The news isn’t as bad as many assumed. Max Pacioretty is expected to miss three weeks . He was given an MRI yesterday, following his injury suffered vs the Jets on Tuesday. Head coach Michel Therrien gave us more information regarding the injury following the game vs the BlueJackets Thursday night. It was determined that Pacioretty suffered a left hamstring strain.
The diagnosis puts his recovery on pace for a return roughly around mid-November, however Pacioretty’s mutant healing powers may mean that we will see him sooner.
Pacioretty will be sorely missed, as he led the Habs in both goals and points last season, and managed to score two goals and add an assist in five games this year. Other than his goal scoring ability, he also happens to be the driving force when it comes to possession from the forwards.
The Montreal Canadiens will look to their veterans to fill the void, as newly acquired Daniel Brière, captain Brian Gionta and winger Rene Bourque will all need to step up their play if Montreal hopes to remain in the top-ten for even-strength goals for/against.
The youth movement, composed primarily of Lars Eller, Alex Galchenyuk and Brendan Gallagher will have to continue their dominant ways, as they will most assuredly become Montreal’s default first line, pending the new lineup that Therrien will be forced to draw up.
The prolonged absence of Pacioretty will also open up a spot for the young Michael Bournival. The Shawinigan native should see an increase in ice time, as he has shown plenty of passion during his limited viewings this season. Expect Therrien to count on him to bring energy to the lineup.
Some people have expressed frustration with Pacioretty, labeling him as an injury-prone player. A quick review of his injury history proves quite the contrary. Other than being assaulted by Chara and an appendectomy, Pacioretty has only missed two NHL games due to an actual on-ice injury that didn’t involve a stanchion.
Max Pacioretty sera absent pour une période de 3 semaines. / Max Pacioretty will be out for the next three weeks.
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) October 18, 2013
It would be remiss of me if I did not point to how to desperate some media members were when it came to a virtual diagnosis of Pacioretty’s injury.
For example:
Ne soyez pas surpris si les #Habs annoncent demain que le ligament antérieur croisé du genou gauche de Pacioretty est en piètre état…
— Patrick Caisse (@PatrickCaisse) October 17, 2013
Mr. Caisse says “Don’t be surprised if the Habs announce that Pacioretty’s ACL is in bad shape…”
Which of course is a cop out. If it happens to be true, Caisse can claim he had inside info; if it doesn’t, his disclaimer about not being surprised excuses him from his own assumption.
UPDATE: Caisse deleted the tweet, however the internet never forgets.
A little digging reveals that a rumour site was the first to mention such injury:
Max Pacioretty serait KO pour un méchant bout! http://t.co/iyxunrOjLh
— HABSolument Fan (@HABSolumentFAN) October 16, 2013
There’s no way that Mr.Caisse, a professional reporter for TVA Sports takes his “sources” from a random, baseless fan site, is there? Is the fact that Caisse just about repeated the same rumour, including the same terminology, purely coincidental? For his sake, I hope it is.
Either way, there is very little chance that media members received the results of Pacioretty’s MRI before the Habs brass got a chance to see it.
#Habs tell me just now they don’t yet have Wednesday MRI results for Max Pacioretty. Update hopefully coming later today
— Dave Stubbs (@Dave_Stubbs) October 17, 2013
It’s not the first time a member of the media made an assumption, and it definitely won’t be the last, however hopefully in the future members of the media will show a little restraint when it comes to ‘breaking’ stories, and wait for the facts. We all saw that Pacioretty injured his leg, we could all make random guesses on his health, but considering we don’t have access to the Habs medical team, we’re best off leaving that to the professionals.
We wouldn’t want another Frolov incident, would we?
#Canadiens Alexander #Frolov s’en viendrait à Montréal (99% certain) … Yannick Weber serait l’un des joueurs quittant pour LA.
— Patrick Caisse (@PatrickCaisse) February 11, 2010
To be fair, he only put the odds of Montreal acquiring Frolov at 99%, technically he wasn’t wrong.
