In my optimal Jets lineup, Maurice would try Laine with Scheifele ASAP, but even without that option, he should craft together a line with Roslovic and Laine. Ehlers or Perrault maybe as the 3rd piece, maybe even Copp. IMO Roslovic has earned a look in that kind of role. Give them a few games with decent opportunity and if it doesn't look good, try something else.
I also never got this argument that playing Ehlers and Laine is a dysfunctional line with a center they don't seem to work with is somehow about "player development". Meanwhile Connor is playing with Scheifele and nobody seems to think he should be 'developed' with a different center / in a role that doesn't really suite him. Quite opposite, most everyone seems to rave about how great fit he is in that 1st line and how that line should be untouchable. How come when Laine was beasting with Scheifele and Perrault/Ehlers/Copp, with some of the best GF/GA ratios in the league (probably, going by gut here but the numbers were great), it was completely fine to break up that line to "develop" Laine. Or how it was about "spreading offence" - meanwhile currently the Jets offence is as much about 1 line it has ever been. I guess judging by the recent discussion, it's finally not just the "Laine fans", who are starting to question Maurice's line combos and their TOI.
I'm just again in that place where I'm very, very frustated with Maurice (and to lesser degree about the perceived double standard of player development Connor vs Laine/Ehlers) - maybe I'm overreacting after only 3 games, it's just that this feeling about Maurice is all too familiar from previous two seasons.
I also get this feeling that in Laine's case, most everyone is ignoring what the stats say and going by some "eye-test" - in light of those stats I'd say there's also a case to be made for the possibility, that just maybe this is such a special player that your eye-test is not adapting fast enough for how he sees and plays the game, and he should be given a chance to do things his way, instead of trying to mold him into a player which "looks good" and is playing the good old NHL game just like everyone else. Hell, it's possible all that would do is prove he's not that special after all, but at least then it would be tried. Now I feel like the Jets have a potential super-star in their hands and they just don't know what to do with him because he doesn't fit some expectations.
Maybe this would be a topic for whole different discussion, but I feel this at least relates to what's going on with Laine ... I know football (soccer) comparisons aren't that great because of the larger field and totally different tempo of the game, but in football there's never been just one way to play the game, or some very homogenous way of doing things all teams seem to follow - quite the contrary. In the case of NHL, sometimes I feel there's a culture of "this is how it's always been done" - like some good ole boys club it's very hard to break into. Yes, the rink is of different size, but if this is a league where all the best play and there are a lot of European players there, you start to wonder why all the best coaches are not there as well? Or do you really think all the best coaches are North American? Or is that rink size really such a big deal that an European coach couldn't adapt to it?
