Player Discussion Patrik Laine: ruining the tank

Habs Halifax

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Jul 11, 2016
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Kovy 2.0

Tite Laine was born to become a God in Montreal

Remember when there were many fans on our board saying Montreal was the last place for Laine? Drouin round 2? Seems to me the problem in Montreal is the fans/media who like to play GM.

Laine is off to a good start after that injury. You can clearly tell he likes it in Montreal and hopefully he is here to stay. Elite level shot like this is not easy to acquire. We lack shooters on our roster too
 
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Habs Halifax

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Jul 11, 2016
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not players... time. The D corps is too young and inexperienced.

Yup, that was my biggest question mark heading into this season and it's become the biggest challenge. Offense is nice but if anybody learned from the last cup run in the "Canadian division", you would have learned the value of a top 4D who plays physical and keeps things to the outside. If fans think it was all Price, they have overlooked things. That top 4D with Danault were huge factors to support Price.

We need our D to be age 25+. Think about how long that will take. At the very least, we need most of them 23+
 
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Prettyisland

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Oct 23, 2017
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Despite being built like a monster, he seems less of a pack leader and more of a misunderstood artist. He’s apparently rubbed some teammates the wrong way wrong before. We need to be careful about that.
That jets team seemed like it was filled with meat head weirdos.. I’m not that worried about this group accepting him for who he is
 

Grate n Colorful Oz

Pure Laine Hutson
Jun 12, 2007
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Like I said , Laine always has that , " guy just got electrocuted look " about him every time I see him

Maybe he's impervious to shocks, that's why he has that look:

Polish-20241211-084706380.jpg
 
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Grate n Colorful Oz

Pure Laine Hutson
Jun 12, 2007
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Hockey needs nutters. All those boring, dull, cardboard personalities......a bona-fide "individual" like Laine is a breath of fresh air. Slaf needs to use PL as a role model, as I think Slaf has a bit of that about him.

I'd rather Slaf first starts learning how to shoot from Laine. Don't care about Slaf's personality.
 

Frankenheimer

Sir, this is an Arber
Feb 22, 2009
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I don’t see it and don’t believe it. This is PR speak. Our results and performances and effort levels do not reflect a good locker room or culture.

Look at Dach’s low morale this year and the Slafkovsky saga… this isn’t all roses…

It hasn’t been even 10 games, so why not be patient before crowning him as “passed with flying colours”. We’ll see how the rest of the season plays out, we’ll see how fans treat him when he has a dry spell and gives a shit effort.

So far it’s been very easy going in Montreal because we’ve been in a losing-on-purpose phase. When losses matter, then we’ll see.

What Price and Subban had to deal with none of these guys can even imagine.

Yes, it's unimaginable. You see, hockey players have an affliction preventing them from imagining marginally different scenarios from those experienced on a daily basis. This is why they shit their pants when suddenly confronted with a playoff game for example. Just an inability to understand anything outside a very narrow frame of reference.

Slafkovsky "saga"? This sounds like HFboards speak to me. Perhaps you have the same affliction. Can't imagine a world outside this one.
 
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waitin425

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Jan 10, 2009
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I'd rather

Newhook - Beck -Dach
Heineman - Xhekaj - Tuch
Didn't realize Xhekaj was a centre. Heinemen to me has 3rd liner written all over him. Also...I feel like there is room for Kapanen in our future, as well as Evans.

Bottom 6

Heinemen - Dach - Newhook
Beck - Evans - Kapanen
 

Captain97

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Jan 31, 2017
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Didn't realize Xhekaj was a centre. Heinemen to me has 3rd liner written all over him. Also...I feel like there is room for Kapanen in our future, as well as Evans.

Bottom 6

Heinemen - Dach - Newhook
Beck - Evans - Kapanen

You definitely want Beck at Centre though, he has been a face off and Defensive monster for years. Don't hate the bottom 6 makeup but would rather go with:

Newhook - Beck - Dach
Heineman - Evans - Kapanen

Given those players. Keeps Beck at Centre and also makes sure we minimize the all right handed lines. Also yes Xhekaj play C and W
 
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Ippenator

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Jan 6, 2016
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Coincidences exist. Maybe all four were shipped out for hockey reasons at the exact same time they told Jarmo that Laine had to go.
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.
 
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Captain97

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Yup, that was my biggest question mark heading into this season and it's become the biggest challenge. Offense is nice but if anybody learned from the last cup run in the "Canadian division", you would have learned the value of a top 4D who plays physical and keeps things to the outside. If fans think it was all Price, they have overlooked things. That top 4D with Danault were huge factors to support Price.

We need our D to be age 25+. Think about how long that will take. At the very least, we need most of them 23+

I don't think age is the key factor for Dmen as much as experience. The classic number/trope was 200 games in the NHL for dmen to be up to speed (assuming they weren't rushed).
 

VT

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Jan 24, 2021
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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.
Interesting because Atkinson has a good relationship with Laine now.
 

Ippenator

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Interesting because Atkinson has a good relationship with Laine now.
How do you know that? Could of course be, as they are not competitors of the same spot in the lineup anymore. But would be still interesting to know what you base that on that they have a good relationship.
 
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Sorinth

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Jan 18, 2013
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Remember when there were many fans on our board saying Montreal was the last place for Laine? Drouin round 2? Seems to me the problem in Montreal is the fans/media who like to play GM.

Laine is off to a good start after that injury. You can clearly tell he likes it in Montreal and hopefully he is here to stay. Elite level shot like this is not easy to acquire. We lack shooters on our roster too
I never bought the argument that MTL wasn't a good place for him but maybe wait more then 4 games before declaring anything. Any problems were always going to only show up after the honeymoon period.
 

Kennerback

Registered User
Jun 2, 2021
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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.
I’m a big fan of Laine and I like players that are off the wall. See Claude Lemieux and Dominic Hasek. We can absolutely win with those players. But if say there’s a dressing room or a coaching disagreement involved and that Laine’s involved it should get special treatment. If Laine says crazy insane things to the media it should be treated very differently than if Suzuki or Savard did.
 

Marioesque

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Oct 7, 2021
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That jets team seemed like it was filled with meat head weirdos.. I’m not that worried about this group accepting him for who he is

Laine's issues with Jets stemmed mainly from Wheeler and the influence he had in the locker room. They competed for the same spot and Laine was the better player from the start, so it created an issue with the Wheeler camp, he basically dictated his own ice time in Jets and Maurice let him. This left Laine in a second fiddle position which he tried to tolerate for a couple of seasons.
 

BB88

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Jan 19, 2015
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Coincidences exist. Maybe all four were shipped out for hockey reasons at the exact same time they told Jarmo that Laine had to go.

Those rumours always felt weird, why would have they allowed Laine to be the mentor for Fantilli if he was such a red flag
 
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Marioesque

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Oct 7, 2021
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Those rumours always felt weird, why would have they allowed Laine to be the mentor for Fantilli if he was such a red flag

Exactly. "Here's our biggest pick in a long time, let's have him go live with someone with bad locker room presence and not liked" doesn't really track.
 

VT

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Jan 24, 2021
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How do you know that? Could of course be, as they are not competitors of the same spot in the lineup anymore. But would be still interesting to know what you base that on that they have a good relationship.
Some little things, for example they follow each other on Instagram, had very pleasant discussion on tournament before the 2023/24 season... .
 
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The Last Red

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Jan 2, 2022
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I never bought the argument that MTL wasn't a good place for him but maybe wait more then 4 games before declaring anything. Any problems were always going to only show up after the honeymoon period.
I’m less concerned now given his production while still getting into shape. He could use some better linemates, however, at even strength (Dach and Slaf suck presently). But can he stay healthy? The best ability is availability.
 

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