Ok so tell me how long does it take to get back up to NHL game form after ACL and MCL surgery Doctor. Please use examples and draw upon your extensive history in the field.
Yup Newhook and Slaf have also played poorly and been fairly lampooned for it on these boards.
Laine is substantially older than all 3 and looking incredibly uninvolved which is not something new for Laine as he is a notoriously lazy player. When he isn't scoring he brings literally nothing to a line, it's fun how you're still drooling over his powerplay points, I bet you don't really want to talk about 5v5 do ya?
But Dach was operated on last Oct. 6 months is June (he was operated on Oct. 31). He had a full preseason of training before he could focus on skating, strength and conditioning. Also preseason games.
Laine had a concussion last October, what is brain issue. He broke his collarbone in late December. He was fine in January, but the mental issues, including depression, that he's had for a few years (and yet he played great in 2021/22 and especially 2022/23, I've already detailed, plus he was corralling as fast as Caufield) came to a head in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons. Depression, insomnia etc are also brain violations. As a result of which he not only didn't train for a long time, he didn't watch hockey.
Moving on. In preseason he had shoulder surgery - cleaning. Nothing horrible, but it doesn't allow him to practice either. He did train hard afterwards though, with American football players, but skated minimally. That only started after he arrived in Montreal. And in the very second preseason game, he got injured, which affects conditioning training and even upper body workouts. So bye bye strength training and conditioning for a few weeks.
Not counting physical limitations, head injuries are a very important issue. With such epilepsy (I speak from personal experience) even very mild, it changes one's temperament, impairs brain work in general, etc. Any road psychiatrist will tell you that NO epileptics should work in higher functions. I don't think depression is without consequences, including brain changes. And if we add low self-confidence to that, a big problem arises.
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Btw, Dach, Slafkovský and Newhook had problems when the team played badly overall, effectively losing the chance to play PO. Laine has problems when the team has the chance to play PO. So it's understandable why he plays less. Besides that, I think MSL wants to force him to improve his play at the boards, in the net, his defense and improve his effectivy, because when he plays less, he has to be more effective.