Serious question pertaining to the Laine hit/injury

[Arthur Morgan]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1841221676417122748

 

[Toby91ca]

This video slows things down and analyzes it so it's probably a better reference. The weight transfer is what caused the knee/shin to be the primary point of contact, and I think a lot of that is to do with Pare being flat footed, biting on the first move, and then panicking to initiate contact in order to stand up at the blueline.

That said, the ultimate responsibility is on the defender, as tarheelhockey pointed out, but players need to also not put themselves in vulnerable positions. Personally, I think it should have been a tripping penalty at the very least. We see tripping called all the time in similar situations; player moving forward makes contact with a stick and goes down.

Laine, went fully from the red line, until point of contact after passing the blue line in full wide stance, not taking a single stride.....that was super weird. Not blaming him, just pointing out that it was weird and he did put himself in a bad spot. Agree with you the bigger part of this was Pare being flat footed, but would be a tripping penalty normally, nothing else.

 

[SensontheRush]

Pretty much lies solely on Pare IMO. You aren't supposed to use your knees to hold up a player, and he braces for impact commiting to using his knee to clip Laine. If Laine was a doofus and injured himself simply flying into Pare with body contact then it would be fully on him.

 

[General Fanager]

The defender was stationary and has no obligation to move out of the way, so to me, it's Laine's responsibility to try to skate past him without leaving his left leg extended out like that.

what are you talking about. Its seems pretty clear to me that he stuck his knee out. We see the screen shots. He was stationary was gonna get beat so he stuck his leg out.

That being said its a fast game and its all instinct so I cant blame the kid much and every player should be responsible for themselves .....

im gonna go with 65% Pare and 35% Laine....

 

[pabst blue ribbon]

A puck carrier with his feet so wide a part making him unable to change direction fast enough while gliding into double coverage is a low % play to begin with

 

[Moose Head]

How the hell is Laine less injured than Reinbacher?!?

 

[belair]

The impetus is on the defender is to take the body (torso). My issue with Pare's play is that he's not in Laine's lane and takes a flexed-knee stance, rather than realize he was beaten and made no discernable effort to take the body.

This is basically a "skill" issue. Pare doesn't have the ability to defend the play at high speed and simply "braces" himself instead, which creates the knee-on-knee. It's only an unavoidable situation because the defender is incapable of defending the play properly and does the one thing you shouldn't in flexing his knee towards the offensive player. It's only a bad hit by Pare because he's not able to play at high speed.

This is as cut and dry as it can be explained. I'd even put some onus on Laine as it's his inability to identify the risk in a play that had little potential reward.

 

[IWantSakicAsMyGM]

what are you talking about. Its seems pretty clear to me that he stuck his knee out. We see the screen shots. He was stationary was gonna get beat so he stuck his leg out.

That being said its a fast game and its all instinct so I cant blame the kid much and every player should be responsible for themselves .....

im gonna go with 65% Pare and 35% Laine....

Any chance you can point to the screen shots that show Pare's leg was actually moving in a manner consistent with "sticking his knee out" before the moment of impact? Because the video replays very clearly show that Pare's left skate didn't move after Laine got possession at center ice, other than rotating as he shifted his weight in his lackluster attempt to make upper body contact. No forward motion, no movement side to side, just rotates as he's turning his hips. Pare did a lot of things wrong there, but I'm struggling to see anything that even remotely qualifies as "kneeing".

To me, it's still like 35% Laine for trying to force his left skate between the defenders legs, and 65% unfortunate accident.

 

[Jee]

Paré should be jailed for attempted murder

 

[JimmyApples]

Unfortunate for Laine but Habs fans really have got to stop whining about this

 

[boompuffboom]

From the center ice angle, it seemed like Laine's shin or ankle would've clipped Pare's leg regardless. I place at least some of the responsibility on Laine here.

Not sure the auto metaphor works in your favor. Laine is the one approaching a stationary player with speed and trying to split a narrow gap.

yeah i had it backwards in my mind--- made a lot of sense 12 beers deep ><

still an awful, awful decision by Paré, thats my take, end of the day.

 

[Bender Duster]

I’m not a Leafs or Habs fan, so my thoughts:

As others have noted, Laine was gliding with his legs spread from the red line to where the contact occurred. How could Pare possibly be caught flat footed?!? If it was unintentional how slow is this guy at processing the game??

On that note, Laine was gliding with his legs spread from the red line to near the top of the circles. How did he think he was going to split two defenders like that?!? The guy could barely fit into most parking spots with a stance like that. Curious zone entry.

Not a great play by either of them but Pare should know better than to knee someone a couple of leagues above him. At least man up and take a couple punches, guy.

 

[Rob Sense]

This is as cut and dry as it can be explained. I'd even put some onus on Laine as it's his inability to identify the risk in a play that had little potential reward.

So all talented players should avoid deking and going through defenders??? Might as well watch backgammon. Please tell McDavid and Crosby to stop playing hockey the way they do. It was 100% Pare. He could have used his shoulder or push him with arms...he chose the knee.

 

[nhlfan9191]

Pilon being a pilon

Pilon’s don’t move. Defender knew he was about to get undressed so naturally desperately did what he could to stop it. I don’t think it was malicious after seeing it many times now however. Just an AHL plug out of his element with the speed of a good NHL player.

 

[NotCommitted]

There's certainly an element of "shit happens in a fast sport" to this and basically you have a rusty NHLer coming off a lengthy layoff and an AHLer who just looks he's playing above his league, both of which increase the risk factor. It probably doesn't help Pare sees a "big name" and a situation where he can make an impact. And if he had player that well, it could've ended so Laine looks like an idiot skating into Pare. But that's not what happened, Pare didn't play it well.

The question would make more sense to me if it had actually ended up as ankle to ankle contact or something, like the picture posted in the opening implies might happen. But that's not how it ended up. I don't think the kneeing was exactly intentional by Pare, it just looks like he's scrambling to catch a piece, but it still ends up as a dangerous kneeing by him and an injury to Laine. I think you could somewhat compare it to "instinctively bracing for a hit" by elbowing the other guy in the head. No malicous intent but dangerous anyway.

 

[Captain97]

Honestly this I such a simple thing.

Patrik Laine goes to split the D. Pare who is an AHL/ECHL doesn't want to get burned on national TV and tries to step into Laine. He is to far and ends up with his knee out.

Pare makes a mistake that causes the injury. It wasn't malicious, it was a top 6 forward burning an AHL 3rd liner who makes a poor split second decision that causes a very unfortunate outcome.

 

[belair]

So all talented players should avoid deking and going through defenders??? Might as well watch backgammon. Please tell McDavid and Crosby to stop playing hockey the way they do. It was 100% Pare. He could have used his shoulder or push him with arms...he chose the knee.

How do you go through a player who is in your lane and completely immobile? That was my first question after I initially watched the replay.

I'm not arguing on behalf of Pare. His lack of skill makes him likelier to be a hazard to other players on the ice. But Laine tried to bulldoze through a scrub in a nothing game. Maybe don't do that next time.

 

[Boss Man Hughes]

Strictly speaking, the onus is on the defender not to strike the puck carrier’s leg, as that is a tripping penalty.

Now… there’s also an element of discretion about how well established the defender is. As a puck carrier, you can’t just throw yourself over a defender and expect to get a call. This was a play that really pushes the limits of how much space a puck carrier is “owed” when moving past the defender.

In this case, if you want to call it something strictly by the book, it’s a tripping penalty. So that answers the question — onus is on the defender.

It was a KNEEING penalty.

 

[tarheelhockey]

It was a KNEEING penalty.

Nah, kneeing isn’t appropriate on that play. Just because there’s contact at the knees doesn’t mean that’s the penalty call.