Montreal Canadiens forward Patrik Laine left today's pre-season match against the Toronto Maple Leafs after appearing to suffer a serious injury. Laine, of course, was newly acquired by the Canadiens this summer after he had requested a trade from the Columbus Blue Jackets. The 26-year-old got into just 18 games last season as he delt with injuries as well as spending time in the NHL player's assistance program. It appeared as though he was ready for his triumphant return to the league next month, but this injury could set him back. <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/TSN_Sports/status/1840171419973398866'> </a></blockquote></div> The Canadiens forward appeared to hyperextend his left knee in a collision with Leafs forward Cedric Pare as he was sandwiched between two Leafs as he entered the offensive zone. Unfortunately, Laine went down immediately after thew play, clutching his knee as he laid on the ice. After a couple of seconds, the referee blew the whistle to stop the play, another indicator of the serious nature of this injury. <div align='center' style='padding-top:20px;padding-bottom:20px;'><img src='https://i.marqueur.com/habsetlnh/i/photo/481361.webp' width='100%' border='0' alt='image' loading='lazy' defer /></div> Laine was clearly upset as he left the ice. He had to be helped off as he seemingly could not put any weight on his left leg. As he was being helped down the tunnel towards the locker room, he threw his glove and helmet in frustration. <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/HabsOnReddit/status/1840169096823886253'> </a></blockquote></div> Again, this could be an indicator of how serious this injury is. Often times, players will immediately know if an injury is bad or not even if they do not know exactly what happened. Everything seems to be pointing in that direction in this case, which is terrible news for Habs fans. Laine was seen as s potential piece to accelerate the rebuild, but if he misses significant time this season, obviously his impact will be far less. Hopefully he will be able to return to the ice sooner than we are expecting.