PERREAULT CURE FOR LAINE’S AILING OFFENSIVE GAME
Jets sniper, without a goal in 11 straight, enduring worst scoring funk of his career
It’s time for Paul Maurice to turn to the human jumper cables. Mathieu Perreault is the guy the Winnipeg Jets head coach has leaned on when trying to give another player or a line a spark during the last several seasons. With Patrik Laine going through the toughest stretch of his young career, Perreault might prove to be the perfect elixir to help him snap out of this funk. Laine has now gone 11 games since finding the back of the net and he has two goals in his last 24 games.
In Sunday’s 3-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres, Laine was limited to 10:56 of ice time, his secondlowest total of the season and third lowest of his career. Laine was limited to one shot attempt in the contest, which is way too low for one of the most dangerous shooters in the NHL. The Jets, who sit atop the Central Division with a 35-18-3 record, open a three-game homestand Tuesday against the New York Rangers.
During the course of a threegame road trip, Maurice took Laine off the top power-play unit in a move that was a message for Laine and a reward for Jack Roslovic.
I have no issue with how Maurice came to the decision. Part of it was to push Laine a bit out of his comfort zone, maybe get him closer to the front of the net, where he might be able to come up with a greasy goal or simply find a lane open in the slot.
It’s a small sample, but in the three games since the move was made, the Jets have gone 0-for-6 with the man advantage, with the top unit on the ice for the bulk of those power plays.
You can be sure that Laine got the message and he’s ready to resume his normal role on the one-timer side of the power play. Coaches talk all the time about putting players in a position to succeed and moving Laine back onto the top unit should be the next move Maurice makes. Look no further than the home game against the San Jose Sharks Feb. 5 as evidence of why.
In that contest, Laine generated multiple grade-A scoring chances and finished with four shots on goal and 12 shot attempts. Blake Wheeler continually found him through seams. Four of Laine’s shots were blocked and another six missed the net, so the sights were slightly off, but if he continues to get quality scoring chances like those, he’s going to bust out and probably in a big way. Despite Laine’s slump, he still sits second on his team with 25 goals (including 11 on the power play) and is tied for fourth with 36 points.
Clearly he’s frustrated by the lack of production recently. But on Friday afternoon, there was Laine, working on shooting drills with assistant coach Todd Woodcroft.
He wasn’t just blasting onetimers, either, he was working on ways to fight through traffic and get shots to the net. Nobody is harder on himself than Laine and the laziest narrative to come out of this stretch is the Finnish forward either doesn’t care or isn’t trying. That’s a bunch of B.S.
The other move that could help Laine at even strength is to pair him with Perreault. Roslovic’s game is developing this season, but Perreault can drive possession and create more chaos on the forecheck at this stage of his career. He has a history of success while playing with Laine, too.
While the two of them played together for several shifts in the third period Saturday against the Ottawa Senators, there hasn’t been a long enough sample size this season to say it no longer works.
It’s obvious Maurice is digging deep into the coaching manual in dealing with Laine these days. He continues to be publicly supportive of his young star and believes he’s on the verge of breaking out.
There have been times during the rough patch when Maurice has provided some direction and others when he has allowed Laine the space to try to work it out on his own.
“The entire spectrum of both those,” Maurice said, “so it’s a stretch of time. You do talk to him, you show him video of things you want to work on, you do drills ... with all these young guys after practice.
“And then you give them a stretch where you’re not in his ear every day because you don’t want to be micro-managing a young man’s game. You want him to learn on his own, so it’s all those things.”
Putting him back together with Perreault for a period of time should be the next move that Maurice makes.