Canadiens' Laine returns to practice, closing in on debut and impacting roster

BROSSARD, Que. — There was Patrik Laine in a non-contact jersey, back on the ice with his teammates for the first time since suffering the severe left-knee sprain that put him in a heavy brace and on crutches for weeks.

Talk about a welcome sight for the Montreal Canadiens.

“I think it’s exciting for us,” said defenceman David Savard. “I think he’s really happy to be back with the group, and hopefully he’ll come back really soon.”

There was fear the Canadiens wouldn’t see Laine back on the ice with them until next season. He said surgery was recommended by at least one doctor he visited after his collision with Toronto’s Cedric Pare in Montreal’s fourth pre-season game, on Sept. 28, and that option — and the fear he’d be out a very long time — was eliminated only three days later, when the Canadiens announced he was looking at a two-to-three-month recovery.

We can’t say with any certainty Laine will return closer to the two-month mark rather than the three-month mark, but, as Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said after practice on Wednesday, “I think he’s getting closer.”

The 26-year-old winger took his first meaningful steps in that process Nov. 6, when he began skating again. He’d taken several more in the lead up to Wednesday’s practice, moving from working with a rehabilitation coach to working on his touches with director of development Adam Nicholas over the last week.

That’s what Laine was doing for 30 minutes before the Canadiens hit the ice for their 50-minute workout.

Then he stayed on to participate in the first four drills of practice before leaving the ice.

It’ll be a gradual build for Laine as time moves along, and St. Louis feels things will move at a similar pace once he steps back into the Canadiens’ lineup.

“I expect that it’ll take him some time to get back into it,” the coach said. “I don’t know how long. Is it a game? Is it two weeks? We’ll see how it progresses.”

No matter how it does, you have to think Laine’s presence alone will not only give a much-needed boost to Montreal’s top six but also have a ripple effect throughout their lineup.

The Canadiens’ bottom six — expensive as it may be, with Joel Armia ($3.4 million), Christian Dvorak ($4.45 million), Josh Anderson ($5.5 million) and Brendan Gallagher ($6.5 million) skating there — has been very effective since the start of the season, and it figures to become an area of even greater strength when Laine’s return potentially pushes Jake Evans from the second line back into it.

Evans has been arguably Montreal’s most consistent player since the start of the season, and his best work has been done skating between Gallagher and Anderson.

Those two have combined for 12 goals through 19 games after combining for only 25 through all last season.

Dvorak, who’s been between Gallagher and Anderson since Evans was bumped up, has picked up his game considerably since the start of November. If he keeps it up, that should make for some stronger internal competition on the fourth line after Laine returns.

Not that Emil Heineman, Lucas Condotta and Armia need to be pushed, but Rafael Harvey-Pinard is nearing a return — he’s on a conditioning loan to the Laval Rocket, after spending most the summer and the first two months of the season rehabbing a fractured fibula that required surgery — and Michael Pezzetta is itching to get back into the lineup.

What helps Heineman, Condotta and Armia is how effective they’ve been as a line, with Monday’s performance in a 3-0 win over the Edmonton Oilers serving as a strong sample of what they’ve been providing.

“Energy,” said Gallagher. “They’re consistently playing with the puck in their end, they’re not easy to play against, and it’s important for us. It’s important for us to have the depth throughout our lineup. And when they come and play like they’ve been lately, the energy enables us to roll through lines and slowly gain momentum throughout periods.”

It’s not just lately that Heineman, Condotta and Armia have been playing well.

They’ve been strong since being put together a couple of weeks ago, owning a 40-28 shot-attempt advantage and a 16-12 scoring-chance edge against their opposition at five-on-five.

Add that to what Gallagher, Evans and Anderson have been doing since the start of the season — and what Dvorak has been doing of late — and it’s easy to see how Laine’s return might empower the team’s bottom six to thrive even more.

The matchups have been in their favour, and they should tilt that way even more with a more established top six drawing attention.

For it to go that way, St. Louis said the players at the bottom end of Montreal’s lineup just need to keep doing what they’ve been doing to make the Canadiens even harder to play against.

“I don’t think they should change their identity, their attitude, when Laine comes back,” he said. “Those lines are spending a lot of time in the O-zone and I think it’s a domino effect of how we’re defending. We’re spending less time (in the D-zone) and we’re becoming more and more connected offensively. The guys are developing some kind of chemistry and trust inside of our predictability — they know where to go on the ice — and that comes with reps together. So, I’m very happy with the performance, the work that these guys have put in.”

He's been pleased with how Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield have been playing above them, he was happier with Juraj Slafkovsky after Monday’s game, and he’ll be using this week to help Alex Newhook and Kirby Dach raise their confidence.

Newhook has been working extremely hard, but the results haven’t been there for him. He’s stuck on four goals and no assists through the first 19 games.

St. Louis said the 23-year-old needs to home in on his offensive variety.

“His speed is his strength,” he said. “His speed from our goal-line to the top of the offensive circles is a dangerous asset, but it’s to get him to get more out of plays that aren’t off the rush — more stuff in the offensive zone like winning battles, extending time we spend there. Too often in those places it’s one-and-done, and it often changes just by winning a battle. It’s stuff we talk about and work on …”

St. Louis said video and on-ice work will be done with Dach, who has just one goal and eight points so far.

It was expected to be a slow burn for the 2019 third-overall pick of the Chicago Blackhawks, who missed almost all last season with torn ligaments in his right knee.

But now would be the ideal time for Dach to kick his game into gear, with Laine’s return approaching. If he can gain the confidence St. Louis says he’s lacking, he’ll recapture the all-around game that will help him succeed at centre.

That’s where the Canadiens need Dach to be when Laine returns, so the hope is that something clicks for him on Suzuki’s wing in the interim.

“His touches are not as clean as they used to be, and I think that’s a little bit of confidence level,” St. Louis said. “Sometimes, for a player like that, it’s just getting a bounce maybe that gets you going. But you have to work hard for a bounce.”

St. Louis said Dach’s work ethic has been strong, but this is a good week for him to double down on it — with the Canadiens idle until Saturday.

They won’t have Laine for that one against the Vegas Golden Knights, and they likely won’t have him ready to play before they close out their month against the Rangers in New York.

But the big Finn’s presence at practice Wednesday means it probably won’t be much longer before he makes his long-anticipated regular-season debut with the team that traded for him in August.