That's quite interesting cause as far as I can remember there never was any kind of Lemieux vs Armia kind of competition. Some people may have seen shades of Lemieux but you saw shades of Armia. Which again seemed even more strange cause you compared him to Armia but apparently then again at the same time saw a lot of Brett Hull in Laine, where Armia and Hull as players were really nothing alike. Anyway you kept the debate going even longer than I usually care to keep typing (which is absurdly long span of time since I actually enjoy this and don't run out of battery) up until someone came and asked you basically if you did that for living. I think he literally asked if there was a morning that you didn't click the Laine the topic just to discredit him. I think these points you were trying to make included "not fast enough for the NHL rink", "not able to score against NHL level goalkeepers" then whenever comparing points to Matthews "too small of sample size". Of course the age factor (7 months difference) didn't mean anything. Matthews won the Calder over Laine as the Jets decided to demote him to the second line at the for the last stretch of the season, what ~15 games where he just couldn't get things done with Little and yet still point-wise it was a close race looking at PPG/GPG alone. Suddenly position apparently became a factor though, and I can't remember the last time Calder nominees were judged in terms of what position they played at. Anyway I do agree that Matthews was the right pick since he didn't get injured and actually made it to 40 goals. I also agree that Matthews is the better player currently, but then again I used to think Barkov was better than Mackinnon just less than two years ago. Players develop in their own time and terms and some get more help than the others. Don't get too complacent, the jury is still out there and will be for quite a while.
I take shot at Leafs fans so they have issue with me. Okay. Howabout you, have you ever looked yourself in the mirror? Since I so carelessly and continuously take shots at Leafs fans, then would you mind to point out the topics that weren't Laine/Jets related where I came in guns blazing from lets say within the last past 12 months? The difference between you and I is I don't really care how another prospect is doing and I've long stopped bothering to take swings at lets say Matthews. Then again why would I do that? I respect him as a player and he seems to have a great future ahead of him. Nonetheless, I could easily point out how he has frozen at every single playoffs from the past 3 years. Then even going back in the time one could even make an argument of you orchestrating the campaign against Laine (basically non-stop spam in his topic), where I think I made one or two posts at the Matthews thread in total. So no, I don't just casually take swings at the Leafs when I please but when I see something like I pointed above, of course I bring it up. That's in my nature.
Just stop with the conspiracy crap already. Obviously you don't follow the Jets regularly enough to know any better. I asked you how did it benefit the team to have Roslovic in Laine's place in the first PP unit and have Laine working as screen in the second and where's the answer? In short: "Temporary solution nothing permanent". M'kay. The PP formations didn't work on the 1st game, didn't work on the 2nd game, not 3rd and now 4th (The Jets have 0 goals from 4 games). so if it's temporary and not working, why are they still forcing it? Alright, how do you explain the fact that out of all the top six quality forwards in the Jets, Laine is the only one who never got the proper showcase in the first line after 16-17? We are talking about players like Connor, Ehlers, Perreault etc, and do take into consideration that things weren't exactly working out in the 2nd line for Laine with Little so spreading the wealth really doesn't seem to cut it. How did rookie Connor immediately make the jump over Laine in the pecking order, a player who just came through from 36 goal season? How was Laine almost ripped off the ice every time the opposing net was empty while he was contending for the rocket? Of course these are just couple of things that actually happened. If you can provide a reasonable and convincing explanation to these then we can work out with some other examples (would be a long list so lets start with these). By the way, have you ever heard of a term called asset management? It's being applied in most of the modern day corporations.
Talking about space goats, does Hyman ring a bell? Have you checked Laine's stats with and without Little? Are you suggesting he's good center for him or what exactly are you trying to point out? As for these "crazy predictions" I thought I already explained that most who made predictions actually thought the Jets were going to give him a proper chance for his 20yo season but it never happened. And like I said, at least in my predictions I did take in account the possibility of him being stuck in the secondary role he has pretty much always been at. Now if you can prove otherwise, please go ahead and show me and the rest of the world these off-worldly expectations I set upon him.
Laine is work-in-progress. Had his self-confidence not been decimated (starting point = as far away from Little as possible) he could and would still bring in results most of the nights, just like in 16-17 and just like in 17-18. Instead of giving him a well earned chance to prove himself away from the one player he least gets along with on the ice, that's probably what we would be seeing at the moment. The Jets management saw differently and again tried to force something that didn't function and eventually here we are. It's a set-back but nothing permanent and Laine will surface yet again. With that said, I never claimed all his problems were inflected by the others but the support he's been given (and ice time over the years) certainly hasn't helped him moving onward with getting consistent results. Now when I said work-in-progress I expect him to take skating as the priority now that he's had enough off-seasons to work on the sheer strength and once that aspect is where it needs to be, maybe then he could even drag someone like Little along, but obviously he's still a year or two away from that. We'll find out due time.
Some of them can't change who they are. He's not a finished product yet and lot of people will be enjoying salt yet again when Laine gets back on the track, most likely somewhere else however.
