It looks like the Canadiens’ injury jinx will continue.
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 shortly after hobbled to the locker-room while helped by the team’s training staff.
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 training 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 shock 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.
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. 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.
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. The Canadiens were counting on Dach to help the offence last season.
The Canadiens lost an NHL-record 720 man-games to injury during the 2021-22 season, then broke that record the next season when they lost 751 man-games to injury.
Shortly after play resumed Saturday night following the hit on Laine, the Canadiens’ Arber Xhekaj jumped Paré and put a beating on the Leafs defenceman. 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 in the lineup for the rest of the game: Lane Hutson, David Savard, Mike Matheson and Logan Mailloux.
After Xhekaj was penalized, the Leafs got a power-play goal from Nicholas Robertson to take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
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.
The Leafs were still leading 1-0 after the second period.