Cedric Pare breaks his silence after injuring Patrik Laine.

The man at the center of all the controversy this weekend is speaking out and defending himself.

As most of you reading this will already know, Maple Leafs centerman Cedric Pare has brought a ton of criticism down on himself after he appears to have seriously injured Montreal Canadiens star forward Patrik Laine when he went knee on knee with the Finnish forward.

Pare has already been publicly called out over his actions by Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki, former Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban also had some harsh words for the forward, and of course Canadiens enforcer Arber Xhekaj delivered some punishment following the hit.

Despite all this however Pare says the incident was accidental, and defended himself when facing questions from reporters on the topic.

"It's a fast game you know?" said Pare as per NHL.com when asked about the incident. "It wasn't my intention, it's just unfortunate. I hope he's fine. It wasn't my intention, I didn't mean to do that."

Much to his credit, in spite of the fact that he refused to fight after injuring Laine, Pare didn't appear to hold any ill will towards Arber Xhekaj who pummeled him following the incident. Instead Pare said he understood what Xhekaj was trying to do by defending his injured teammate.

"I understand he's gotta defend his teammates," said Pare. "I wasn't ready for that, it kind of caught me by surprise. I know what he's trying to do and I've got to face it."

In an rather incredibly unfortunate twist of fate Pare, a native of Levis, Quebec, was playing in his first ever game in the Bell Center in front of thousands of his fellow Quebecers. Of course the incident with Laine resulted in him being mercilessly booed by the fans in his own home province.

"It was fun even if I got booed by the fans," said Pare with a bit of a tremble in his voice. "I understand and like I said it wasn't my intention and I hope he's fine."

It seems based on the reaction of both the Canadiens players and their fans that they perhaps won't be so willing to buy Pare's story of this being a mere accident.

You can judge for yourselves and let me know your thoughts on Pare's statements in the comments.