Hockey

We’re not seeing the best version of Patrik Laine yet
Marc-Olivier Cook
We’re not seeing the best version of Patrik Laine yet
Credit: YouTube / Habs

If you take Joe Veleno, Jayden Struble, Samuel Montembeault and Jakub Dobes out of the equation, only three Canadiens players have yet to pick up a point so far this season. Can you name them? If not, we're talking about Jake Evans, Josh Anderson… and Patrik Laine. Yes, it's a small sample size, since the Habs have only played three games so far. But even so, it's easy to see that #92 isn't really helping the club on the ice right now. Laine's playing time (13:23) hasn't been exceptional since the start of the campaign, and that's due to the fact that he plays on the team's fourth unit. That said, he's not playing like a guy who's in the last year of his contract… and he's not playing like a guy who wants to prove to the organization that he deserves a new deal at the end of the season. At least, if it goes on like this… it'll be hard for Kent Hughes to find valid arguments to keep him in town.

We know that five-on-five is tougher for the Finn, but the problem is… it looks complicated on the powerplay too. Laine has (only) four shots on net in three games, and that's not enough for a guy with a quality shot like his.He often misses the net on the PP, he seems to have trouble drawing the puck on reception – unlike what we saw last season – and that makes him a bit useless on the ice.Again, it's a small sample size. But for a guy who said we were going to see the best version of himself, at the moment… it's ordinary, and it was also very ordinary during the preseason games. So where's the solution? I'm inclined to think that Martin St-Louis is asking himself the same question. The Habs pilot gave him the opportunity to play on the top-6 with Kirby Dach and Ivan at practice camp, but that didn't work out either (and it's fair to say that the experience turned out to be atrocious). Laine may have the qualities to help the Canadiens on the powerplay… but he's no more capable of doing so right now. And that could become a problem pretty quickly, if things don't change…

'En

– Let's go.

– Nice contract.

– Go Jays!

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