Player Discussion Patrik Laine

HuGo Sham

MR. CLEAN-up ©Runner77
Apr 7, 2010
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Montreal

Patrik Laine injury, potential loss another early test of young Canadiens’ resiliency​

Patrik-Laine-injury-1024x683.jpg

By Arpon Basu
Sep 29, 2024
1

MONTREAL — It is the context that makes it that much worse.
We don’t know how badly newly acquired Montreal Canadiens forward Patrik Laine was injured Saturday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but we do know knees are not supposed to bend like that.
No one ever wants to see anyone injured, particularly in a preseason game, but for Laine, this feels especially devastating.
Patrik Laine is forced to leave the game with a knee injury after colliding with Cedric Pare. pic.twitter.com/3rAOIRrfrQ
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) September 28, 2024

Laine has been through so much over the last year, physically and mentally. He looked at this move to Montreal as an opportunity to start over, giving this new version of Patrik Laine an opportunity to fulfill all the promise that made him the No. 2 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft and allowed him to score 80 goals in his first two seasons in the league.


“I just knew as a person I needed a new start somewhere else, more so as a person than as a hockey player, and that’s what I’m more worried about, me as a person,” Laine said after he was traded to Montreal on Aug. 19. “Obviously, there was stuff that happened in Columbus on and off the ice that kind of haunts a little bit.
“I just feel like I needed a restart for my life and my career, and now I’m super fortunate to have that in Montreal and I couldn’t be happier about it.”
Laine’s arrival in Montreal represents so much hope, first and foremost for himself, but for his teammates and the organization, as well. It means adding a depth of talent that allows the Canadiens to put together four forward lines that can score. It means having a second power-play unit that can push the first unit and create competition. It means having a player who can legitimately aspire to being among the top goal scorers in the NHLbased on talent alone.
“Adding Patrik, it shows that management’s ready to start winning, and we’re ready to start winning, and obviously the fans are ready for it,” captain Nick Suzuki said a few days after the trade. “So this year’s going to be exciting. I talked to a lot of the guys yesterday and the day before, and everyone’s ready to go.
“I’m really excited to start. It’ll be fun.”
It doesn’t seem so fun anymore.
It might be premature to say all that in the past tense, but watching Laine crumble to the ice, clutching his left knee and leaving the ice without putting any weight on his left leg definitely gave the impression it will be a long time before we see Laine playing for the Canadiens again. Maybe it looked worse than it actually is, but it looked very, very bad.
For this to happen to Laine, of all people, considering how he was looking at this season as a life-changing moment — not just a career-changing one — makes it that much more difficult to digest.


“I think a ton of guys stepped up to welcome him to the team,” Suzuki said Saturday night. “We know what situation he was coming from and we wanted to make him feel at home with us, and I think he does.
“That’s super unfortunate, and I really feel for him right now.”
If there’s one player who can identify with Laine right now, it would probably be Kirby Dach, whose season ended last year after only four periods of hockey when his knee exploded on a hit from Chicago Blackhawks defenceman Jarred Tinordi. Laine is Dach’s winger, and Laine is a big reason why the Canadiens’ second line is seen as the team’s biggest source of improvement this season, a reason why the team and organization feel they can aspire to better things.
“He’s been nothing but positive, he’s been full of excitement to join our team,” said Dach, who admitted to getting some flashbacks to his injury when he saw Laine go down. “He saw what we were trying to build here and he’s excited to be a part of it. It definitely sucks seeing that happen to a guy who’s dealt with some injury issues, like myself. Hopefully, it’s nothing but good news and he’s back out there.”
Over the time Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes have been running the Canadiens, it is safe to say there has not been an acquisition that has generated as much excitement as Laine.
In his first preseason game for the Canadiens, on his second shift, the Bell Centre crowd made it very clear just how excited the fan base is about Laine.
On his second shift in his second preseason game in a Canadiens uniform, disaster struck.
If Laine is out long term, it changes so much of what the Canadiens were planning for this season. The second line becomes less dangerous. The depth of scoring becomes less deep. The second power-play unit becomes less competition for the first unit. And for Laine, he would have another mental hurdle to clear when he has already cleared so many in such a short period of time.


But that’s only looking at the present for the Canadiens. Just prior to Laine leaving the game, top defence prospect David Reinbacher also left the game with another apparent injury to his left leg on the game’s opening shift when he took a hit from Toronto defenceman Marshall Rifai. If he were to miss a significant amount of time, it would delay his development in getting him to a point where he is ready to help the Canadiens.
In a meaningless preseason game, to have a big chunk of your present and such an important part of your future leave the building on crutches — as RDS’ Patrick Friolet reported — is just about the worst possible result imaginable.
But while the future is still important for a team that is trying to work its way out of a rebuild, this season was more geared toward the present for the players, and the potential loss of Laine is a devastating blow to that present.
As Mike Tyson famously said, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.
It was difficult not to see Laine lying on the ice and being helped off the ice and throwing his helmet in disgust before entering the room as the Canadiens, and Laine, being punched in the face before the season had even started.
But there might be a silver lining to this, and that would be for the members of a young team to show how resilient they are, how unwilling they are to accept a second year of bad injury luck as an excuse for a bad spot in the standings. How much can Suzuki and Dach and Juraj Slafkovskýand Cole Caufield and Alex Newhook and Mike Matheson and even rookie Lane Hutson make it so this potential punch in the face does not derail the Canadiens’ season?
How hard can they punch back? We might be about to find out.
(Photo: Vincent Ethier / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
 

RealityBytes

Trash Remover
Feb 11, 2013
3,008
448
I will say, hockey fans as a whole are f***ing hypocrites. The amount of Leafs fans calling us whiners, considering that a clean hockey play etc...

Could you f***ing imagine the reaction had that been Lucas Condotta and Auston Matthews?
Did Habs fans say it was intentional when John Tavares was injured by a collision with Michael Pezatta? No, of course not but it is hypocricy when your side is always innocent and the other side is always the guilty party. Same when the Habs knocked Tavares out of the playoffs in 2022. Just an accident according to Habs fans but intentional from angered Toronto fans.

It is a shame that Laine got injured. Accidents happen but anger seems to always prevail over rationale with emotional fans. Claiming that this latest hit was intentional is anger and emotion talking. Honestly, looking at a replay of the hit and how it happened certainly doesn't come across as intentional. Laine skated into Pares, not the other way around, and both moved. An accident happened and that's where it should stay.
 

MakeTheGoalsLarger

Registered User
Dec 9, 2011
3,604
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Koivu played with that wide stance all the time and he ruined his knees. Galchenyuk also did that a lot and suffered a couple of major knee injuries.

We like having these types of wreckless players in Montreal it seems. Didn't Laine have a history of being injured regularly?
 

Habssince89

trolls to the IL
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Apr 14, 2009
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Did Habs fans say it was intentional when John Tavares was injured by a collision with Michael Pezatta? No, of course not but it is hypocricy when your side is always innocent and the other side is always the guilty party. Same when the Habs knocked Tavares out of the playoffs in 2022. Just an accident according to Habs fans but intentional from angered Toronto fans.

It is a shame that Laine got injured. Accidents happen but anger seems to always prevail over rationale with emotional fans. Claiming that this latest hit was intentional is anger and emotion talking. Honestly, looking at a replay of the hit and how it happened certainly doesn't come across as intentional. Laine skated into Pares, not the other way around, and both moved. An accident happened and that's where it should stay.
The difference between the Tavares incident and this one is paré was reckless and stupid with his form/technique. Tavares was a freak chance occurrence. You can strip away all questions of intent, and paré is still a f***ing dipshit who stuck his leg out on Laine.

Koivu played with that wide stance all the time and he ruined his knees. Galchenyuk also did that a lot and suffered a couple of major knee injuries.

We like having these types of wreckless players in Montreal it seems. Didn't Laine have a history of being injured regularly?
Stop the victim blaming. Laine isn't to blame for this geez
 

dackelljuneaubulis02

Registered User
Oct 13, 2012
11,856
7,463
I think someone said it on here best about the hit, it was a pylon being a pylon.

Dude definitely lunged over. I don’t think it was done maliciously but it was just stupid and reckless. He should pay the price regardless, being stupid and reckless is bad enough. He got beat and was caught flat footed

f***ing moron
 

JianYang

Registered User
Sep 29, 2017
19,492
18,833
Did Habs fans say it was intentional when John Tavares was injured by a collision with Michael Pezatta? No, of course not but it is hypocricy when your side is always innocent and the other side is always the guilty party. Same when the Habs knocked Tavares out of the playoffs in 2022. Just an accident according to Habs fans but intentional from angered Toronto fans.

It is a shame that Laine got injured. Accidents happen but anger seems to always prevail over rationale with emotional fans. Claiming that this latest hit was intentional is anger and emotion talking. Honestly, looking at a replay of the hit and how it happened certainly doesn't come across as intentional. Laine skated into Pares, not the other way around, and both moved. An accident happened and that's where it should stay.

The Tavares play is also not a great comparison. That play was closer to the gallagher injury a few years ago where he took a knee to head while falling down. The reaction here was very different to that one. It was shitty, but it was a freak play.

This particular play happened against a non-nhler who was out of his element. The frustration stems from the fact that it happened in a mean nothing game against a scrub player. It doesn't happen against an nhl level player.

A more appropriate comparison to the laine incident is several years ago when laraque blew out kronwall's knee in a preseason game. Laraque was a fringe player at that time and looked like he had the agility of a cement mixer which was the biggest issue.
 
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JianYang

Registered User
Sep 29, 2017
19,492
18,833
They play starters because they force season ticket holders to buy preseason tickets at full price. Once again it's all about the dollars.

Im pretty sure season ticket holders have a choice if they want to see exhibition games and arent forced to buy anything, but I think there used to be a mandate from the nhl for the minimum number of NHL players that are required to dress for an exhibition game. I'm not sure if that still exists.
 

Frankenheimer

Sir, this is an Arber
Feb 22, 2009
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MTL
Did Habs fans say it was intentional when John Tavares was injured by a collision with Michael Pezatta? No, of course not but it is hypocricy when your side is always innocent and the other side is always the guilty party. Same when the Habs knocked Tavares out of the playoffs in 2022. Just an accident according to Habs fans but intentional from angered Toronto fans.

It is a shame that Laine got injured. Accidents happen but anger seems to always prevail over rationale with emotional fans. Claiming that this latest hit was intentional is anger and emotion talking. Honestly, looking at a replay of the hit and how it happened certainly doesn't come across as intentional. Laine skated into Pares, not the other way around, and both moved. An accident happened and that's where it should stay.
Intentional or not, a scrub with no hope of making nhl simply does not have the skill to react to talent and so ends up injuring people. Everyone who has ever played sports against people who can't keep up knows what this means. They are literally the most dangerous people out there. He could have accepted he was beat but instead attempted a high risk play in a meangingless game. So yeah, its entirely his fault. He caused a star player to get a major injury by virtue of being a shitty player with no self-awarness about his limits and role in such a game. Nobody is paying a nickel to see this clown play. The fact he has any income at all is because players like Laine exist. And players in the nhl recognize this and mitigate risky plays accordingly. You wont see a star defenseman with an actual career at stake make such a dumb move.
 

Favster

Registered User
Jul 21, 2013
2,407
2,905
Montreal
The main board is actually making me sick to my stomach. Like how can they say that wasn't textbook kneeing? Wtf is going on.

The guy is flatfooted, gets beat to his left and shifts his weight to his left and moves leg forward.

I get they hate the Habs but it's disgraceful.
 

overlords

#DefundCBC
Aug 16, 2008
33,161
13,102
The City
The Tavares play is also not a great comparison. That play was closer to the gallagher injury a few years ago where he took a knee to head while falling down. The reaction here was very different to that one. It was shitty, but it was a freak play.

This particular play happened against a non-nhler who was out of his element. The frustration stems from the fact that it happened in a mean nothing game against a scrub player. It doesn't happen against an nhl level player.

A more appropriate comparison to the laine incident is several years ago when laraque blew out kronwall's knee in a preseason game. Laraque was a fringe player at that time and looked like he had the agility of a cement mixer which was the biggest issue.

Corey Perry was forced to fight a leafs plug because Tavares ate an accidental knee, to top it off :laugh:
 
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Estimated_Prophet

Registered User
Mar 28, 2003
11,140
12,320
Did Habs fans say it was intentional when John Tavares was injured by a collision with Michael Pezatta? No, of course not but it is hypocricy when your side is always innocent and the other side is always the guilty party. Same when the Habs knocked Tavares out of the playoffs in 2022. Just an accident according to Habs fans but intentional from angered Toronto fans.

It is a shame that Laine got injured. Accidents happen but anger seems to always prevail over rationale with emotional fans. Claiming that this latest hit was intentional is anger and emotion talking. Honestly, looking at a replay of the hit and how it happened certainly doesn't come across as intentional. Laine skated into Pares, not the other way around, and both moved. An accident happened and that's where it should stay.

Sports fans in general are in a lower IQ tier and these tribal rants are hardly unexpected......just embarrassing to be lumped in with them.
 

Frankenheimer

Sir, this is an Arber
Feb 22, 2009
3,996
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MTL
The main board is actually making me sick to my stomach. Like how can they say that wasn't textbook kneeing? Wtf is going on.

The guy is flatfooted, gets beat to his left and shifts his weight to his left and moves leg forward.

I get they hate the Habs but it's disgraceful.
It's the same phenomenon that makes people defend Trumps litanny of idiotic statements. The internet has institutionalized tribalism.
 

Monsieur Miz

Registered User
Nov 3, 2017
4,288
7,624
The main board is actually making me sick to my stomach. Like how can they say that wasn't textbook kneeing? Wtf is going on.

The guy is flatfooted, gets beat to his left and shifts his weight to his left and moves leg forward.

I get they hate the Habs but it's disgraceful.

Most of them are Leafs fans so yeah... not really surprising.
 
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Lycanthrope

Registered User
Dec 3, 2011
5,867
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Why would anyone make their Instagram public? I must be old but how interesting do people think they are lol… Share fishing and wedding pics with your friends, no? Look at meeeeeeeee! I’m special!
Man, I couldn’t agree with you more. This generation is nuts and even some of the older people that should know better. It’s like “Look at me, I’m taking a dump while singing a song”. I’m like you I could give a flying fawk. Judging by your monikor I’m not surprised we both remember when there was a little more sanity and people didn’t feel the need to whore themselves out.
 
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waffledave

waffledave, from hf
Aug 22, 2004
33,747
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Montreal
The main board is actually making me sick to my stomach. Like how can they say that wasn't textbook kneeing? Wtf is going on.

The guy is flatfooted, gets beat to his left and shifts his weight to his left and moves leg forward.

I get they hate the Habs but it's disgraceful.

The majority of those people are literal crack smokers. I know for a fact from the last hfboards meet up.
 

Lycanthrope

Registered User
Dec 3, 2011
5,867
2,645
Welcome to the internet, kind sir.
The Internet and social media in general is a sickening black hole for sure.

Most of them are Leafs fans so yeah... not really surprising.
Leaf fans are by far the most sickening fan base in the league. I’m already gloating over there inevitable playoff disappointment again it’s an annual spring treat.
 
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Catanddogguitarrr

Registered User
Jul 3, 2016
8,275
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Nowhere land
Koivu played with that wide stance all the time and he ruined his knees. Galchenyuk also did that a lot and suffered a couple of major knee injuries.

We like having these types of wreckless players in Montreal it seems. Didn't Laine have a history of being injured regularly?
Some players are accustomed to these type of injury by their wild play. They don't have that inside voice telling them not do that to avoid injury.
 

dubplatepressure

Registered User
Jul 10, 2007
15,979
3,627
The Internet and social media in general is a sickening black hole for sure.


Leaf fans are by far the most sickening fan base in the league. I’m already gloating over there inevitable playoff disappointment again it’s an annual spring treat.

Leaf fan here. Don't usually post elsewhere. Came here for an update on Laine. Was very excited for that trade and to see what he could do this year with you guys. Hoping for a quick recovery in what was a senseless play.
 

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