no idea whether his father would be able to make it. But Harald arrived at his seat in Section 106, Row 8 at 5:45 p.m. ET, about 15 minutes after that rookie lap and in plenty of time to watch his son take his first NHL shift, record his first NHL shot on goal, and earn his first NHL point, with a secondary assist on Alex Newhook’s goal that made it 3-0 at 16:51 of the second period.

It’s been a difficult three years for David since his life changed at the draft in Nashville, Tenn., starting with an outrageously negative reaction from a pocket of Canadiens fans, followed by a series of injuries that stunted his development and allowed for doubt to creep in about whether he would get through it all.

“I mean, it’s a big part of my journey right now,” David said. “I think he was really good for me, just keeping me calm and a cool head and just telling me to keep going, you’re going to get there one day, it’s just a matter of time. Just believe in yourself. And that’s what I did. Now we’re here, and I don’t know what to say. It’s awesome.”

When Harald saw his son take his first NHL shift, everything that had built up over those three years just washed away.

“All the nervousness, all the stress, all that we had since the draft, it all goes away. Like a big stone from the heart goes away,” Harald said during the first intermission. “I don’t think I’ve ever been as relaxed during a game as I was after I saw him on his first shift.

“David pushed himself really hard by himself. He wants it. So with all this stuff, he wanted to go there, he wanted to play as fast as possible, and then it was the injuries and all this stuff. And now he feels, like, free. Like, ‘I took a step. I got the game, and I know I can do it,’ and that’s why I think he can play now. There’s confidence and no pressure.”

Considering this was David’s third game in three days and he was entering the NHL at the most difficult time of year to do so, he played an excellent game, with an efficient 11:17 of ice time in which he displayed what makes him such an intriguing prospect without trying to overdo it. The two biggest reasons the Canadiens drafted him were his defensive pace and his ability to convert defence into offence by making a strong first pass. That’s what he did against the Islanders.

“He was great. He played to his identity, kept it simple, made the right plays, good reads, good stick. He looked really good,” said Lane Hutson, who was paired with David at his first development camp after his draft and has been seen as his future partner in the NHL since that day. “He’s worked his ass off to get to this point. But not surprised, honestly, with the way he plays. Such a sturdy defenceman, really poised. The hard work has paid off, for sure. It’s good to have him up here and see what he’s able to do.”

There is a coincidence to Reinbacher arriving now. When he was drafted, while everyone was comparing him to Detroit Red Wings defenceman Moritz Seider, the Canadiens saw him as a future Dobson, a player they considered impossible to acquire in a trade until they did.

But now, with Dobson out for at least two weeks with an upper-body injury, a door has opened for Reinbacher. Reinbacher’s play elevated in Laval this season when another door opened for him after a late-February injury to Adam Engström, who is also the player Reinbacher replaced in the Canadiens’ lineup Sunday night.

“If a guy goes down, it brings opportunities for the other ones,” Reinbacher said. “No one wants to see it, to have a guy like him go down, he’s a big piece down there for us. But yeah, I took advantage and showed them that I’m the guy here. It just brought my confidence back, and I just played really good hockey down there.

“That boosted my confidence, and since then, yeah, it’s a different game.”

Reinbacher is vital to the Canadiens rebuild, an important, core piece who has taken a bit more time to get to this point because of circumstances out of his control. On a night when captain Nick Suzuki celebrated his 100th point, Hutson tied the franchise record for assists by a defenceman and rookie Ivan Demidov scored his 19th goal, Reinbacher’s successful NHL debut might have been the most significant thing to happen from a big-picture standpoint.

“We know that David has poise,” coach Martin St. Louis said. “I feel like the more he plays in this league, the more poise he’s going to have, but I feel he starts with a lot of poise to begin with. I think you saw that tonight.”

When the game ended, after Reinbacher was given his puck for his first NHL game and the puck from his first NHL point, and was named the Canadiens’ player of the game, he was led out of the team’s dressing room and into the UBS arena stands, where someone special was waiting for him. It was someone he didn’t even know was there until that moment, someone who had done so much to get him to this moment.

As David emerged into the bowl of UBS Arena to see his father, the emotions of the moment overcame Harald.

“I walked out and I had those two pucks in my hand, he just saw me and him having tears in his eyes, I think it was just everything he did for me and my brother, for our whole family, it all just came into one,” David said. “Seeing those pucks and reflecting tonight, it was just pure joy.”