Big Read: Winnipeg’s most gifted scorer worked for years to stay calm when goals got scarce. But if Patrik Laine can’t get back to scoring, he risks sinking his team's playoff chances and his long-term future with the NHLJets. (via KrRutherford)
Finland’s approach to hockey was starting to change right around that time, though. In 2009, a summit was held involving nearly 300 scouts, coaches, GMs and assorted hockey people to discuss the minor programs in the country, since not a single Finnish player had been selected in the first round in three straight NHL drafts. One of the key results of the meeting was the general agreement that, going forward, systems would be secondary to coaching individual skills.
Laine would return to the bench after a missed opportunity and explode, swearing and pounding his gloves against his pants in frustration. “Patrik couldn’t keep it inside,” Vaha-Ruohola says. The biggest and most public outburst came in 2014, when the 16-year-old flashed the middle finger at his national team coach and was sent home in the middle of the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament.
“As he grows and fills into his body, he’s going to become that much more dominant, I think. He’s still such a young kid.” You can know Laine is armed with one of the best shots in the league, and still not quite understand it until you see it up close. Earlier this season, the Jets were doing a light off-day skate, and their practice goalie was in net. Laine crossed the blue line, got a pass, and one-timed it, top corner, like a rocket. “The goalie looks at his blocker and goes, ‘F—!’” Maurice says, laughing. “And I’m thinking, ‘Nobody stops that! And not the third guy, not you.
This season is different. “We’re showing him more video because now he’s got the confidence to shoot,” Maurice says. “We’re kind of trying to round out the rest of his game.”
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