Pare knee on Laine - Tough Call Review

Patrik Laine will likely miss a good chunk of time after going knee on knee with Cedric Pare. I don’t think Pare did anything overly malicious. It’s just a trip that with a horrible result.

[tylerfortin]

Dude got beat, planted his foot(as is his right, it's his ice) and tries for the hit. Laine skating like the splits is just a bad meeting of those 2 things. No intent. He literally has no reason to even. Habs fans are genuinely delirious about this. I hope Laine recovers quick

[bend]

Unfortunate. Laine was also trying to squeeze between two players so I’m not sure why both knees skates were so wide anyway.

[sakalaath]

Yeah this is the correct take. Too many people are calling this the dirtiest play they've ever seen.

[joshb]

a fair review, good to see someone not taking sides and properly dissecting the play

[bjornalm]

The way he is skating always leave him vulnerable to contact. Not a dirty play by the defender, he is glued to the ice.

[Montreal]

Laines fault its how he has always plsyed . He trys to go around his opponents, with his legs spread out like an African draff .

[cdub]

Skated 30 feet with his head down into 2 defenders.

[kylesgamingu]

Laine trying to be mcjesus splitting the defence running into someones knee 😂😂😂

[plbrunet]

Can you find and comment on the sequence where Conor Timmins tries to hit Lane Hudson? Similar play, but without injury. (Same game, there was 2:19 left in the 2nd)

[dolandarkxgrandayy]

Toronto's AHL team just ended The Habs season.

[FalloutUrMum]

Laine literally just skated right at Paré for no reason. What's Paré supposed to do? The puck carrier is literally coming right at him, he's not moving out of the way

[ericbrooks]

Hockey is a fast paced game played at high speeds. Things like this do happen, and it doesn’t look intentional to me. If anything, Laine didn’t cut with the deke.

[kieranlobo]

Really unfortunate situation, especially in preseason.

However, I don't believe it's a penalty. You can't just expect someone to move out of your way... Laine didn't move his feet. Other guy was just standing there and didn't move his knee in any way that changed the outcome.

I hate to say it, but Laine's style of cruising in without lifting his feet to move laterally sets him up for something like this; unfortunate that it happened now.

[Le_Chapardeur]

Not intentional and definitively unlucky, but in the context of the game, it was obvious the Leafs were playing the barely legal physical game, which is fine and normal even if a bit much for a preseason game. Coach's message? Idk.

It looks to me like Paré wanted to hit no matter what and the only way he could make up for having zero speed was to shift his body weight to the forward leg into an incoming player, which is dangerous not matter how you cut it. He could have just as well destroyed his knee there.

Laine's awkward "A" framed skating style definitively makes this an instant injury, so he is responsible for trying to cut in-between. He saw the highlight in his mind and ironically, he got clip'd hard.

That being said, Paré is the reason why this hit happened, either because he wanted to impress with his physical game or the game was just too fast for him and he wanted to stop him there so he does not get embarrassed, after all, it was his shot at making the big show.

Either way, Paré just proved that he was quite literally, out of his league.

[dwightropp]

Very unfortunate, but it doesn't even warrant a tripping call in my view, as Laine's leg ran into Pare's stationary leg (which was already out in a wide stance), which the refs got right in not calling.

[creamcheesewonton]

If your knee sticks out, but your hips and shoulder don't move, it's pretty obviously a penalty.

[ronaldtremblay]

25 yo, never played in NHL . Standing at blue line, caught flat-footed. So stick his knee out ...

[cchapman]

A fluke, but very unfortunate for Laine. I originally believed it was a knee so thanks for dissecting this.

[CD-tkoc]

Then Xhekaj did his best bertuzzi impression.

[Johnny-fwxj]

This reminds me of people who drive into and out of a roundabout like their head is bolted straight into their neck: eyes dead-straight ahead the whole time and no swiveling at all

I at least rather be wrong but healthy than being right and paralyzed when it comes to driving.

The same applies here, they both could have avoided all of this, and yet they both just decided to crash and burn.