Werenski and Nyquist definitely were not against Laine by any means. Both were giving interviews where they always praised Laine. Atkinson was never friends with Laine from the get go though. Could be somekind of locker room issue even, but I think there was probably a lot of the feeling of getting too much of competition from another pure goal scorer. And exactly when Atkinson himself had started to lose his best scoring touch. So I saw it that way that Atkinson didn’t like Laine mostly because they were competitors and Atkinson was already on a bit bad trajectory on the team.
The locker room rumors were practically always brought up by Aaron Portzline who is a person who really seems to not like Laine. Practically every negative rumor without any true evidence came through him. And they were also always that kind of rumors that there was no real means to make sure what the truth is. He didn’t use names, but he hinted with wording like the ”experienced players” etc. And then people made the math themselves.
I think these kind of ”journalists” get too much popularity nowadays. Well, gossip and rumors have always sold well, I guess. But I hate it especially when it has become a big part of sports journalismi as well.
