Patrik Laine An NHL career couldn’t have gotten off to a much better start. At the summer 2016 booking event, Laine was considered the best goal scorer in his age group, and the Tesoma tiger did not disappoint expectations after starting in the NHL in the fall of 2016.
His rookie season brought 36 hits, followed by seasons of 44 and 30 goals.
During the first three seasons, goals were scored at the same pace Connor McDavid’s and by Auston Matthews with. Matthews was booked the same year as Laine.
The Tampere native was the NHL’s sixth best finisher in the first three seasons, just two goals behind third-placed McDavid.
Then something happened.
More and more reports of Laine’s displeasure began to emerge from Winnipeg. Among other things, a narrative was born, according to which there was not a good enough central striker available for the goal cannon. Laine clearly wanted more and the team’s team spirit was not the best class A anyway.
In the end, Laine asked the club for a transfer, and in January 2021, it was granted to Tappara’s man – he left for Columbus.
Since then, Laine has had to give up her superstar status. If for the first three years the ranking in the entire league’s goal exchange was sixth, for the last four years it is 75. Laine has not even been the best Finnish goal scorer in the NHL for a long time – they have passed Mikko Rantanen, Alexander Barkov, Roope Hintz and Sebastian Aho.
And we’re not talking about a small sample. The ride has been cold for Lainee personally, and it is also not appropriate to forget that numerous injuries have made the player’s path difficult in recent years.
Of course, you have to remember that Laine played last season in Columbus with a point per game average. Still, after two and a half years in Columbus, you don’t get a very nice overall picture, no matter what brush you use.
The first year was a complete disaster, followed by a posture movement, but now there are bad signs in the air again.
A better example for young people
Laine’s original sin is still getting lost in the game and lacking the right emotional state. At times he has looked like a big power forward but rarely a nine million dollar player. At times, he defends laxly and makes sloppy decisions with the puck in critical areas.
After a recent four-year contract worth almost 35 million talas, Laine’s actions must be monitored with even greater scrutiny than before.
Columbus as a club is in a weak state. The young team takes a beating night after night, but the rudiments of a winning culture should be built along with constant losing.
In terms of culture, the team’s most expensive players, Laine and Johnny Gaudreau the doing has been sorely lacking. Gaudreau just had inexcusably poor games against Carolina and Washington, and Laine, who went 10 games without a hit, wasn’t much better.
Finnish boss of the club Jarmo Kekäläinen has repeatedly stated that he adheres to the principles of a winning culture, a tough level of demands in everyday life and so on – despite constant losing.
So far, the team’s most expensive players have not responded to their boss’s call.
Frustration always seems to hit the team first in its most important runs. Laine’s frustrated gestures in different situations are a familiar sight from this season. When does this one hit the puck, when does it trickle into the exchange?
This is how Laine can no longer act as the team’s leading player. The club already has a few talented promises of tomorrow marinating on the NHL side, and such an example cannot be set by the group’s Most Expensive Players.
The gaze also turns strongly to Kekäläinen. It is the task of the club management and coaching to set the limits.
The stock plummets
If Laine’s journey started as the second player in the age group in the fall of 2016, now the situation is completely different. When in the summer of 2019 Laine was the number one reservation behind Matthews by one goal, now there is a difference of 94 hits.
It has come from right and left anyway: M. Tkachuk, McAvoy, Thompson, DeBrincat, Fox, Kyrou, Bratt, Keller, Dubois and partners are in the spotlight.
If we talk purely about the result, Laine’s share has also decreased within her own age group. And there’s not much else in Laine’s game right now other than results – that’s what he does, but more in random bursts than with the certainty of other top players.
Laine does not belong to the scoring elite in the NHL.
And there’s no need to feel sorry for Laine because of Columbus. In the case of Laine, a narrative has been maintained for years that the fault is always somewhere else. First it was mid lane or play in Winnipeg and now weak in Columbus.
Laine himself wanted out of Winnipeg and has since been elevated to a top tier solution player enjoying a top individual salary. The responsibility is now on the player.
Even the Winnipeg narrative appears in a different light these days. Bryan Little wasn’t the NHL’s elite center, but there was plenty of other good stuff on offer. Blake Wheeler mocked the opponent’s underpowered four for years in favor of Laine. In four years, Laine hit 52 dominant hits, in his best season as many as twenty, and the majority of them came from Wheeler’s pass.
In Columbus, Laine has played a dominant 372 minutes in three years, making ten hits. So the team needs about 19 two-minute overtime plays for Laine to score one overtime goal. In Winnipeg, the same reading was about nine. This season, Laine has scored one power play goal.
Summa summarum: For Patrik Laine, the time for explanations and flashing around is over. Laine turns 25 in April and is approaching the years when he should be playing the best hockey of his career.
Columbus is a challenge and a test for Lainee, a big place for growth and an opportunity.
It’s time to take responsibility.
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