"I'm going to be cautious on that -- we looked at the game stats and we're not sold on them," coach Claude Julien said to laughter in his postgame media briefing. "I don't think those are too accurate right now. Maybe they'll be corrected by tomorrow, but he still had a fair amount of ice time and he played well.
"(Reilly) had a chance to ask a lot of questions at practice (Tuesday) and we showed him a lot of stuff. I told him, like I tell a lot of players, 'Just go out there and play and be comfortable. If there are certain things that need to be adjusted, we'll tell you as the game goes on.' You want the guy to have a clear head and be confident, and I think that's what he showed tonight. We're pleased with his overall game."
What Reilly did know was that he'd seen considerably more ice than he was used to in Minnesota, happy to have been able to get into an early rhythm and get the feel of the game.
"I was just going out there, expecting to get somewhat of a regular shift, and go from there," he said. "Shift after shift, to be in the game, it's pretty nice."
Reilly knows only victory on Bell Centre ice, his single game in Montreal before Wednesday a 3-0 Minnesota win on Nov. 9.
"It was awesome," he said of the energy in the arena during his first game in a Canadiens jersey. "Everyone talks about it -- when you come in here, whether you're a rival or not, it's going to be a loud building with crazy fans. It's definitely what I expected and it probably exceeded my expectations a little bit. One game down with a long way to go but it's pretty cool to play in front of that crowd."
Reilly sees the homestretch of this season as a chance for himself, and others, to make an impression and set the table for 2018-19.
"The future is all about winning," he said. "It looks like they're dialed in and want to finish strong. That's what a good team and good teammates do, to get some momentum going for next year.