TSN: Laine cleared to return from Player Assistance Program

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Chuck Norris Trophy

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Jan 22, 2015
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What we do know is that Laine was a massive dick growing up and had very poor reputation in Tampere in youth hockey, culminating of course in his middle finger death threat episode in Hlinka 2015.

As for direct bullying, shrug. Haven't heard so, but it would be the least surprising thing in the world. I went to school with a national-level athlete and if Laine's attitude was even close to his(which it seems to have been judging by rumors, documented incidents, etc.) then I'd be more surprised if he was not a bully.

I do agree that Scheifele-Wheeler were the problem in Wpeg, though. Laine aside, Byfuglien doesn't just suddenly retire while leaving 6mil on the table for fun, and Maurice's comments about some players just being so good that they don't need coaching...
It was well known in youth hockey circles that he was a major bully and an A grade asshole.
 
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TS Quint

Stop writing “I mean” in your posts.
Sep 8, 2012
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Laine fans:
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pekka55

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Dec 21, 2023
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Let's just assume he doesn't. He's still a PPG winger.
Well that's just straight up a lie.

480 games and 388 points is NOT ppg.

He's got 1 season out of 9 where he was exactly PPG and 8 seasons where he was below PPG.
 

scholl

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Jun 26, 2019
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Absolutely. Teams like San Jose, Anaheim, Utah... All could make it work.
Exactly. A California team would be great because he could spend time playing golf and tennis all year round which would put less pressure on hockey. That would be good for his mental health. On the other hand I like the Utah owners. I think they would treat Laine well and he could become a better player there.
 
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KingBogo

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Nov 29, 2011
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What we do know is that Laine was a massive dick growing up and had very poor reputation in Tampere in youth hockey, culminating of course in his middle finger death threat episode in Hlinka 2015.

As for direct bullying, shrug. Haven't heard so, but it would be the least surprising thing in the world. I went to school with a national-level athlete and if Laine's attitude was even close to his(which it seems to have been judging by rumors, documented incidents, etc.) then I'd be more surprised if he was not a bully.

I do agree that Scheifele-Wheeler were the problem in Wpeg, though. Laine aside, Byfuglien doesn't just suddenly retire while leaving 6mil on the table for fun, and Maurice's comments about some players just being so good that they don't need coaching...
Yeah sure Schiefele and Wheeler were the problem in Winnipeg. Those mean SOBs tried to get Laine to workout once in awhile and spend at least a little bit of time training. But the guy couldn't be bothered as it ate into his video game time too much.
 

NotCommitted

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Jul 4, 2013
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Yeah sure Schiefele and Wheeler were the problem in Winnipeg. Those mean SOBs tried to get Laine to workout once in awhile and spend at least a little bit of time training. But the guy couldn't be bothered as it ate into his video game time too much.

Well regardless of whether Laine was part of the problem in WPG or not, it's pretty apparent in hindsight whatever was going on in there went way deeper than him. Getting rid of him seemed to change nothing and fast forward a couple years from his trade and among things that have happened have been Maurice walking out on the team, the new coach ripping the leadership publicly, Wheeler stripped out of C and traded etc. and seemed to me like a large portion of the fanbase started blaming things mostly on Wheeler & Scheif once Laine was gone. Which is pretty telling of fans in general I think, most fans just want to blame someone when there are "issues", it's way simpler to think there's "a guy" that you can blame everything on, but in reality it's rarely that simple.

There's also the Buff retirement, though honestly I wouldn't think much of it in isolation, I mean him going "screw hockey, I like to go fishing more" is the type of thing that fits perfectly into my image of him and he did have some injury problems, so maybe there really is nothing to it but then again it happened pretty soon after they made the conference finals. If he had believed in the team and everything was right in the room and culture, maybe he would've stuck around for a chance at the cup.
 

KingBogo

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And Byfuglien and Maurice?
Buff? Seriously? Buff was widely acknowledged as the informal leader in the room. Hell he was the one that kicked E.Kane off the team. Buff quit hockey not the Jets. He marched to the beat of his own drummer and didn't care if he left money on the table to spend his time hunting and fishing. Wheeler was super tight with Maurice. Maurice basically had to quit as the organization is too damn loyal to fire a coach even after they have lost the attention of the players. As for Scheifele he got a lot of props from young Perfetti for taking him under his wing and working with him in the off season. Sorry, but Laine was the cancer in Winnipeg. Not so much a cancer, but very frustrating to most of team mates, since he put no effort into trying to improve as a hockey player. It didn't take long for his lack of training to catch up with as evidenced by all his injury problems.
 
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