Too bad this story leaked while it was supposed to stay in house. In the end, Laine was humiliated by the CBJ organization twice: benched first then trashed in the media after only 4 games with CBJ.
I do not really see how he would like to sign a long term contract with Columbus in these conditions.
On the other hand, you definitely need respect between players and staff, so I understand the benching better under this light, even if a discussion can sometimes bring more than a raw punishment. However, respect needs to go both ways.
If the staff leaked the story, I really do not see how Laine would decide to stay more than a year with such a staff, which says a thing and does the opposite. And IMO, such a behavior is way worse than a mouth abuse..
If a player leaked the story, same story. Means that there is no group unity. If what happened between Laine and the staff was known by the players, it is strange that Cam talked about lack of effort to justify Laine's benching.
TBH, I am still sad that PLD is gone, whatever his faults are. Laine is a pure sniper, but PLD is a much more complete player, and there are some games where he was just amazing in any situations (defense, offense, with or without the puck). He fitted also way more with Torts style of play than Laine.
It just adds to the drama.
