Player Discussion Patrik Laine: Part 2 - Healthy Living Edition

[Marioesque]

Why do 3 games in Feb negate the other 46 games? Makes zero sense

3 games with 0 goals at that

You really don't understand the point?

He played those games with capable teammates. He was good.

When you change his surroundings, he plays well.

You put him with statistically leagues worst line and you get underwhelming results.

How do you not see the actual problem in this equation?

Why is this so difficult to understand? Instead of understanding the OBVIOUS variable that changed there, you think he's generally not capable of playing well 5 on 5 with ANYONE because it's entirely about his inabilities that he's not currently not contributing a lot 5 on 5.

He's the most productive 5 on 5 player in the team over their careers.

 

[VT]

He used to be a decent 5v5 player and is no longer, not sure why you fanboys can’t admit this

Because we can only judge if he is still a good 5v5 player when he is healthy and has had full training. By the way, this is true for every player, for example Dach as well. And what any athlete, coach, or doctor will tell you.

 

[Sharknado2]

To be fair, he has setup Newhook so may times and Newhook wasn;t able to finish. I think with the addition of Hieneman, this will be a really good line and I can already see Laine backchecking alot more.

 

[Marioesque]

To be fair, he has setup Newhook so may times and Newhook wasn;t able to finish. I think with the addition of Hieneman, this will be a really good line and I can already see Laine backchecking alot more.

Yeah he seems better every game

 

[KevSkillz4]

I really like what I see from Laine since the 4 nations break.

This guy is a keeper, for sure.

 

[WeThreeKings]

I personally thought he was rather invisible last night and made horrible decisions with the puck.

Really tired of his soft mid air back hand passes that always get picked off. Be hard on the f***ing puck.

 

[Victoire HuGo]

I personally thought he was rather invisible last night and made horrible decisions with the puck.

Really tired of his soft mid air back hand passes that always get picked off. Be hard on the f***ing puck.

Yeah Slaf learned the hard way but Laine is still trying those West to East passes that rarely work

 

[NotCommitted]

He used to be a decent 5v5 player and is no longer, not sure why you fanboys can’t admit this

Maybe you need to articulate yourself better, from some of your posts I really got the idea you think he was never any good 5v5 and never will be any good 5v5. The former clearly isn't true and you don't need to go back that far to find out - IMO he played his best 5v5 hockey in CBJ 21/22 & 22/23, it just went largely unnoticed because the team was so bad and he didn't play full seasons. 21/22 for example he was the only guy in the team to reach 50% GF 5v5 and was 1 P/GP when the next best producer was something like 0.75 P/GP. Similar story in 22/23.

His even strength production those years was pacing for top20 in the league - while playing 1st line with largely AHL defense in a bottom-3 team and having a point on over 80% of goals scored while he was on ice. Basically if the team managed to do anything offensively, he had his hand on it. When on ice ofc, not from the bench.

Yes, he missed significant time both season and "on pace" is not same as actually doing it, but let's not act like a 55 game season is completely insignificant and tells nothing about the player.

So clearly he can be a good 5v5 player, will he be that again in the future who knows, if health permits I see why not, but will it? His injury history is extensive and that knee he hurt in preseason already had 4 prior surgeries on it including at least one that was pretty major. It's entirely possible his skating will never be the same. Even if it won't be, I'm sure he can adapt to some degree and be better than this even with a bum knee, especially if he can play with linemates who can actually carry the play a bit, he could still be a decent 2nd liner. He could also be the best or 2nd best forward of the team next year (5v5) if he heals fully and gets his game back.

IMO some patience would pay off, just enjoy the PP goals for now and see how the overall game shapes up.

 

[Vachon23]

I personally thought he was rather invisible last night and made horrible decisions with the puck.

Really tired of his soft mid air back hand passes that always get picked off. Be hard on the f***ing puck.

2 lazy plays I really hated yesterday:

- the pass to no one at the end of the game
- The play where he took a slashing on Barkov. Very low IQ/lazy play when he turn around the wrong side for no reason that let Barkov all alone

 

[the]

2 lazy plays I really hated yesterday:

- the pass to no one at the end of the game
- The play where he took a slashing on Barkov. Very low IQ/lazy play when he turn around the wrong side for no reason that let Barkov all alone

That situation happened because of Slafkovsky. Laine had no choice but to take the penalty. You don't let a player like Barkov alone get a prime scoring chance like that.

No idea where you saw a low IQ play here? It was the smart thing to do. Barkov would have probably scored if Laine didn't take that slashing penalty.

 

[Vachon23]

That situation happened because of Slafkovsky. Laine had no choice but to take the penalty. You don't let a player like Barkov alone get a prime scoring chance like that.

No idea where you saw a low IQ play here? It was the smart thing to do. Barkov would have probably scored if Laine didn't take that slashing penalty.

The penalty wasn’t the problem, but look at what he does just before

 

[Marioesque]

I personally thought he was rather invisible last night and made horrible decisions with the puck.

What? He was the best forward outside of Suzuki last night. Andersson had a good game as well.

Like what are people watching?

 

[Marioesque]

- The play where he took a slashing on Barkov. Very low IQ/lazy play when he turn around the wrong side for no reason that let Barkov all alone

Barkov is not Laine's man in that situation, but Laine is the only one doing something to stop Barkov.

The entire broadcast agreed Laine HAD to take the penalty and it was the right move. I agreed too.

 

[WeThreeKings]

What? He was the best forward outside of Suzuki last night. Andersson had a good game as well.

Like what are people watching?

lol what

You've got a massive bias, come down to earth here, buddy.

 

[Marioesque]

lol what

You've got a massive bias, come down to earth here, buddy.

You can't even watch a game and recognize who is playing well

Laine backchecked and won a lot of 1 on 1's, created chances.

Who else outside of the 3 fwds I mentioned played better than any of those 3 last night?

 

[WeThreeKings]

You can't even watch a game and recognize who is playing well

Laine backchecked and won a lot of 1 on 1's, created chances.

Who else outside of the 3 fwds I mentioned played better than any of those 3 last night?

Dvorak, Gallagher, Heineman all played significantly better than Laine.

Caufield, Slafkovsky and Laine were having tough games. Laine kept turning pucks over and forced shots that were getting blocked and got lost defensively a thousand times over.

He had one good play that almost resulted in a goal, that's it.

 

[rik schau]

Reckon this chap is a confounding enigma from what I'm seeing,reading, hearing about. So much so that I might be having episodes of DID as there seems to be a whopper of a battle between myself about what to do and think of this bloke.lol

 

[The Great Weal]

- The play where he took a slashing on Barkov. Very low IQ/lazy play when he turn around the wrong side for no reason that let Barkov all alone

That was entirely on Slaf who just chose to puck watch and not look behind him. Barkov would have scored if it wasn't for Laine's penalty.

 

[Vachon23]

Barkov is not Laine's man in that situation, but Laine is the only one doing something to stop Barkov.

The entire broadcast agreed Laine HAD to take the penalty and it was the right move. I agreed too.

That was entirely on Slaf who just chose to puck watch and not look behind him. Barkov would have scored if it wasn't for Laine's penalty.

Again, the penalty wasn’t the problem, it was the play before. I agree that Slaf didn’t make a good play too

 

[Seb]

I personally thought he was rather invisible last night and made horrible decisions with the puck.

Really tired of his soft mid air back hand passes that always get picked off. Be hard on the f***ing puck.

What has struck me the past few games is how slow he is. Slow to skate, slow to make decisions, slow to shoot.

Luckily he has a deadly shot and he has Hutson and Suzuki to feed him on the power play.

 

[Naslundforever]

Maybe playing Laine with two good forecheckers is a way to get him to just put it deep if there was passing options coming over the blue (instead of the dangles standing still with high danger passes). Remove his hesitant blue line turnovers and I imagine most of us see him as a definite net positive. Goal scorers are what the game’s all about.

 

[Naslundforever]

What has struck me the past few games is how slow he is. Slow to skate, slow to make decisions, slow to shoot.

Luckily he has a deadly shot and he has Hutson and Suzuki to feed him on the power play.

He’s a 6’6 Marc Andre Bergeron lol.

 

[Marioesque]

slow to make decisions

He makes decisions before he gets the puck, but his decision is often "hold on to it and wait for opponents to come closer, then pass it to teammate at optimal time". More so now that his acceleration is more affected. He won't try to outskate opponent from a stand still, he'll wait for the opponents move.

Once you understand that, might be easier to see what he is doing. He's deceptive when he receives the puck if he wants to pull opponents to him, often looks like he's fumbling with it and then he gets it to teammates in stride.

If he sees a guy open when he's about to receive the puck, he'll immediately find the open guy (a good example was a recent goal of Suzuki where Laine basically one touch passed it to Suzuki in open. He is fully capable of fast passing, but most of the scenarios he finds himself in, he pulls players to him to create room.

This isn't even rare to him at all, especially in defensive zone boards near the blue line, you should expect it. Even in 4 nations he created a 2 on 1 twice with the same play, different lines. Happens in MTL too. It's by design

 

[Mrb1p]

Laines great and I feel hes getting comfy in the room. He's playing great lately, even saved a goal from Barkov on one of Slafs many disgusting blunders.

 

[Marioesque]

Laine kept turning pucks over and forced shots that were getting blocked and got lost defensively a thousand times over.

He had one good play that almost resulted in a goal, that's it.

That's just bs, Laine had one giveaway in the game.

He also had the most shot attempts and shots on net (tied)

He didn't get lost defensively once. He saved a very likely goal by slashing Sasha. That was him covering for Slaf's mistake. He backchecked and stripped the puck from FLA player several times in the game. Broke passes and stayed on his man.

So WHEN did he do these things you're claiming?

Even when he has a good game, there's always a few of these people who are watching something completely different