Laine's 37 points (21 goals, 16 assists) lead NHL rookies and are tied with linemate Mark Scheifele for the Jets lead.
Maurice said forward Drew Stafford will move into Laine's spot on the top line with Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers.
Maurice he had no complaint with McCabe's hit on Laine.
"It's an awfully hard hit," he said. "Those happen in the games. It wasn't dirty.
"I love Patty Laine. I'm going to protect my players all day long. I don't have a problem with the hit. When two big men get together at that pace, there's going to be some collateral damage. The hits they're talking about getting out of the game are blind-side hits, elbows to the head, people coming off their feet to drive into it. It's a very unfortunate result, and we're hoping to get Patty back healthy here, but there's no issues with it."
Maurice also defended Scheifele, whose pass to Laine came right before the hit.
"That's a flat pass to an open guy," Maurice said. "It's not in his feet, it's not from behind. Ninety-nine times out of 100, the D are pulling out on that because of the speed we've got going through. And this is happening fast, right?
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"You don't have time and you need to check early what your lanes are coming up the ice. There's nothing wrong with that pass. It's a hard hit and when you get a collision like that, there aren't the markers of a dirty hit. The elbows aren't up, they're not off their feet. They collided and both heads hit and we had a bad result. I don't know what their result was."
Ehlers said Laine's absence is disappointing considering the chemistry that was developing with their line.
"It's obviously not what you want to see," said Ehlers, who has 14 goals and 22 assists. "You don't want to see one of your teammates go down, and not like that. So it's going to be tough. We were building some good chemistry, me, him and [Scheifele]. But that's the way it is. He's going to get better, hopefully very soon, and we'll look forward to that.
"Hockey is a fast sport. You see an open guy, you play him. Hits like that happen. It's a fast-played game. Stuff like that happens."
Laine watched the practice Sunday "with a big smile on his face," Maurice said.
"He's not feeling 100 percent," Maurice said. "He's not feeling fresh, but he's walking around looking good. He's got Nik Ehlers (his roommate) as a chauffeur for a little while, so he's in good shape."
