Photo credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images

Montreal Canadiens forward Patrik Laine sparked quite a bit of buzz today. A rumor is circulating suggesting that the 6-foot-4 forward may be injured, or at the very least, has been seriously bothered for some time now.

Several people have commented on it in recent hours, including the excellent Alexandre Gascon of Radio-Canada Sports.

Here’s an excerpt of what he said, as reported by Mathieu Paradis of TSLH:

“Laine, these days, first of all, teams are doing a better job of isolating him on the power play.

And he no longer has the same posture, the same power, the same heaviness in his shot.

In Ottawa and Toronto, on several occasions, he was seen shaking his hand away from the cameras.

And it’s been multiple times that he stops the puck instead of taking one-timers.

Even his wrist shot doesn’t have the same zip.

It’s been at least ten days of this.

I think he’s dealing with something.

And if Laine doesn’t have that shot anymore, what does he have left?”

– Alexandre Gascon

That’s an interesting angle that could explain quite a lot.

Patrik Laine May Currently Be Injured, According to Several Experts

It’s not ideal if young Ivan Demidov has to play alongside an injured Patrik Laine and an Alex Newhook who’s clearly lacking finish, but Martin St-Louis doesn’t have 56 options at the moment, especially if he doesn’t want to touch the Nick Suzuki and Christian Dvorak lines.

This will definitely be a situation to monitor in the coming days, especially since Laine wasn’t among the players who took part in today’s optional Canadiens practice.

Will he be there tomorrow for the regular practice?

It’s worth keeping an eye on and mentioning, especially since we’ve often seen Laine grimacing and shaking his hand/wrist during recent games.