LAINE SHOOTS TO THE TOP OF HOCKEY WORLD
Finland is buzzing about Jets rookie’s surprising rise to NHL prominence
It was sometime during May’s World Hockey Championship in Russia when Patrik Laine sat down and talked about the secret of his shot. Naturally, it was not a serious conversation.
Laine said he learned more from watching YouTube clips of Alex Ovechkin than from watching his father, whom he joked played “what you call beer league.”
Growing up, Laine said he took hundreds of thousands of shots on a net set up in his family’s backyard in Tampere, Finland. He also remembered how coaches used to bench him for shooting the puck too much in a pass-first league.
When asked if the flexibility in his stick played a part in how quick and violent his release was, the teen looked down at the flex number printed on his hockey stick, then shot back a look at the reporter as though he were offended by the question.
“I have to do a little work too, you know,” Laine said with a smirk.
Laine has been doing quite a lot with that shot of his. The Winnipeg Jets forward, who is tied with Auston Matthews with a rookie-leading four goals in four games heading into Thursday action, scored a hat trick — including the overtime goal — in a 5-4 win Wednesday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
All four goals have come off his spectacular shot. And while each has been slightly different — a wrist shot, a shot in off the crossbar, a one-time slapshot and a shot on a two-on-one — they are all pretty familiar to anyone who saw Laine play in Finland last season.
“From where he shot his tying goal yesterday, that’s where he was scoring his goals all the time,” said Helsinki-based scout Goran Stubb, the NHL’s director of European scouting. “A onetimer in the top corner. I’ve seen it a lot. He’s got an unbelievable shot. Last year most of the goals looked like that.”
Stubb did not stay up to watch Laine’s three-goal performance on Wednesday but, like most of the country, he could not avoid hearing about it once he woke up. Laine and his goal-scoring exploits were everywhere: on television, on the radio and even in the afternoon editions of newspapers.
A week ago, everyone in the hockey world was talking about Auston Matthews and how he scored four goals in his NHL debut. A week later, it’s Laine’s turn.
“Everybody is talking about it,” said Finnish hockey reporter Juha Hiitela, who covered Laine in the SM-Liiga last season. “You look at social media and parliament members and politicians are tweeting about it. It’s like déjà vu from last year, except it’s happening in the NHL.”
That Laine has found instant success in the NHL, where he and Matthews are already battling neck and neck for the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie, should not be that surprising. After all, he was the No. 2 overall pick in last summer’s draft for a reason.
Yet, his ascension is still a bit surprising to anyone that has covered him.
“He rose up like a rocket, more or less,” Stubb said. “Two, three years ago he wasn’t outstanding. But when you get to know him a little bit, you realize that his will and his ambitions are not normal. He wants so much and he’s willing to work hard to achieve these goals. He was practising his shot all year round. Last year was a great year for him.”
Unlike Matthews, who shattered scoring records in junior and had been the consensus No. 1 player in his draft class for years, Laine sort of came out of nowhere. At this time last year, he wasn’t considered one of the best players in his age group. He wasn’t even considered the best prospect in Finland.
“I remember some guys telling me in training camp that there was this young kid named Patrik Laine and that he was a good player but wasn’t the best skater and how he couldn’t make the team the previous year, which sounds crazy,” said KHL defenceman Nick Plastino, who was Laine’s 2015-16 teammate in Tampere. “And I didn’t really notice him at first. But as the year went on, I don’t know what he did but he was unbelievable.
“He peaked so fast. I guess he finally figured it out that he was that good and that he could take that next step.”
It was not until the 2016 world juniors — where Laine recorded seven goals and 13 points in seven games to help lead Finland to a gold medal — that he became a household name in the hockey world. A few months later, he was named playoff MVP after winning a league championship. Then came his performance at the worlds in Russia, where as the youngest player in the tournament he racked up seven goals and 12 points and was once again named MVP.
Now, with four goals in as many games and fans chanting, “Laine is better” during a game against Matthews, the inevitable Teemu Selanne comparisons have begun. It’s early and a lot to ask from an 18-year-old rookie. And yet, with Laine, it is not out of the question.
“It’s a big thing here,” Stubb said. “He’s a Finn and Finland is a small country so when you get a guy like that, you get proud.”