Player Discussion: Patrik Laine - MOD WARNING IN OP

[Upperdeckjet]

I would love if there was this much analysis on other players like what does Mo have to do in the off-season what are his weaknesses?

When one player has the potential to chew up 10-15% of your salary cap, I think it is warranted. What we do with Laine will impact us for years to come. We better be on the right side of this.

 

[Howard Chuck]

When one player has the potential to chew up 10-15% of your salary cap, I think it is warranted. What we do with Laine will impact us for years to come. We better be on the right side of this.

I'm sure that there is a whole team of people looking after his training and his future, that only have his best interests at heart, as they relate to contributing to the hockey club.

 

[RageQuit77]

Season 2017-2018 was considered as a failure because of training regime of summer 2017, in the Rautala's school.

...Potted 44 goals, 70 points season, and all kind nice tangential stuff with all-times age records, despite playing half a season with chemistry vacuum line... decent first NHL-playoffs...

Hard to take an informed and really knowledgeable stance for praise full Mr. Rautala's wisdom and training regimen, but nobody should sell it too short either. It's evident it has worked well for many guys. It's obvious it will work well for lot more.

I have no competence in these things, I prefer keep shut up about details and schedules. However, I cannot see how Rautala has failed with Laine. 2 seasons U20: 80G.

 

[RageQuit77]

No one should forget that megablast hit, and following 8 games (luckily only) concussion protocol either. Rautala and staff apparently with full co-op of Laine and Jets management prioritized some things last year, and Laine himself was guite open of his own expectations about his expected performance levels during fall 2017.

I can't see the scenario where Laine would become fast, ultra-agile half-track reconnaissance truck in a 200 feet sunflower field.

I see heavily armoured Main Battle tank with extra accurate high caliber cannon with HEAT ammunition attached to it in a middle of enemy minefields growing thorns.

If your little tank is already one of primary targets to get neutralized by enemy tanks, you probably consider it is better to augment it with upgrades that can help to improve it's combat robustness, longevity, durability, resistance, and operative capabilities as a rational counter-counter measures against changing tactical demands.

Skating speed itself is only plus for MBTs.

EDIT: Better analogy would've been F16 vs A10. I see Laine's role in Jets squadron more as A10 than any kind air superiority fighter.

Hastily adding that it seems to odd to me too if a hockey player's summer training includes zero hours of skating. For casual fan it makes no sense at all, regardless of priorities in development schedules.

 

[Whileee]

Where is anyone getting any of their information from? You don't think that the Jets, the trainers, Laine himself, know what is best for Laine? I'm sure that there are many eyes on his training seeing as how he is such a high profile player with so much potential.

There is a lot of worrying that the Jets aren't going to pull out every trick in the book to make Laine the best player he can be. But remember, the Jets organization isn't one to skip steps to pacify forum posters, they will do what's right so that they can get many productive years out of Laine.

I'm sure it's not up to Laine alone where he trains and what he does, there is far too much riding on this for every knowledgeable stakeholder to not have a say in how/where he trains.

Previously both Ehlers and Morrissey focused too much on bulking up in the offseason and lost quickness. I recall the Jets even commenting on how that was probably a mistake. Maurice has frequently said that talented young wingers don't need to be that bulky or strong to succeed now, as long as they have very good speed. Laine looked bulkier in his second season, but also seemed to lack a bit of quickness. I'm sure the Jets are testing this, and likely have proposed training priorities. But ultimately it's up to players to decide how they train in the offseason.

 

[RageQuit77]

We fans can easily forget that hockey players are human beings too. When you've played 100 or something hockey games of a season, you've maybe some needs to take some distance from whole thing, rest, enjoy some vacation, do other kind of stuff, and concentrate to other aspects of human life no matter how professionally you take your career.

They aren't stereotypical ivan dracos. They have their lives out of hockey. Not everything should always revolve only around the question: "how well I can fulfill my predicted career potential professionally?", some thoughts should be put also to the question: "How I can keep my mental side healthy to be able to do well what I am doing professionally?"

If skates hanging on a wall cause some repulsive animosity during summer vacation time of hockey player, it maybe even optimal solution to let them hang there. Their time will come eventually.

 

[Ippenator]

Skillwise Laine is a good skater, but he has long limbs and lacks power, esp. explosive power.

Do you really think he could get that explosive power just by skating more? If so, you are just plain wrong.

He needs a lot of gym / cross fit / whatever off-ice training to get those muscles and explosivity to be able to skate faster.

(Not saying he should not have those figure skating lessons as well and other stuff, but you can't cheat the gym work and building up those muscles you need for skating just by skating alone. That will never work.)

Do you think that Usain Bolt got his running speed by running alone?

It's OK to have a break from skating, even an extended one like 1 month or even more. I am with you guys of course that maybe he should not be like 3-4 months without skating (or shooting the puck).

Last summer they needed to make everything a bit better and gain some bulk mass, which in turn works agains the agility. I don't know if they can already this season focus more on agility/explosiveness, or do they still need to fix everything a bit.

I just hope they are doing what is the best for his long term development and just ignore what all sorts of armchair experts "know" on forums.

Here is one of the very few comments here about this subject that are mostly on the right track.

Strange thing that people still keep up the completely wrong claim that Laine was only trying to bulk up last summer. The truth is in fact that the main focus in his training was with explosive leg muscle training and stamina training with stair running and exercises that 400 meters runners do to get stamina that suites well with explosiveness. Laine was doing work with Rautala the whole summer because they acknowledged that Laine is immensely behind most other players especially in explosive leg strength. A big reason for this is the knee injury and operation that he had three years ago, that took him almost a full year to recover completely.

Rautala is a well known top specialist for very good results in gaining explosive strength and stamina and their plan was exactly to use the whole summer as efficiently as possible to train mostly on these areas. Of course they couldn't completely focus on those areas though, as Laine's other weakness has been his core muscles so he needed some training for that too, to become better in battles than he was in his rookie season. And in fact that area did already clearly improve for him, although he definitely has still work to do in that area too.

It's like people here seriously believe that Laine's weakness in skating is his skating technique. Sure, he will need to do some work on that too, as it's definitely not perfect. But for sure his biggest weakness with his skating by a mile is the lack of explosive strength and stamina. And these are areas that you just can't fix in a season or even two. In the case that Laine has had with his knee operation and naturally skinny and weak legs, it will be more likely a three year job of very hard work with explosive strength and stamina training. We didn't see much of progress in just one summer simply because his weight of course generally went up because of the gained muscle mass, which was still an absolute necessity, and will still be it for at least the next two off seasons.

People here bashing at Rautala are seriously lost and just plain impatient with Laine's development. Rautala has an excellent track record, and his best achievements with hockey players are Mikko Rantanen and Rasmus Ristolainen, whom both are pure steel with their physical conditioning. Ristolainen gets top 5 minutes in the whole NHL and he has improved substantially his general skating over the years he has been training with Rautala. But his improvement didn't happen in a season or two, but it took years and years to get where he is now physically. Mikko Rantanen practically the same story. He is a bit younger than Ristolainen but two years older than Laine, and he is this summer focusing even more in the explosive strength training than he did before, because he is now finally mostly done with the rest of the strength and stamina training that he still needed to do. Rantanen has already become a very good skater for his size during the time he has trained with Rautala, and he has also very good stamina (not exactly in the exceptional class that Ristolainen is, but very good already anyway). Anybody noticed the progress that Rantanen made this season, eh? Bad training? Seriously? And btw, to my knowledge Barkov was never training with Rautala, but he was still going through a very similar training path that Laine is going through now. First 3-4 years mostly explosive strength and stamina training, and then when he was more or less done with training those areas, he only then started the figure skating exercises. How many times this has to be explained here? The same applies also for Mikael Granlund. And Granlund and Barkov were in the beginning worse skaters than Laine, and now they are both very good skaters.

The impatience here is seriously tangible, and it's practically even funny to me how people have forgotten how Scheifele was Bambi for several years and his skating was not a true strength for him during those times. And as someone very well put here already, it took him 7 years to get where he is now with his physical conditioning and skating. And people are practically jumping the gun here after Laine had 44 goals and 70 points in his second season as a 19 year old. Just gimme a break!

 

[ijuka]

I still am of the opinion that actual skating practice is an essential part of becoming better at skating. I certainly don't agree that Laine's skating technique is perfect and couldn't improve and regardless, more skating would still help him. Skating just is much more beneficial for becoming a better skater than running is. No, it's not the same thing as training sessions without the ball for soccer. In soccer you still run. In hockey you don't run, you skate. The equivalent would be skating without the stick or the puck, but not doing something other than skating.

Also, I realize that last summer, Laine training with Rautala was supposed to be about explosive training for his legs, but the truth is, barely any improvement when it comes to his explosiveness even happened. Doesn't that speak against the functionality of such a training regime? My personal opinion is that it'd be much more beneficial to focus less on the gym and more on figure skating and skating drills, less on lifting as much weight as possible and more on box jumps and other actually explosive stuff. 400 lbs half-squats isn't my idea of explosive training and half-squats is what he does - I haven't seen Laine perform a single real squat in any footage. That's what you might do for power lifting, perhaps. But if we look at athletes who actually need the spring and to jump for instance - Say, ski jumping - Their training is completely different.

There's a reason that most of the players with actually good, explosive skating don't train the way Laine did last off season.

 

[grieves]

I still am of the opinion that actual skating practice is an essential part of becoming better at skating. I certainly don't agree that Laine's skating technique is perfect and couldn't improve and regardless, more skating would still help him. Skating just is much more beneficial for becoming a better skater than running is. No, it's not the same thing as training sessions without the ball for soccer. In soccer you still run. In hockey you don't run, you skate. The equivalent would be skating without the stick or the puck, but not doing something other than skating.

Also, I realize that last summer, Laine training with Rautala was supposed to be about explosive training for his legs, but the truth is, barely any improvement when it comes to his explosiveness even happened. Doesn't that speak against the functionality of such a training regime? My personal opinion is that it'd be much more beneficial to focus less on the gym and more on figure skating and skating drills, less on lifting as much weight as possible and more on box jumps and other actually explosive stuff. 400 lbs half-squats isn't my idea of explosive training and half-squats is what he does - I haven't seen Laine perform a single real squat in any footage. That's what you might do for power lifting, perhaps. But if we look at athletes who actually need the spring and to jump for instance - Say, ski jumping - Their training is completely different.

There's a reason that most of the players with actually good, explosive skating don't train the way Laine did last off season.

Good points. However, since Laine clearly gained a lot of mass, perhaps his explosiveness was masked by this new mass. In other words, if the engine gets bigger you expect to see improvement. But if the car also gets bigger, wouldn't that mean that not observing any real improvement is quite natural?

You are saying that it is better to train explosiveness with the skates on. Seems plausible but I'm still wondering if that is really the case. This would mean the leg muscles are doing something fundamentally different when skating vs sprinting for example. How much is there even room for such difference?

 

[ijuka]

Good points. However, since Laine clearly gained a lot of mass, perhaps his explosiveness was masked by this new mass. In other words, if the engine gets bigger you expect to see improvement. But if the car also gets bigger, wouldn't that mean that not observing any real improvement is quite natural?

You are saying that it is better to train explosiveness with the skates on. Seems plausible but I'm still wondering if that is really the case. This would mean the leg muscles are doing something fundamentally different when skating vs sprinting for example. How much is there even room for such difference?

You need to practice skating to become better at skating. Leg muscles would be one thing(And you do use different groups in different ratios for skating vs running), and the brain's nervous system's reconfiguration is another. That's the most important thing about "practice makes perfect", because doing something repetitively makes the brain more effective at managing it as the nervous system's connections broaden and become more focused. You for instance don't want too many of the nervous system's resources to go towards the useless running because there's a limited amount of nerve connections and that can take away from the ones used for skating.

It should be obvious... A top runner with a couple of weeks of practice won't be a top speed skater, and a top speed skater with a couple of weeks of practice won't be a top runner. Run to become better at running, skate to become better at skating.

Gym and explosion-specific training is of course important also but my biggest issue with Rautala is them running instead of skating. I don't think it's beneficial AT ALL to have to actually re-learn and to "get rid of the rust"(also known as the brain's nervous system's reconfiguration) as the season begins - It's much better if there's no rust to begin with and you've actually been improving at skating rather than having to initially work to get back to your original level.

 

[kunekune]

I still am of the opinion that actual skating practice is an essential part of becoming better at skating. I certainly don't agree that Laine's skating technique is perfect and couldn't improve and regardless, more skating would still help him. Skating just is much more beneficial for becoming a better skater than running is. No, it's not the same thing as training sessions without the ball for soccer. In soccer you still run. In hockey you don't run, you skate. The equivalent would be skating without the stick or the puck, but not doing something other than skating.

Also, I realize that last summer, Laine training with Rautala was supposed to be about explosive training for his legs, but the truth is, barely any improvement when it comes to his explosiveness even happened. Doesn't that speak against the functionality of such a training regime? My personal opinion is that it'd be much more beneficial to focus less on the gym and more on figure skating and skating drills, less on lifting as much weight as possible and more on box jumps and other actually explosive stuff. 400 lbs half-squats isn't my idea of explosive training and half-squats is what he does - I haven't seen Laine perform a single real squat in any footage. That's what you might do for power lifting, perhaps. But if we look at athletes who actually need the spring and to jump for instance - Say, ski jumping - Their training is completely different.

There's a reason that most of the players with actually good, explosive skating don't train the way Laine did last off season.

Most NHL-players work just the way Laine does. Also Laine doesn't have his own training regime. Everyone in Rautalas training group has the same model which is based on decathlon training.

Rautalas former students and results speak for themself.

ps. People on this site were talking about Barkov and his superb training model. I can tell you guys that Barkov lifts more weights during the summer than Laine.

 

[FonRiesen]

The benefits of cross training are well known, and many have been mentioned here like strengthening and endurance, and reducing overuse wear/tear. Skating alone will not get anyone up to your skating potential (though I would think at least SOME skating, even just a week in the middle to see how the body is responding, could be beneficial, but I don't actually know).

While it important to provide the brain with repetition and memorized patterns, variety and contrast is of utmost importance for the brain to learn optimally. Some Neuromovement therapies my physiotherapist wife is studying explores how refining skill is done by doing slightly different variations of movement.

Much of our movement is 'hardened' by habits, attitudes & experiences, and particularly former injuries (bodies compensate, and then tend to unnecessarily keep compensating). It's important to remove unnecessary tensions and movements in your 'regular' activities, and that can be discovered by doing different activities that use similar mechanics, but that your brain hasn't 'hardened' into habit yet.

I doubt Laine is doing neuromovement therapy - while many of its principles have been in use for centuries, but the intentionality/application for rehab/training and "scientific" understanding of the brain's complex relation to learning movement is fairly recent. But non-skating training is essential, so what he's doing makes sense according to this stuff.

 

[Ippenator]

You need to practice skating to become better at skating. Leg muscles would be one thing(And you do use different groups in different ratios for skating vs running), and the brain's nervous system's reconfiguration is another. That's the most important thing about "practice makes perfect", because doing something repetitively makes the brain more effective at managing it as the nervous system's connections broaden and become more focused. You for instance don't want too many of the nervous system's resources to go towards the useless running because there's a limited amount of nerve connections and that can take away from the ones used for skating.

It should be obvious... A top runner with a couple of weeks of practice won't be a top speed skater, and a top speed skater with a couple of weeks of practice won't be a top runner. Run to become better at running, skate to become better at skating.

Gym and explosion-specific training is of course important also but my biggest issue with Rautala is them running instead of skating. I don't think it's beneficial AT ALL to have to actually re-learn and to "get rid of the rust"(also known as the brain's nervous system's reconfiguration) as the season begins - It's much better if there's no rust to begin with and you've actually been improving at skating rather than having to initially work to get back to your original level.

It’s the same thing with anything that has to do with explosive top speed and fast acceleration - you need to have the explosive power behind you before you have any chance of being very fast with explosive acceleration. The techniques will mean absolutely nothing if you don’t have enough of the raw and explosive power to make you capable of executing the fine techniques.

Just look at Usain Bolt and any top class sprinter in the world - their legs are like tree trunks and even their arms are extremely strong and built with strong muscles. Do you think that all those muscles came with running exercises? I can tell you that NO WAY! Those guys have to practically live at the gym and they have had to specificly build their explosive strength level to top class to be able to compete with the speed of all the other top class sprinters in the world. And the same applies to skating or any other kind of physical sprinting.

Especially when you have a skater like Laine, whom was not after all gifted with naturally strong and explosive legs, and whom even had three years ago the knee problem and operation that took practically a year away from developing explosiveness to his leg muscles. He has a lot of work to do before he will be ready to get to the same level with his first steps as many of his peers.

And once again, even though I’m not claiming that Laine has perfect skating technique, I can still easily say that his skating skills are a minor issue with him, when thinking of how much his lack of explosiveness and stamina after all are causing him problems with his skating.

It is true that we didn’t see much of improvement with Laine’s first steps after last summer. But it is still important to understand that he couldn’t only just focus on gaining the explosive leg muscles, but he had to also work on his core and body otherwise too. He has not been too physical and strong for his size and all this has to be taken care of at the same time, to make sure that he will be still a balanced player and also that his body will be by all means stronger and better capable of enduring the hard play in the NHL. This should also help him avoid at least certain kind of injuries better.

So after the hard training, just like @grieves already mentioned, he had gained a lot of muscle mass, which was not all to his legs either, so it means that his legs had already a bigger job also to work on to get his acceleration to work better. This will stabilize in a few years of this kind of training, when less and less of the muscle mass increase will happen to other parts of the body than his legs. Also his body needs to in general get better used to the developed muscles, so it’s not just seriously realistic to expect very good results with his acceleration after just one efficient off season, not maybe even after two efficient off seasons. The people whom doubt this or seem to not understand it, I recommend you to study in detail how Barkov, Granlund or Scheifele did with their training. Where they started when they were Laine’s age, and how many years of strength training for their legs they needed to do efficiently before they started to get really good results with their acceleration.

Honestly the impatience here is just too much. Laine and Rautala know absolutely what they are doing. You doubters will see it. But most probably you will see the better results in two years from now. Probably some gradual improvement before that. I’m expecting clearly better results with clearly better first steps and clearly better stamina for the season 2020-2021, when Laine will be still only 22 years old during the whole season. And this of course only if he can avoid major injuries and gets to train well every off season until then.

 

[RageQuit77]

Perfect gym.

Love it.

ADD:

5 and half beers drunken tune after a work day. Flowers on the graves. Water-economy OK. Shoulders hurting. Darling on my side.

Respect!

 

[StatisticsAddict99]

This Bolt comparison is insane, would anyone expect a sprinter to be fast if the way they trained was by not sprinting for 2- months?

 

[Ippenator]

This Bolt comparison is insane, would anyone expect a sprinter to be fast if the way they trained was by not sprinting for 2- months?

Off season is similar to Laine’s training for sprinters. Not much running if at all in fact:

Complete Full-Year Sprinters Workout Program

 

[Narow]

No one should forget that megablast hit, and following 8 games (luckily only) concussion protocol either. Rautala and staff apparently with full co-op of Laine and Jets management prioritized some things last year, and Laine himself was guite open of his own expectations about his expected performance levels during fall 2017.

I can't see the scenario where Laine would become fast, ultra-agile half-track reconnaissance truck in a 200 feet sunflower field.

I see heavily armoured Main Battle tank with extra accurate high caliber cannon with HEAT ammunition attached to it in a middle of enemy minefields growing thorns.

If your little tank is already one of primary targets to get neutralized by enemy tanks, you probably consider it is better to augment it with upgrades that can help to improve it's combat robustness, longevity, durability, resistance, and operative capabilities as a rational counter-counter measures against changing tactical demands.

Skating speed itself is only plus for MBTs.

EDIT: Better analogy would've been F16 vs A10. I see Laine's role in Jets squadron more as A10 than any kind air superiority fighter.

Hastily adding that it seems to odd to me too if a hockey player's summer training includes zero hours of skating. For casual fan it makes no sense at all, regardless of priorities in development schedules.

Except mobility is more important than armor both in real battlefield and hockey hehe.

Also a10 is being phased out sadly

Id rather see him turn into a patria amv tankkiller with mobility and infinite options for upgrades.

He will probably never be a highly mobile speedy skater but i do believe he will become an explosive and impossible to stop or take away the puck from new type of weapon.

Alien (laine)

 

[FVM]

Except mobility is more important than armor both in real battlefield and hockey hehe.

Also a10 is being phased out sadly

Id rather see him turn into a patria amv tankkiller with mobility and infinite options for upgrades.

He will probably never be a highly mobile speedy skater but i do believe he will become an explosive and impossible to stop or take away the puck from new type of weapon.

Alien (laine)

This is getting way off-topic but main battle tanks still rule the battlefield. Those Patria AMVs, along with other IFVs, are in deep trouble if they have to face Leopard 2s, M1A1 Abrams etc. It's the classic combination of firepower, armour and mobility that makes the main battle tank so effective.

 

[kunekune]

This is getting way off-topic but main battle tanks still rule the battlefield. Those Patria AMVs, along with other IFVs, are in deep trouble if they have to face Leopard 2s, M1A1 Abrams etc. It's the classic combination of firepower, armour and mobility that makes the main battle tank so effective.

During my time in the army I was a *ten* in panzerjaeger company so I've seen my fair share of panzer fights. At least in simulation CV-90's are dominating Leopards due to superior aiming system. Leopards can't even see CV's until they are destroyed.

 

[Plural]

I'm all for off-ice training, but anyone who thinks that improving skating doesn't involve any skating seems oof base. Laine needs to improve his skating.

I think he 100% should skate during summer too. I'm not questioning Rautala's abilities to properly add explosiveness, strength, agility, etc. He's got a impressive history in track and field training and he is one of the most notable trainers in that area.

But in order to get your skating better you need to skate too. I don't see any way around it.

 

[Whileee]

I think he 100% should skate during summer too. I'm not questioning Rautala's abilities to properly add explosiveness, strength, agility, etc. He's got a impressive history in track and field training and he is one of the most notable trainers in that area.

But in order to get your skating better you need to skate too. I don't see any way around it.

Couldn't agree more.

Skating is a skill, with technique, and it takes practice, just like shooting and passing and receiving a pass.

Laine didn't develop a world-class shot simply by strengthening his fore-arms and grip. He has practiced shooting a puck for thousands of hours. He won't continue to improve his skating simply by strengthening his legs and core. He needs to practice and work on his technique and balance, too.

Training to be a speed-skater doesn't make you a good sprinter / runner. Training oriented to track and field is not sufficient to improve a player for hockey.

 

[Tommigun]

Couldn't agree more.

Skating is a skill, with technique, and it takes practice, just like shooting and passing and receiving a pass.

Laine didn't develop a world-class shot simply by strengthening his fore-arms and grip. He has practiced shooting a puck for thousands of hours. He won't continue to improve his skating simply by strengthening his legs and core. He needs to practice and work on his technique and balance, too.

Training to be a speed-skater doesn't make you a good sprinter / runner. Training oriented to track and field is not sufficient to improve a player for hockey.

Yeah. So Scheif, anyone knows what his training regiment was for getting his skating to an elite level? Almost certainly it involved a lot of ice time. I have a huge problem with Laine not skating at all during the summer.

 

[scelaton]

Good points. However, since Laine clearly gained a lot of mass, perhaps his explosiveness was masked by this new mass. In other words, if the engine gets bigger you expect to see improvement. But if the car also gets bigger, wouldn't that mean that not observing any real improvement is quite natural?
......

Bingo, simple physics.
I would like to see Laine have a program that is customized to quickness, not strength, on and off the ice. He looks like he has a propensity to gain a ton of mass with weight training, and that is not what he needs to succeed and stay healthy in today's NHL.

 

[Plural]

Couldn't agree more.

Skating is a skill, with technique, and it takes practice, just like shooting and passing and receiving a pass.

Laine didn't develop a world-class shot simply by strengthening his fore-arms and grip. He has practiced shooting a puck for thousands of hours. He won't continue to improve his skating simply by strengthening his legs and core. He needs to practice and work on his technique and balance, too.

Training to be a speed-skater doesn't make you a good sprinter / runner. Training oriented to track and field is not sufficient to improve a player for hockey.

I think we're exactly on the same page here.

And I'm not questioning wether Laine should train with Rautala or not. I know some guys think of him as some kind of a guru here in Finland. He's probably accurately described with wording "high end physique and strength trainer". He has experience about hockey players summer training since -77 and consistent NHL players summer training since -95. I have no question wether or not he knows how to build up muscle strength, explosiveness and cardio. He's got the credentials to show he knows what he's doing.

Thing is, he's not a hockey trainer. Yes, he also trains hockey players but he's not a hockey trainer. For example, he can't and won't teach his trainees any skating techniques. He can implement training methods that support skating. Focusing on muscle training that helps lateral movement or straight line explosiveness. But it doesn't improve Laine's skating techniques.

It's odd to me how often people here talk about Laine's body developing but completely ignore that as it develops he needs to get used to it. It's like Formula 1 driver getting a new car each season. Yeah they are sort of same as the last season one but still different. Engineers can teach them all the nuances and gadgets of the car. But it does no good unless the driver gets familiar with his new car. Similar kind of acceleration from corner B as last season is now sending the car head first to tire-wall. Laine is getting a new body each season. He has to get used to it. Only way it can be done is by taking it out for a lap time and time again.

 

[Ippenator]

Bingo, simple physics.
I would like to see Laine have a program that is customized to quickness, not strength, on and off the ice. He looks like he has a propensity to gain a ton of mass with weight training, and that is not what he needs to succeed and stay healthy in today's NHL.

There’s no quickness unless you have enough of explosive strength. Quickness IS strength, just through the kind of muscle cells that provide the explosive kind of power. There can be small and thin players that have naturally a lot of the quick muscle cells in their legs, so they might not need to do so much of explosive muscle training as a bigger guy like Laine that has always had weakish legs without having naturally a good amount of the quick muscle cells.

This means that Laine has to do an enormous amount of work for a few years to get his leg explosiveness to even a good level. It’s for sure not an easy and quick process and for sure there are no shortcuts by training some skating techniques etc. He needs to get his skinny legs to a much stronger level and he is not really that close to being ready with it yet.

And seriously, Laine’s real problem is not his skating technique. He can still polish it for sure, but it is not because of his skating technique why his first steps are not too good yet. He just simply lacks enough of explosive muscle cells in his legs and he needs to do a lot of work still to get to an even good level. He will never be elite with it anyway, so people expecting him to become somekind of a skating monster will be extremely disappointed in the future, if they will keep up that kind of expectations.