Player Discussion Patrik Laine: Part 2 - Healthy Living Edition

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Where is he seeing Laine in person if he’s too sick to play? If he can’t do his $8m/year job with his team in the middle of a playoff push he better be bedridden
Laine can walk and come to the arena. McGuire travels all the time and see players outside the rink. Don't get confused between Pierre McGuire and Martin McGuire, tho.
 
If he can go to the rink he ain’t that sick, why would they risk the entire team and staff getting sick? Makes no sense
As long as he doesn't kiss men on the cheek like some european tradition, lol. Always wash your hands and avoid contacts. Bro, don't ask me, I only write what I've heard from Martin McG yesterday and he's not a lyer. Maybe Laine doesn't follow the Habs procedures in the case of a flu.
 
Wow, rds reporter Luc Gelinas saying Laine doesn't really have the flu. He says no one at the rink thinks he has the flu. He thinks there's something else going on behind the scene.

at the 2:18 mark:

ADHD-investigation maybe? It takes time, and the queues are long, maybe they decided to expedite Laine's case and do it in like one week instead of the normal 4-6 months.
 
I have no issues with Laine and I liked the gamble but are you willing to give him a long term contract? I'm not , he has zero expectations on him and people are already on his case, imagine if this team is ever good and he's still floating out there.

He has valid excuses this year no doubt but at some point it's professional sports and they are payed handsomely to go out there and play hard

I don't think its gonna work out. Hope it does.

The cap hit next year and this offseason is a non issue for me so I agree with you
At first, I thought yes. Resign him. Now I’m not so sure. He doesn’t compete, is poor defensively and he’s so frickin slow! I think they can do better.
 
At first, I thought yes. Resign him. Now I’m not so sure. He doesn’t compete, is poor defensively and he’s so frickin slow! I think they can do better.
let's see where he is at next years trade deadline, even if he has a good season history dictates that you simply can't give this guy 6-7-8 years , not sure who will be willing to do that
 
We got paid to take Laine contract. But it sucks, a free 2nd but the 9m caphit this summer is going to kill us. Hughes will retain half and try to move his contract at draft.

Our cap situation relative to roster needs is perfectly fine.

We've got 11.5M$ in cap room, not counting Price's LTIR contract, and all 3 retention spots as of July 1.

Dobes, Strubble & Heineman are the only RFAs to sign, none of which are going to get huge raises.

Unless there is internal assessment that he isn't a culture fit, I'd say it's highly unlikely they trade Laine before the season starts.
 
It really seems like the coaching staff doesn't trust him at all considering how he has some of the most favourable minutes in the entire league and yet the 5v5 results with him are still abysmal. Against Buffalo last week literally half of his minutes came on the power play where he only managed to get one shot off that was saved by the goaltender. His skating stats from NHL Edge are all something you would maybe expect from a 40 year old Ovechkin but for a 26 year old player supposedly at the peak of his career it's just sad to look at. I don't think he has a future in this team after next year's trade deadline when we have guys like Demidov coming in, and honestly think he might be even retiring from the league by the time he reaches 30.

I mean his only real value comes as a power play specialist, but most teams that aren't rebuilding already have other talented offensive players who don't need to be extremely sheltered at 5v5 just so that the results aren't catastrophic for the team. And for all the people who look at his points and say that he can still score well, what happened to Mike Hoffman? He had roughly similar production in his two seasons here as to what Laine has now and he's out of the league by now.
 
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It really seems like the coaching staff doesn't trust him at all considering how he has some of the most favourable minutes in the entire league and yet the 5v5 results with him are still abysmal. Against Buffalo last week literally half of his minutes came on the power play where he only managed to get one shot off that was saved by the goaltender. His skating stats from NHL Edge are all something you would maybe expect from a 40 year old Ovechkin but for a 26 year old player supposedly at the peak of his career it's just sad to look at. I don't think he has a future in this team after next year's trade deadline when we have guys like Demidov coming in, and honestly think he might be even retiring from the league by the time he reaches 30.

I mean his only real value comes as a power play specialist, but most teams that aren't rebuilding already have other talented offensive players who don't need to be extremely sheltered at 5v5 just so that the results aren't catastrophic for the team. And for all the people who look at his points and say that he can still score well, what happened to Mike Hoffman? He had roughly similar production in his two seasons here as to what Laine has now and he's out of the league by now.

It's a trust issue more than a Laine issue. He played much bigger minutes against much harder opposition in 4 nations and was one of the few OK players for his team.

This happened in the same city, the same arena where he plays on normal weekdays.

So is the issue the players ability, or coaching?

I was asking this after the last game where Laine's line barely played in the 3rd and Laine didn't play a second of OT in at least the last two OT's for the team. Why is that? He's a very good OT performer historically. I'm guessing, but he's probably the most effective OT producer out of the team, historically.

Who does it serve to sit him in situations where his special ability is more useful? It's hard for him to get shots off 5 on 5 because he's pretty well covered in offensive zone and the line doesn't necessarily generate a lot of chances. But 3 on 3 is made for a shooter like him, because the chances to shoot will come.

Having that shot is almost a bigger cheat code 3 vs 3 than it is on PP. And we know it works on PP, extremely well.

Newhook was out there in OT. Do we feel we'd rather have Newhook get a clear shot at goal, or Laine? That is the question.
 
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You guys ever had the flu ? The real thing, not a cold.

I was barely able to walk and felt like a truck ran over me for fun. It can takes up to 7-10 days to feel ok.

Is Laine a headcase ? Absolutely. Can flu get you out for a few games ? Absolutely too.

We got him for dirt cheap. Worst case he walks after next season. This is shitburger for drama.
 
Who does it serve to sit him in situations where his special ability is more useful? It's hard for him to get shots off 5 on 5 because he's pretty well covered in offensive zone and the line doesn't necessarily generate a lot of chances. But 3 on 3 is made for a shooter like him, because the chances to shoot will come.

Having that shot is almost a bigger cheat code 3 vs 3 than it is on PP. And we know it works on PP, extremely well.
You can count how many shots teams usually take during a 3v3 OT, and what type of players are often times deployed there. In reality, speed is king in OT when there's so much ice available. Deploying Laine, your slowest forward who also happens to be a complete turnover machine in transition would be a terrible idea and is the reason why you never see him out there.
 
You can count how many shots teams usually take during a 3v3 OT, and what type of players are often times deployed there. In reality, speed is king in OT when there's so much ice available. Deploying Laine, your slowest forward who also happens to be a complete turnover machine in transition would be a terrible idea and is the reason why you never see him out there.

All that open ice allows Laine to accelerate easier and once he is moving he's not slow.

Start and stop skating isn't going to do him favors but a lot of room does.

I have a hard time accepting that he would now be completely useless in OT when he has previously been the king of OT throughout his career. Do you have some evidence about this massive downfall in OT proficiency or is it just how you feel about it?

He was demonstrably able to play more minutes against higher level of competition a couple of weeks ago. He's had decent points since, compared to his very little ice time.

Even though this highlight isn't an OT goal, it shows that Laine understands what to do in OT and knows how to use that extra ice (the fooling of Subban is just a bonus)

 
He was demonstrably able to play more minutes against higher level of competition a couple of weeks ago. He's had decent points since, compared to his very little ice time.
Instead of looking at a sizable sample size of 3 games, played under a totally different team under a totally different coach and a playstyle, I find it more helpful to look at the vast amount of NHL games Laine has played over the last few seasons for both this team and his past teams and from where we also have a huge amount of statistical data to draw from.

3v3 isn't usually given too much attention in public analytics since it's a scenario with a lot o random variance where goaltending matters even more than it does normally, but here's a short list of some comparable players and their performance on OT over the past 5 seasons as determined by their respective share of goals scored in OT. You can notice that Laine isn't anywhere near the top performers, with Caufield and Necas both having seasons where they literally never got scored against on OT. I'm sure that NHL coaching staffs have much better analytical tools than we do, and that they use these tools while making their coaching decisions on who gets deployed on OT and who doesn't.

Not to mention that the Laine you may have seen in Winnipeg all those years ago is not the player that we have here today. I'd really recommend looking at some of the analytical tools that we have as they give you a much better overall picture than any individual video clip does.
 

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You guys ever had the flu ? The real thing, not a cold.

I was barely able to walk and felt like a truck ran over me for fun. It can takes up to 7-10 days to feel ok.

Is Laine a headcase ? Absolutely. Can flu get you out for a few games ? Absolutely too.

We got him for dirt cheap. Worst case he walks after next season. This is shitburger for drama.
He supposedly had the flu in January too. Getting it twice in the same season seems medically unlikely.
 
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Laine = 8.7m
Laine = 0.71 PPG

Anderson 5.5m + Dach 3.4m = 8.9m
Anderson 0.32 PPG + Dach 0.39 PPG = 0.71 PPG

Gallagher 6.5m + Newhook 2.9m = 9.4m
Gallagher 0.40 PPG + Newhook 0.33 PPG = 0.73 PPG

It’s Laine’s caphit that’s gonna kill us, right? Let’s all be sure to obsess over Laine.

And unlike those pieces , Laine actually has you know...offensive talent.
 

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