Laine goal-drought watch: 15 games (ends 02/22)

[Zegs2sendhelp]

So bad he cant even score against the ducks.

 

[Peggy]

Patrik Laine
Some stay dry and others feel the pain
Patrik Laine
A baby born will die before the sin

Love the reference
Unfortunately his last name doesnt rhyme with rain

 

[BullLund]

November seems like a lifetime ago.

At this point it is pretty easy to lack faith in the guy. Don't know what the hell is going on, he has still gotten quite a lot of shots off but nothing is going in. I believe he is at over 30 shots now without a goal, which with his previous near 20% accuracy, is just unthinkable.

It is either an epic slump, or things have just unraveled for him. Starting to lean towards the latter with each game he spends floating around with no goals to his credit.

 

[Judas Tavares]

Love the reference
Unfortunately his last name doesnt rhyme with rain

It's like Toews. My brain can't help it.

 

[Absolut]

I enjoy watching Laine when he's on, and he's a type of personality this league needs. A little out there. But I am wondering just how "out there" he really is, and what's going on in the locker-room given his epic meltdown. I don't know the guy, but I hope he has friends on the team, and gets some sort of support. He's still young, and a season like this can mess with a player mentally.

 

[SniperOnTheWing]

The Leafs went through this with Marner last year. The entire first half of the season he was borderline awful. Looked like an AHL player at times, had only three goals by December, spent a long stretch on the 4th line, etc.

He turned out just fine, and Laine will too. Then maybe a few of these threads get necrobumped and we can all have a few laughs at the short-sighted hot takes.

 

[thegr8one66]

I am kind of getting sick of this excuse.

I could see that point being made if he was getting chances and just not scoring but his all around game is just garbage right now.

He's not skating. He's not hustling. He's losing EVERY SINGLE puck battle against the boards. You don't just keep throwing a guy out there who's not competing.

Thing is, he has shown glimpses of his old compete level....and he's looked REALLY good when he has. I don't give a **** about his goal scoring drought. I give a **** about how bad he looks during it. It would be one thing if he was snake bitten but he's just not moving.

Roslovic played his ass off and got moved up to that line...and has looked really good. Him and Little work well together. I am done saying that it's Little that's holding him back.

I say this as someone who's not worried about Laine. I know he's going to get out of this funk at some point but until then, I am done shifting the blame on everyone else.

I am kinda getting sick of this excuse of he's garbage and it's all on him.
How about trying Laine with someone else instead of forcing something that isn't working?
When Ehlers and Connor struggled this season they were moved up to play with Scheifele. Laine has not been given that chance. How come? I'll help you with that: coaching. We don't have a coach that is able to realize that it's important to have your best goal scorer confident and for he playoffs. He's unable to make adjustments for the betterment of the team as a whole. The Jets need to trade for a 2nd line center before Feb. 25th otherwise prepare yourself for a disappointing early playoff exit.

 

[David Bruce Banner]

That's the thing with young players, they can have all the skill in the world, but sometimes it takes a while to for their mental game to catch up. A lot of them have never faced any actual adversity before.

Besides, just like abnormally high shooting percentages don't last, neither do abnormally low ones. Laine's just going to have to work through this.

 

[Chimpradamus]

The painful bit is you see just how one dimensional he is when he isn't scoring. Even worse, he's even worse at everything else he's so bad at when he isn't scoring. Either he's riding the clouds or digging graves. He has to learn to have sisu. I've never seen a player from Finland without sisu. So mellow. Everything has been too easy for him and now comes the backlash.

 

[snipes]

“Does Laine remind me of Lemieux?”

 

[GoJetsGo55]

I am kinda getting sick of this excuse of he's garbage and it's all on him.
How about trying Laine with someone else instead of forcing something that isn't working?
When Ehlers and Connor struggled this season they were moved up to play with Scheifele. Laine has not been given that chance. How come? I'll help you with that: coaching. We don't have a coach that is able to realize that it's important to have your best goal scorer confident and for he playoffs. He's unable to make adjustments for the betterment of the team as a whole. The Jets need to trade for a 2nd line center before Feb. 25th otherwise prepare yourself for a disappointing early playoff exit.

First of all, I never said that Laine is garbage and I certainly don't think it's ALL on him. I certainly think he's played like garbage as of late but that's not who he normally is
What I get annoyed with is everyone looking in every direction except his.

"How come Laine isn't on the first line."
"How come we don't have a different center."
"Why isn't he on the first PP unit!"

Has he earned ANY of that outside of his play for that one month?

I will give you that I would like to see Laine up with Scheif and Wheeler but the fact that that hasn't happened yet does not give him a free pass for his garbage play. Connor didn't get moved up because he was struggling. He got moved up because he earned it....and he's earned the right to play in that spot with his compete level. Ehlers was moved up to try a different combo on the 2nd. I thought Connor did really well on the 2nd line with Little....and Roslovic is playing well with him too.

I don't want to get backed into an argument I am not trying to make. I don't think everyone else has been perfect but there's only 1 player on the ice that's shown absolutely ZERO hustle....and it's Laine. Heck, Roslovic is on that line now because he's absolutely earned it.

 

[tntkid]

I am kinda getting sick of this excuse of he's garbage and it's all on him.
How about trying Laine with someone else instead of forcing something that isn't working?
When Ehlers and Connor struggled this season they were moved up to play with Scheifele. Laine has not been given that chance. How come? I'll help you with that: coaching. We don't have a coach that is able to realize that it's important to have your best goal scorer confident and for he playoffs. He's unable to make adjustments for the betterment of the team as a whole. The Jets need to trade for a 2nd line center before Feb. 25th otherwise prepare yourself for a disappointing early playoff exit.

A playoff run with a boat anchor on the 2nd line will hurt the Jets chances of a long playoff run.
Laine is killing the momentum of the second line.

All the other lines are contributing which is why we are winning games.

Chevy needs to acquire a line mate soon and Maurice needs to figure out where to put Laine to get him to produce again.

 

[GoJetsGo55]

A playoff run with a boat anchor on the 2nd line will hurt the Jets chances of long playoff run.
Laine is killing the momentum of the second line.

All the other lines are contributing which is why we are winning games.

Chevy needs to acquire a line mate soon and Maurice needs to figure out where to put Laine to get him to produce again.

This is a very good point too.

Our 3rd and 4th line have been fantastic for a majority of the last while. I am very happy with the play of 99% of this team. Laine is the one outlier at this moment. When he gets his game together, we're going to be that much more dangerous.

 

[GoJetsGo55]

“Does Laine remind me of Lemieux?”

I would think you would be more sympathetic to a team with an under performing Fin.

 

[snipes]

I would think you would be more sympathetic to a team with an under performing Fin.

The quote was from a thread title.

 

[GoJetsGo55]

The Leafs went through this with Marner last year. The entire first half of the season he was borderline awful. Looked like an AHL player at times, had only three goals by December, spent a long stretch on the 4th line, etc.

He turned out just fine, and Laine will too. Then maybe a few of these threads get necrobumped and we can all have a few laughs at the short-sighted hot takes.

Hahaha the really weird part is that there's a tonne of sympathy coming from Leaf fans in this thread. Like it's never been this cordial since the draft positions were locked that year.

I.....I like it.

Maybe the time of war is over?

It was far too long.

 

[GoJetsGo55]

The quote was from a thread title.

No no I remember it. It's just.....not a low blow...it wasn't that mean. It was like....your kid pushing the shopping cart into your heel. It's like "HEY!...I FORGIVE YOU!"

That makes no sense.

What am I doing with my life?

 

[TheAngryHank]

I thing dude is done.
He can't put it together on a contract year when you his agent /family / friends are in his ear.
Devote time to what pays the bills kid.
Hope he sorts things out.

 

[golgoXIII]

First of all, I never said that Laine is garbage and I certainly don't think it's ALL on him. I certainly think he's played like garbage as of late but that's not who he normally is
What I get annoyed with is everyone looking in every direction except his.

"How come Laine isn't on the first line."
"How come we don't have a different center."
"Why isn't he on the first PP unit!"

Has he earned ANY of that outside of his play for that one month?

I will give you that I would like to see Laine up with Scheif and Wheeler but the fact that that hasn't happened yet does not give him a free pass for his garbage play. Connor didn't get moved up because he was struggling. He got moved up because he earned it....and he's earned the right to play in that spot with his compete level. Ehlers was moved up to try a different combo on the 2nd. I thought Connor did really well on the 2nd line with Little....and Roslovic is playing well with him too.

I don't want to get backed into an argument I am not trying to make. I don't think everyone else has been perfect but there's only 1 player on the ice that's shown absolutely ZERO hustle....and it's Laine. Heck, Roslovic is on that line now because he's absolutely earned it.

Connor is -4 playing with a center who is +18 .... is he that good ???

 

[GoJetsGo55]

Connor is -4 playing with a center who is +18 .... is he that good ???

Absolutely. KFC is a perfect fit for that line. His work in the corners and on the forcheck is exactly what that line needs. Add in that he can pass and shoot very well and I see no reason to break that line up.

Now hold your hand out so I can slap it for using +/- as a valid statistic.

 

[Rangediddy]

Has anyone made a Fortnite joke yet?

 

[ddawg1950]

The thing is, it seems like it's more than just a slump. He doesn't even seem to be getting many good chances. Lots of pure goal scorers go into a slump but they still get chances...they look snake bit...and then one game a puck goes in off their ass or their chin and voila, slump is over.

But this guy seems to be playing in the fog.

 

[robertocarlos]

He just needs a puck to go in the net off his ass and he'll be fine.

 

[GoJetsGo55]

Has anyone made a Fortnite joke yet?

Got any Trump jokes since we're keeping things fresh?

 

[BB88]

This is the 2nd Laine thread about this topic.

I agree the Leafs get it worse, but Laine is rightfully being called out on the one thing he is good at.

This sure as hell isn't his 2nd thread.

The painful bit is you see just how one dimensional he is when he isn't scoring. Even worse, he's even worse at everything else he's so bad at when he isn't scoring. Either he's riding the clouds or digging graves. He has to learn to have sisu. I've never seen a player from Finland without sisu. So mellow. Everything has been too easy for him and now comes the backlash.

I still can't believe he said in one interview 1.5 years ago he doesn't believe in skating during summers, which is kinda showing in his game.

He had fire in his rookie season but something happened with that.