Mulletman
Registered User
- Feb 23, 2013
- 3,995
- 3,823
Usually February is a though month for players to score in. The grind of the regular season usually gets the best of players in February. Last year 9 goals was enough to win you the February goal scoring race. And Zetterberg and Iginla holds the record for most February goals since 2000 with 13. Iginla scored 13 in 2003 and Zetterberg did it in 2007. We have to go all the way back to 1997 to find a better result, when hall of famer Brendan Shanahan had his legendary February were he put up 14 goals, beating all time greats like Lemiuex, Selanne and Hull in the race. The all time record for February goals is held by Joe Malone who scored 18 goals back in 1921.
When we look at this years February and the Schedule we can see that one player stands out compared to the rest and that's Patrick Laine. The Schedule clearly shows that Laine is being booked strong in February, with 10 of the 12 games being home games including the first 9 games in February. The only 2 road games happen to be against Dallas and St Louis, 2 teams that Laine has played extremely well against. And the Jets only have 1 back to back game in February as well. Now this Schedule was even better before the season started as the first 3 games is played against Vegas, Colorado and Arizona, but with Vegas and Colorado doing so well this season it has clearly backfired a bit.
Analyzing Laine's opponents in February we can see that Laine has scored 27 goals against them in 41 career games so far. That's clearly way above average when you consider Laine has only scored 32 goals in the other 83 games he's played against all the other teams in his career. So he's got a clear advantage when it comes to the opponents as well as a home game advantage. And then you got to factor in how good Winnipeg has been this year, the fact that Laine hasn't had a hot streak yet and could go on one any moment now, plus the fact that Laine is leading the League in powerplay goals, it's starting to look really good for Laine come February. With scoring being up this year too, my prediction is that Laine will go on a hot streak, scoring 14 goals in 12 games this February. I don't think Laine has got any shot at breaking the all time record for February, as Maurice is a terrible coach and will most likely keep Laine back a bit.
So what do you guys think, will we see a huge February from Laine or will he crash and burn? And is there any other guys out there that could go on a huge run and challange Laine for the lead?
When we look at this years February and the Schedule we can see that one player stands out compared to the rest and that's Patrick Laine. The Schedule clearly shows that Laine is being booked strong in February, with 10 of the 12 games being home games including the first 9 games in February. The only 2 road games happen to be against Dallas and St Louis, 2 teams that Laine has played extremely well against. And the Jets only have 1 back to back game in February as well. Now this Schedule was even better before the season started as the first 3 games is played against Vegas, Colorado and Arizona, but with Vegas and Colorado doing so well this season it has clearly backfired a bit.
Analyzing Laine's opponents in February we can see that Laine has scored 27 goals against them in 41 career games so far. That's clearly way above average when you consider Laine has only scored 32 goals in the other 83 games he's played against all the other teams in his career. So he's got a clear advantage when it comes to the opponents as well as a home game advantage. And then you got to factor in how good Winnipeg has been this year, the fact that Laine hasn't had a hot streak yet and could go on one any moment now, plus the fact that Laine is leading the League in powerplay goals, it's starting to look really good for Laine come February. With scoring being up this year too, my prediction is that Laine will go on a hot streak, scoring 14 goals in 12 games this February. I don't think Laine has got any shot at breaking the all time record for February, as Maurice is a terrible coach and will most likely keep Laine back a bit.
So what do you guys think, will we see a huge February from Laine or will he crash and burn? And is there any other guys out there that could go on a huge run and challange Laine for the lead?
