Okay, guys. The problem is just that this guy ain't no rocket scientist and you can tell it watching him.
And Laine simply performs on another level due to his superior cognitive percepual faculties on the ice.
Piece.
My post wasn't about Laine's hockey IQ, which is reportedly excellent. It was about what constitutes realistic expectations for a player, any player. We remember those sorts of plays precisely because they're so rare. It simply isn't realistic for any hockey player, even Sidney Crosby, to execute those plays day in and day out. Luckily, we don't need them to, because hockey is ultimately a game of percentages and players that maximize their chances generally do well in the long-run.
For those in this thread who have already written off Puljujarvi, may I suggest that it's probably time we did a post-mortem.
Namely, how was it that Jesse Puljujarvi managed to fool his junior, national, Mestis and Liiga coaches into giving him icetime, coveted national junior team spots, and continual promotions to higher levels? How was he able to fool the scouts that Bob McKenzie surveys into voting him the second-best prospect for this upcoming draft? How did he fool NHL veteran Ray Ferraro into singing his praises at last year's world juniors? He's managed to do all of this despite having crappy hockey sense(a criticism that I had literally never heard about him until less than a month ago-and I've followed Puljujarvi's progress on these boards since he first played in the C-juniors)
I'm willing to entertain any and all options. Was it his obvious physical gifts? His natural athleticism? Did he benefit from having excellent linemates throughout his junior career (generally Aho and Kalapudas)?
If Puljujarvi runs up against his cognitive ceiling when playing against men and that proves to be the limiting factor in his success as a professional hockey player, I can accept that. It happens to a lot of players, maybe even the majority of them. It just seems to me as though we should be able to construct a plausible explanation for the fact that nobody noticed this until now (including people whose job is to notice these things). It's not as though Puljujarvi came out of nowhere. He's the most heavily hyped Finn (at least pre-draft) in what, the last decade?
Or was it all just a big mirage, viewed through the rose-coloured glasses of legions of Finns desperate for their national team's saviour? He was never that good, and if we go back to watch those past games, it will be plainly obvious. Some combination of the above?
Note: Any responses should not contain the words Laine, Matthews, Chychrun, first round etc. This is about Puljujarvi in isolation.
