Canadiens' David Reinbacher and Patrik Laine injured vs. Maple ...

No update on Laine's status after he was helped off ice and couldn't put weight on his left leg following knee-on-knee hit from Cédric Paré.

Author of the article:

Stu Cowan  •  Montreal Gazette

Published Sep 28, 2024  •  Last updated 27 minutes ago  •  6 minute read

The Canadiens' Patrik Laine lies on the ice after taking a knee-on-knee hit from the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Cédric Paré during first period of Saturday night’s NHL pre-season game at the Bell Centre. Photo by Evan Buhler /The Canadian Press

You really have to wonder if the Canadiens are jinxed when it comes to injuries.

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Maybe they should replace the RBC sponsorship logo on their red home sweaters with a Medicare card.

Only four seconds into Saturday night’s pre-season game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre, Canadiens defenceman David Reinbacher was checked hard into the boards in front of the Montreal bench by the Maple Leafs’ Marshall Rifai. Reinbacher fell awkwardly and appeared to twist his left ankle and leg. Shortly afterward he hobbled off the ice and to the locker-room, helped by the team’s medical staff.

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Things would get worse less than four minutes later when the Canadiens were on a power play and forward Patrik Laine had a knee-on-knee collision with the Maple Leafs’ Cédric Paré at the blue line and crumbled to the ice. Laine had to be helped off the ice by the medical staff and wasn’t able to put any weight on his left leg.

The 25-year-old Paré, who has never played an NHL regular-season game and spent last season with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles, was not penalized for the hit.

A visibly upset Laine took off his helmet and threw it while being helped to the locker-room. Video replays of the knee-on-knee hit didn’t look good and it wouldn’t be a surprise if Laine suffered a serious knee injury.

The Canadiens announced after the first period that both Reinbacher and Laine would not return to the game. Reinbacher had only 13 seconds of ice time, while Laine played 2:22.

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The Canadiens ended up losing the game 2-1. Nicholas Robertson scored both goals for the Leafs, while Kirby Dach replied for the Canadiens. The Leafs dressed what was basically a minor-league lineup without star players Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares and Morgan Rielly. The Canadiens went 0-for-7 on the power play, while the Leafs went 1-for-4.

The Canadiens didn’t have any update on the injuries to Reinbacher and Laine after the game. The team has a day off on Sunday, so there probably won’t be any updates until Monday.

Head coach Martin St. Louis said after the game that he thought Paré should have been penalized for the hit on Laine.

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Last season, the Canadiens lost forward Kirby Dach in the second game of the regular season when he suffered a season-ending knee injury that required surgery. That came after the Canadiens had lost an NHL-record 720 man-games to injury during the 2021-22 season, then broke that record in 2022-23 when they lost 751 man-games to injury.

“I don’t know if it’s a jinx,” St. Louis said when asked about the long run of injury problems. “I feel we’ve had that mentality of just … I’ve said it before, the league doesn’t care. It just keeps going. So for us we have to keep going. That’s what we’re going to do and we’ll see if it’s short-term, long-term (with Laine), we don’t know. He’s going to be evaluated and we’ll keep going.”

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Captain Nick Suzuki said “we’re definitely not jinxed” when it comes to injuries.

“It’s an unfortunate play,” Suzuki added. “That (zone) entry happens a lot. I thought the guy lunged there pretty good and got him hard. It sucks for Patty and it sucks for us.”

The Canadiens acquired Laine from the Columbus Blue Jackets on Aug. 19, along with a second-round pick at the 2026 NHL Draft, in exchange for defenceman Jordan Harris. Before the trade, Laine hadn’t played in a game since last Dec. 14 when he suffered a broken left clavicle that required surgery. Laine then entered the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program in January while dealing with mental-health issues.

The Canadiens are counting on Laine — who scored a career-high 44 goals with the Winnipeg Jets in 2017-18 — to help an offence that ranked 26th in the NHL last season.

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Shortly after play resumed following the hit on Laine, the Canadiens’ Arber Xhekaj jumped Paré and put a beating on the Leafs forward. Xhekaj received a two-minute penalty for instigating, a five-minute major for fighting, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct. That left the Canadiens with only four defencemen for the rest of the game: Mike Matheson, David Savard, Lane Hutson and Logan Mailloux.

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After Xhekaj was penalized, the Leafs got a power-play goal from Robertson to take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Robertson scored again at 3:26 of the third period before Dach put the Canadiens on the board at 18:16 with goalie Cayden Primeau pulled for an extra attacker.

St. Louis said he understood Xhekaj’s reaction to the hit on Laine. Matheson said Xhekaj was “just trying to stick up for his player” and added “I definitely respect him for that.”

Less than eight minutes into the second period the Canadiens’ Juraj Slafkovsky dropped the gloves and fought Rifai, who delivered the first-period hit on Reinbacher. The Canadiens selected Reinbacher in the first round (fifth overall) of the 2023 NHL Draft.

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“It’s very, very unfortunate,” Matheson said about the injury to Laine. “That’s the last thing you want in a pre-season game is a guy sticking out his knee, going knee-on-knee on a guy. I’m all for not playing shinny hockey out there. You got to play hard and get ready for the season, but that’s just definitely unfortunate.”

Matheson finished the game with a team-high 27:08 of ice time, while Hutson logged 25:16, Savard logged 24:12 and Mailloux logged 21:22. St. Louis used forward Lucas Condotta as a defenceman for a few shifts.

Former Canadiens defenceman P.K. Subban watched the game from the stands. If he had brought his skates, the Canadiens could have used him on the ice.

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Matheson was impressed with the way the young Hutson and Mailloux handled the extra ice time.

“I thought they did well,” Matheson said. “They stayed within themselves and not getting too extended. You got to shift your game a little bit, so I thought they did a good job of that. Just manage your shifts and don’t get caught out there too long and pick your spots a little more. I thought everyone reacted pretty well to it.”

Now it will be interesting to see how the Canadiens react if Laine’s injury is long-term.

“It’s definitely frustrating, but it’s the cards you get dealt,” Matheson said. “There’s no point feeling sorry for yourself or anything like that. You just hope that it’s nothing serious and continue working.”

The Canadiens have two pre-season games remaining, both against the Ottawa Senators. They will play Tuesday night at the Bell Centre and next Saturday in Ottawa. The Canadiens will open the regular season the following Wednesday at the Bell Centre against the Maple Leafs.

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After the game, the Canadiens announced that 27 players have been cut from their training-camp roster.

Sixteen forwards have been sent down to the AHL’s Laval Rocket: Owen Beck, Jared Davidson, Sean Farrell, Riley Kidney, Filip Mesar, Jacob Perreault, Xavier Simoneau, Luke Tuch, Florian Xhekaj, Vincent Arseneau, Alex Beaucage, Laurent Dauphin, Israel Mianscum, Logan Nijhoff, Jakov Novak and Charles Savoie.

Eight defenceman were also sent to Laval: William Trudeau, Zackary Hayes, Joshua Jacobs, Chris Jandric, Simon Motew, Jacob Paquette, Vincent Sévigny and Tyler Wotherspoon, along with goalies Connor Hughes, Luke Cavallin and Hunter Jones.

The Rocket will begin their training camp on Tuesday at Place Bell in Laval.

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