Ahead of Tuesday morning’s practice in Brossard, Patrik Laine stepped on the ice with director of hockey development and skills coach Adam Nicholas. For 40 minutes, he was put through his paces as he continued his rehab from core muscle surgery. When the Canadiens announced the big Finn’s injury and surgery, they said he would be out three or four months, meaning a return could be expected in January or February. He’s clearly not near a return right now since he has yet to practice with the team, but when that time comes, one has to wonder where he would actually fit in. In the five games he played this season, he was only able to pick up an assist as he skated on the bottom six alongside Josh Anderson and Jake Evans. Although he did try his best to be efficient in the role, he struggled on the defensive side of the puck, which is nothing new for the Finnish sniper. Even on the power play, his effectiveness was way down since his timing was off, and he was unable to unleash his patented one-timer from the faceoff dot of the offensive zone. Whichever way you look at it, a Laine that can’t perform on the power play is a Laine that has lost his primary use. Furthermore, as things stand, the Canadiens’ man-advantage is performing very well with a 23.8% success rate. The first unit is pretty much set with Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov and Lane Hutson. An effective Laine could probably find a spot on the second power unit, which currently features Brendan Gallagher, Oliver Kapanen, Alex Texier, Noah Dobson and Zach Bolduc. Still, Martin St-Louis is not the type of coach who would put a player on his roster and only use them on the power play. At this stage, given the limitations in Laine’s defensive game, it seems unlikely that he’ll be able to find a spot in the lineup, given the fact that Kirby Dach should also be ready to return. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Follow Karine on X @KarineHains [https://x.com/KarineHains] Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/karinehains.bsky.social] and Threads @karinehains [https://www.threads.net/@karinehains]. Bookmark The Hockey News Canadiens' page [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/] for all the news and happenings around the Canadiens. Join the discussion by signing up to the Canadiens' roundtable [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens] on The Hockey News. Image [https://cdn.ramp-assets.playwire.com/1025444/76033/house_ads/file-1762367418209.jpg] Subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free [https://thehockeynews.store/products/print-subscription]. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here [http://eepurl.com/i7OC4I].
