Patrik Laine takes major step towards making return and NHL debut for Montreal Canadiens
Montreal Canadiens forward Patrik Laine has taken a major step in his recovery today, signaling his return to the NHL may come sooner than we initially expected.
Laine was injured during the preseason when he took a knee-on-knee hit from Leafs forward Cedric Pare. At the time, there was a lot of controversy and outrage over the play as many around the league thought it was a dirty play. However, Pare is back playing in the AHL which could be seen as a big enough punishment on its own.
Laine meanwhile, remains on track to return to the Canadiens lineup before the end of the calendar year. In fact, it seems as though he may be on track to return much earlier than we initially expected. Today, he was seen skating on the ice by himself ahead of a team practice just a month after the injury. This is a huge step forward and a sign that he could beat the original 2-3 month estimate for a return date.
It was originally expected that Laine would not return to the lineup until mid-December at the earliest. Even then, that was after the Canadiens gave us the 2-3 month timeline. Before we got that update, many feared that he would be out much longer, perhaps even the whole season as the injury looked that bad when it happened. All things considered then, it seems like Laine has gotten extremely lucky.
Canadiens reporter Renaud Lavoie actually gave us a more definitive update with this news saying that the Finish forward could potentially make his regular-season debut for the Habs as early as this month if the rest of his recovery process goes this smoothly.
"Patrik Laine started skating again on Thursday. if everything goes well, and I stress if everything goes well, he could be playing at the end of the month... if everything goes well."
Hopefully, Laine will not suffer any setbacks in his recovery process and we can in fact, see him in the NHL again later this month. Be sure to stay tuned though as we get more updates on his status in the coming weeks.
| POLL | ||
Do you think Patrik Laine's return will have a noticeable impact on the Canadiens' success for the rest of the season? | ||
| Yes | 54 | 47.4 % |
| No | 60 | 52.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
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