BROSSARD, Que. — Patrik Laine arrived in a hockey-mad market eager for a fresh start.
That made the Finnish sharpshooter's worrying pre-season exit even harder to swallow for Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis.
"The No. 1 job we had to do with Patty is make him excited to come to the rink, and he was," St. Louis said Monday at CN Sports Complex. "It stings a little more, because I feel he was excited to come to the rink."
Laine needed help getting off the ice early in the first period of Saturday's 2-1 loss to Toronto after a knee-on-knee collision with Maple Leafs forward Cédric Paré.
The Montreal winger crumpled to the ice moments after rookie defenceman David Reinbacher — the No. 5 pick at last year's draft — also departed following an open-ice hit.
The Canadiens said injury updates for both players would likely come Tuesday or later Monday, but St. Louis and his players spoke as though Laine might be out long-term after his left leg bent in an unnatural direction.
Laine, sporting crutches, showed his commitment by sitting on the Canadiens bench during Monday's practice. St. Louis credited his group for making Montreal a welcoming environment.
“There's a show called The Rebuild,” St. Louis said, referencing the behind-the-scenes Canadiens series released this fall. “When you're rebuilding, like you're building a house, the house could look really nice, but is it a home?
“It takes more to make it a home. And seeing Patty coming in like that makes me feel that we're building a home, not just a house.”
The 26-year-old Laine scored a career-high 44 goals with the Winnipeg Jets in 2017-18, thanks to his blistering shot.
Laine hoped to return to that level after a challenging last season with the Columbus Blue Jackets, on and off the ice. He managed only six goals in 18 games before breaking his clavicle in December and entering the NHL's player assistance program in January for his mental health.
"Pretty devastated,” Canadiens forward Cole Caufield said. “We were really excited to have a guy like that on our team, and to see him go down and be in pain like that, for sure wasn’t fun.”
The excitement in Montreal was palpable after the Canadiens acquired Laine from Columbus on Aug. 19, despite the risk of taking on his US$8.7-million salary cap hit for two seasons. The first time he skated down the Bell Centre ice in a Canadiens sweater during Montreal’s pre-season opener, the crowd’s roar reminded St. Louis of the reaction Habs legend Guy Lafleur used to get.
Laine’s addition also had Montreal’s executives speaking about being "in the mix" for the playoffs after three seasons near the NHL’s basement.
Now the Canadiens have a hole in their top six forwards. Laine completed the second line of Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook, which hoped to share the goal-scoring burden with the top line of Caufield, Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky.
"We were all pumped up to have him on our team, and he's still with us in good spirits,” Caufield said. “Everybody knows we’ve got to pull our own weight now, maybe more, and make up for what we lost there."
St. Louis, who often says “the league doesn’t stop,” emphasized that Laine’s injury won’t alter his approach to the season, which begins at the Bell Centre against the Maple Leafs on Oct. 9.
The Canadiens are no strangers to the injury bug. They had the most man-games lost in the league two seasons ago and lost Dach for almost the entire campaign last year.
"We're delusional if we think we're going to go 82 games with the same 23 guys," St. Louis said. “It’s a hard league. Other teams are going to face the same thing. We’ve just got to keep going.
"It's going to open the door for some players."
'UNFORTUNATE EVENT'
The collision between Paré and Laine sparked a heated pre-season affair. After the play went unpenalized, Canadiens defenceman Arber Xhekaj grabbed Paré, who is expected to play in the minors this season, and hit him with several punches to earn an expulsion from the game and a $3,385.42 fine.
In the aftermath, fans flooded Paré’s social media accounts with threats – something Canadiens players denounced on Monday.
“Nobody should have to go through something like that, just an unfortunate event,” Caufield said. “People should probably keep some of those thoughts to themselves, nobody's trying to hurt anybody out there.”
Quebec public security minister François Bonnardel also came out in defence of Paré, a 25-year-old from Levis, Que.
“It is absolutely deplorable to see the treatment Cédric Paré has received on social media in recent days,” Bonnardel wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “This kind of online hate has no place in Quebec.”
ON THE MEND
Defenceman Kaiden Guhle skated with his teammates for the first time since having his appendix removed on Sept. 18, albeit in a non-contact jersey. Meanwhile, forward Josh Anderson, who fought in the second period of Saturday’s loss, had a therapy day on Monday and did not practise.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2024.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press
