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“It was an awful time”: Patrik Laine is never afraid to tell the truth

 Charles-Alexis Brisebois
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“It was an awful time”: Patrik Laine is never afraid to tell the truth
Credit: Getty Images
Patrik Laine has been playing to his strengths since his return to the game.

It won’t always go so well for him, but the Canadiens winger is doing what he’s been asked to do for the past four games: he’s scoring and energizing the powerplay.

Just yesterday, in a 3-2 Habs win, Laine scored a powerplay goal. This is becoming a habit.

In fact, the Canadiens have three wins when Laine finds the back of the net and one loss when he doesn’t. So he’s clearly making a difference. So he’s clearly making a difference.

He’s quickly becoming a crowd favorite. Especially when he says he hasn’t had this much fun in years.

But what I really like about Laine is his honesty in front of the media. I don’t know if it’s going to stick, but since he’s come back, he’s been very transparent. We’re thinking in particular of his first game, when he said he “didn’t have it” even though he was the first star.

And we’re thinking of his intermission interview yesterday. Basically, he said he didn’t care if he scored, because his concern was that the Canadiens had played a terrible game.

And he’s right: it was hard.

In the grand scheme of things, the Habs are lucky to have played the Ducks and not a better club. Otherwise, the Habs would have been eaten alive… and they might not have gotten an early Christmas present. #ButDeKirbyDach

But back to Laine.

What I sense is that, in the Canadiens dressing room, he can be himself. That may not have been the case in Winnipeg, and he obviously wasn’t quite at ease in Columbus.

But in Montreal, it’s different.

On this subject, Juraj Slafkovsky reminded us that Laine, on the bench, is a guy who really makes you laugh. He says funny things that have nothing to do with anything, and that makes Slaf laugh.

It’s clear that on the ice, the line-up of Slafkovsky, Dach and Laine isn’t perfect. But as long as Laine continues to score with an extra man, it’s going to camouflage the club’s weaknesses.

Maybe not enough to bring the Canadiens back #InTheMix, though, but…

But it wasn’t just Patrik Laine who caught the eye during the game. After all, while the Finn may be the talk of the town these days, he’s not the only one on this team.

What do I remember about the game, which the Canadiens ended up winning in front of their home fans at the Bell Centre?

1. Kirby Dach and Juraj Slafkovsky didn’t play a perfect game (that doesn’t happen very often these days), but Dach took advantage of a gift from the opposing goalie to score.

He hadn’t found the back of the net since October 26 and clearly, even though it was an easy goal, it felt good. The proverbial monkey on his back was launched into the stands.

2. Samuel Montembeault stopped 27 of 29 shots and held the fort in the shootout. He picked up his third win in December and ninth this season.

Since learning of Team Canada’s interest in him, he has been stopping 94.4% of the shots he receives and averaging 1.72 goals per game.

3. Lane Hutson made history by earning a point in his seventh straight game. For a Habs rookie at the blue line, that’s nothing short of a franchise record.

But what’s most impressive is his increasingly complete game.

4. Kaiden Guhle put up a fight. And we got further proof that hockey fans love a good fight. It’s not as if we needed any more proof, though.

His teammates liked it too. And with good reason.

5. The Habs defense is more stable than it used to be. Seeing five defensemen (Arber Xhekaj, Mike Matheson, David Savard, Lane Hutson and Kaiden Guhle) having some success no doubt has a role to play.

You can’t blame the Sheriff for much these days.


Extension

The Canadiens won’t be practicing today. It’s a day off for everyone, and starting tomorrow, the club will be preparing on the heels of the Penguins’ visit for Thursday’s game.

So we won’t know if Jake Evans, who was injured in overtime, will need treatment. We’ll probably have details tomorrow.

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