Laine not sweating goal drought

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This article was published 24/11/2016 (3468 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NASHVILLE — Patrik Laine is stuck in his first real goal-scoring drought as an NHLer — and while he clearly isn’t happy about it, there is no desperation in the way he approaches his game.

“It’s frustrating because the team’s not winning and I can’t help my team to win with my abilties,” the celebrated rookie sniper said after the Winnipeg Jets’ 45-minute practice at Bridgestone Arena Thursday afternoon. “Like I said, you just have to work hard and hope you get the one goal that will help your team to win.”

Laine has gone goal-less during Winnipeg’s current four-game losing skid. All told, he has scored only once in his last eight games, but with 12 goals in 22 games, he remains second only to Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby among the league’s top scorers.

Michael Grabner of the New York Rangers and Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals also have 12.

It was a mild surprise Laine was working on the Jets’ No. 1 unit again Wednesday night in a 3-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild, replacing Nikolaj Ehlers on a line with Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler. The move, said head coach Paul Maurice, was not specifically intended to spark Laine. Ehlers, meanwhile, was bumped down to play with Nic Petan and Drew Stafford. 

The Jets have routinely shuffled all their lines this season and will have a fresh look tonight when they face the Nashville Predators (5 p.m., TSN3, TSN 1290).

Adam Lowry is expected to centre Marko Dano and Brandon Tanev, and Alex Burmistrov will skate between Andrew Copp and Chris Thorburn.

“It’s not about one player, one line,” said Maurice. “We’ve got a number of guys out of our lineup. There are different skill sets for each player, different levels of experience. So that has to get balanced out.”

Maurice craves consistency from his entire lineup, not just his top unit.

“Anybody can have a good weekend together and you have to leave lines together long enough for (the chemistry) to happen. We haven’t been able to do that — mostly based on the two injuries at centre ice. Adam (Lowry) excels with certain kinds of players, Nic Petan needs a certain amount of experience with him as well to play.

“I know we like Ehlers, Scheifele and Wheeler — it was good again (Wednesday) — an awful lot. Offensive zone time (was) really good… I didn’t like what it did to the rest off our lineup. Love to run them, but right now we just can’t.”

If Laine is getting more special attention as his reputation grows, he hasn’t noticed any — with a small, but important, exception coming on special teams. 

“Maybe more on the power play, you can see that,” Laine said. “Maybe (they’re) cheating to take my shot away, but that will open more space for somebody else. It doesn’t really matter.”

The Jets bench boss did point to Winnipeg’s power-play goal in Minnesota as an example of a conscious decision by an opponent to overplay Laine.

“I think on the power play they’ve changed routes on him a little, they’ve cheated to him,” said Maurice.

“Which led to the goal (Wednesday)… It goes from (Dustin) Byfuglien to Petan and back to Byfuglien and there’s nobody in that shooting lane because they’re cheating on Patrik, which is fine because (the shot goes) down the pipe and in the back of the net. That’s what happens to all those good shooters: they open lanes for other people.”

Laine often faces an opponent’s best defensive line. During the club’s recent four losses, he was often facing a veteran shutdown centre, including the likes of Sean Couturier (Philadelphia Flyers), Patrice Bergeron (Boston Bruins), Jordan Staal (Carolina Hurricanes) and Mikko Koivu (Minnesota).

“We’ve had four teams that had a dedicated stopper line,” added Maurice. “When he’s with Mark (Scheifele), then they see that and when he’s not with Mark, then they see the second to that line, which might be the pure offensive line. Patty wants to play well at both ends of the ice, so he’s not out there trying to cheat for goals. He’s still figuring out the game — how he gets the shot off.”

Maurice smiles when he talks about how expectations have risen since Laine went without a point in pre-season.

“He’s gotten off to such a hot start, I wonder what the expectations (are),” said the coach. “Is 30 goals a good year? Is less than that not for an 18-year-old? He’s going to have stretches where the puck doesn’t go in the net, like exactly every other player in the league.

“Was our expectation 82? 75? I understand Teemu (Selanne) did it (76 goals in 1992-93). The game has changed now, right? It’s not quite those years. We know that because nobody else is doing it either. He’s actually getting better.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14