Player Discussion: Laine

[Teemusalami204]

I definitely get it but it was really kind of below the belt to throw a player under the bus when he isn't some sort of wizard outside of shooting either. Especially a player that was committed to the team from day 1 regardless of who he played with. I get that he wants to score goals, he's hungry for it. But even though it seems like scoring goals is the only aim of a team, it isn't. Winning games is. If Laine scores 3 goals but the other team scores 4. Laine looks great but we still lost. There needs to be a balance throughout the lineup.

I agree though forward lines shouldn't be this static thing that we roll out in some predictable fashion. I've long been a proponent of having 6 or 7 or more different combos you can roll out during certain situations. The main trouble with that is you need the depth at center to do that. Which is something we have not really had ever, outside of one season with Stastny. Having that depth at C allows you to move guys all over the place, giving players all kinds of different looks with different outcomes in mind. Having that depth also means you don't need to rely so much on your top guys and can feel more comfortable rolling out different combos to test certain situations. I do not think Maurice is that kind of coach but we also haven't really seen him with a full season of depth at center. Though to be fair not many coaches tend to do that because of job security. They roll with what works, until it doesn't and then they try to find something else that works and roll with that.

It's hard to expirement to much when you're job depends entirely on success. Not many coaches are given a long enough leash to really go all out. Even Maurice likely doesn't have that long of a leash.

maurices job hasn’t depended on the process he’s had a lot of years of freebie job security to try new things

 

[JetsFan815]

Here's my take on this. People can have whatever thoughts they want about Maurice/Wheeler but it is objectively true that Laine has been an extremely underwhelming 5 on 5 player over his career and doesn't really seem to be improving when it comes to that. There are not many coaches on winning teams that would put a guy like Laine on the top line who is underwater so much at 5 on 5. I am not a fan of Maurice but all things considered he has treated Laine with kid gloves, he has been guaranteed at minimum high end 2nd line icetime and top-PP regardless of how he is playing. Imagine Laine on Mike Babcock or Torterella or Gerrard Gallant's team... he would routinely see 3rd-4th lines and maybe even some benchings.

He played an entire season last year on the top line. That was his chance to show the organization that he was so good in that role that they can't afford to play him in any other position. That's what Scheifele did at the end of 15-16 season, that's what Connor did in the first half of 17-18 season. But Laine was far from that and that line posted some of the worst 5 on 5 two way numbers I have ever seen a top line post in the NHL. They didn't even come close what Scheifele has done with any of Connor/Wheeler/Ehlers on his wings. Regardless of whether one thinks that Wheeler should play 1st line or 2nd, it is pretty clear that Laine hasn't shown that he is even close to handling top line minutes.

 

[Teemusalami204]

Yeah and the downside is we lose our best defensive C if he isn't the 3C. No way Lowry sticks around playing 4C minutes.

Why do we care? Laine has to sacrifice for the team, but poor easily replaceable Lowry? I just don't understand the strategy there. Lowry is barely a 3rd line centre these days.

If the fourth line played more then 5 Min which it would with Lowry on it I think he would be happy

 

[AKAChip]

Why do we care? Laine has to sacrifice for the team, but poor easily replaceable Lowry? I just don't understand the strategy there. Lowry is barely a 3rd line centre these days.

Lowry is easily the most overrated Jet. He’s an undeniable disaster offensively and his numbers take a significant nosedive when he isn’t with Copp. He’s a 4C by almost every metric and yet he shouldn’t accept anything less than 3C minutes?

 

[DashingDane]

This is such a stupid argument. Nobody is addressing the real issues with coaching. Our coach can't use players correctly. Wheeler is a better all around player than Laine up to the end of the season. I bet Laine is a significantly better player than Wheeler was at 22. Laine is the future Wheeler is the past. You don't run the future out of town. Wheeler is going to be out of the league in a few years.

Our coaching does nothing to optimize player usage. Laine is a sniper so lets play him with guys that don't pass much. Connor is near the worst defensive forward on the team; it doesn't seem to impact his usage. Laine scored 43 goals in a season by 20. Sure let's make sure he can play d before we really make use of that. It's insane. These garbage coaches think they have answers. 43 goal scoring 19 years olds should be forced to score less because reasons. Laine is a guy who should be playing off the rush, but because he's big so he's not allowed. He's gotta be a power forward. So many of those these days. Lucic! amiright?

Maybe we should force Nogier to play top minutes on PP1. He needs to learn to score.

This management and coaching group do not know how to run a team in this city. It's not working. It's hard and these guys aren't cut out for it.

Preach!