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It's tempting to watch Patrik Laine's 44 goals – a pretty incredible number considering the difficulty of scoring in the modern NHL – and to believe everything went well last season.
This is not necessarily true.
Such a thought is quite intriguing because we consider Laine's attitude to score 50 goals in 2018-2019.
"Yeah, I think it would be a big step and a feat," Laine told Darren Dreger of TSN. "But it's something that comes when you play well. You must first do the little things for the team. When you work hard all season, you will be rewarded at some point. "
If you feel that these are bland quotes compared to the often frank and fun things that Laine said in the past, you're right.
However, Laine's comments actually shed light on a key factor: to score 50 goals, it will probably gain more confidence from Paul Maurice.
Unequal
Curiously, Laine went from an average of 17:55 minutes per game as a rookie in 2016-17 to only 16:29 in 2017-18. While his power play ice-time was almost identical (in the three-minute range each season) and his stenographic duties were virtually non-existent, Laine's equal strength ice time dropped by about 90 seconds as than second year.
Maurice probably deserves at least a bit of scrutiny, because it's hard to understand that Laine is not a player you'd like on the ice at least as often as a rookie, even in a team of Jets who is improved. substantially in 2017-18. My apologies to Bryan Little – who has often been underestimated during his NHL career – but if I were Maurice, I would like Laine to be more often on the ice on equal terms.
Part of this revolves around Laine's inexperience, however, as this can not be attributed solely to the coaching bad habit of giving younger players shorter leashes. just because. There are times when Laine seems a little one-dimensional (consider her possession numbers), as Kyle Buhler of Oilers Nation discussed at the end of June:
The other big problem with the game of Wool is his work along the boards. Wool has a hard time getting the puck out on her own, which is surprising for such a talented person. When the puck is surrounded by boards, Laine takes too long to drag him from his skate to his stick and is trapped by pinching the defenders. When Laine manages to get the puck past the defender, he can not create odd rushes because of his lack of acceleration.
With the addition of another impressive breakthrough at Kyle Connor, not to mention the dominance and chemistry generated by Mark Scheifele – Blake Wheeler, one can understand why Maurice would be a little less in a hurry to put Laine on the ice cream in all situations. There are worse things than Laine can be that an absolutely deadly specialist because he has scored 20 of his 44 power play goals (his 20 PPG has outpaced all NHL players).
(It is also interesting to note that Laine flourished even more when Paul Stastny arrived and closed a deadly line with Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers, so the loss could be a slight injury to the 50-year-old.)
By viewing this collection of 44 chronicles from last season, you can see that Laine is keen to build her own version of Ovechkin's "desktop".
Looking further into how Laine scored his 44 goals last season, there are compelling reasons why he will or will not reach the 50 mark:
Health, luck and opportunities
Even with the reduction in ice time, Laine, which is already up and running, has left the pucks flying more prominently in its second NHL season, as you can see on the Hockey Reference lists.
More than 73 games as a rookie, Laine scored 36 goals on 204 shots on goal (2.79 SOG per game), a shot percentage of 17.6. Hockey Reference places its total shooting attempts at 360 for 1 308 minutes of ice time.
Wool was in better health last season, playing all 82 games, and its high shooting percentage remained unchanged at 18.3%. Few players can maintain such robust percentages, but Laine has now been successful for two seasons in a row, so he may have only rare shooting skills; witnessing his screaming liberation does not hurt that argument.
Nevertheless, injury and / or cold shooting could be very simple – but daunting – obstacles in the quest for 50 de Laine.
Returning to his 2017-18 totals, Laine's 44 goals went through 241 SOG, or 2.94 SOG per game. More games played but with less ice time can skew some numbers, so it's worth noting that he shot 466 total shooting attempts on 1,351 minutes of ice time in 2017-18.
The Ovechkin comparison
Laine's 44 goals become very impressive when you consider a (relatively) limited ice time, and also when you compare his opportunities with those of Alex Ovechkin, who finally won in the Rocket Richard race with 49 goals.
It is impressive to compare Ovechkin with Laine last season for ice time (20:09 vs. 16:29 for Wool) and shooting rates (355 SOG and 653 (!) TSA on 241 SOG and 466 TSA of Laine) .
Comparing a shooter to Ovechkin can be as cruel as waiting for an NBA firing guard to match Michael Jordan. Yet it is instructive that Laine was so close to Ovechkin's exit given the context. All of that says a lot about Laine's shooting prowess, though it's still fair to ask if he'll see his shot percentage.
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All in all, the biggest hurdles that Laine has to overcome to score 50 goals are: health luck, puck luck and the chance to win the confidence of his coach. One can only shudder to imagine if Laine is still waiting for this extra push – or green light – to trigger shots at an even faster pace.
And, without a doubt, Laine's other great obstacle is himself; If he can improve his full game, Wool will give no other choice in Mauritius than to put it on the ice more often. Imagine what kind of damage Wool could do if he flirted with 19-20 minutes of ice time every game for 82 contests?
In 2018-2019, one would bet that no one should score 50 goals. Ovechkin fell just before the mark last season with 49, Sidney Crosby won the Richard with only 44 in 2017 and Ovechkin is the only player to have reached this plateau (three times) since the last lockout of 2012-13.
That said, if anyone else than Ovechkin can do it, Wool is the guy.
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James O & # 39; Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Leave him a line to [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.
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