![]() His hat-trick performance Tuesday night propelled him past Nikita Kucherov and Ovechkin, who have each scored 73. Since Laine entered the NHL last season, he leads the entire league in goals (74). "I remember coming in a couple of games ago, and I think he had 30 goals at the time," Paul Stastny said. "It was a quiet 30 goals that no one really talked about." (Stastny was close: In the game, two weeks ago Tuesday, just days before Stastny was traded from the Blues to the Jets, Laine scored his 29th of the season against St. ![]() That kind of production, coupled with a hat trick at Madison Square Garden, will start to garner headlines. Laine has rapidly risen to second among NHL scorers with 13 goals in his past nine games. "You almost, I don't want to say take it for granted," Jets captain Blake Wheeler said.īut let's just go ahead and say it: It's being taken for granted. Months after publicly discussing his on-ice struggles, Laine is near the top of the NHL leaderboard in goals once again, second behind Ovechkin. Laine finished second in the Calder voting his rookie season, losing to his foil, Matthews. His pedigree and accomplishments are noteworthy and historic. MORE: Ovechkin making it easy to take brilliant season for granted "I love playing hockey. I love everything about it, so it's just awesome to be here every day." "This is the thing I want to do the rest of my life," Laine said. Yet here he is, just putting together the 40-goal season by a teenager this century (joining Rick Nash, Steven Stamkos, and Auston Matthews) and passing Sidney Crosby on the all-time goals list for a teenage NHLer. Nestled in a Canadian market, and on one of the best teams in the NHL, Laine checks most of the boxes to command major media attention. His answers aren't cookie-cutter cliches, which in most modern NHL circles can be more difficult to find than a 100-point player. He's a pure goal scorer, his skill set and production often compared to that of Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin. Players like Laine don't come around very often. □ A quick look at PatrikLaine29's hat-trick from tonight! □ #GoJetsGo #WPGvsNYR /PwXZ3hRTB2 ![]() It’s kind of a secret, so I don’t want everybody to know that." "Just pure luck, I guess," he said laughing, perhaps trying to figure out what would suffice as a good answer. So how does he score goals like his first on Tuesday that beat future Hall of Famer Henrik Lundqvist clean above his blocker from nearly 30 feet away? If I'm not playing well, I'm going to say it. "I've always been like this," Laine told Sporting News Tuesday before his Jets shut out the Rangers 3-0 at Madison Square Garden. "If you guys are asking me why my game is not good, I'm not going to lie. He says what he thinks, and has been a hallmark of consistency in his young NHL career. He completed his fourth career hat trick Tuesday, blowing past the 36 goals he had as a rookie, now with 38. Such is life for Laine, the 19-year-old Finnish prodigy picked second in the 2016 NHL Draft. "Right now I'm struggling. Hockey is really hard for me right now." (To be clear, "hard" for Laine was four goals through the first 11 games of his sophomore season.) 2, sitting in his locker stall in Winnipeg. "Right now I can't do many positive things on the ice," Patrik Laine said Nov. There was a refreshing frustration in his voice, a responsibility assumed through the type of self-assessment that one doesn't normally hear. NEW YORK - His words were honest and candid, not necessarily adjectives one would use to describe an interview in most NHL locker rooms in 2018.
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