Patrick Laine was the highlight quote of the NHL combine this past weekend. Some said he was confident, others said he was cocky and more said nothing other than this kid has a great attitude.
However, all this ‘news’ around Laine didn’t seem to sit very well on social media around Winnipeg. Unfortunately what didn’t sit very well brought up some old emotions and perhaps some rather irrational thought amongst the denizens of Winnipeg.
The first thing that came to mind was good ‘ol number 9- Evander Kane. The comparisons to Kane were almost automatic and un-prompted and they weren’t always gentle.
It was as if the fan base, or at least the vocal social media ones within it, were trying to tell the Jets management how to proceed. “Don’t make us have to like some one we can’t relate too….
Unfortunately this is all about something that the Winnipeg fan base, or segments of it, may have yet to come to terms with and they’ve had 5 years to do so already. The NHL is not what it was when it left Winnipeg in 1996.
Players are different, the economics are different, the fans are different, the game is different, the league is different and so is the media and it’s time Winnipeg as a city caught up.
In some ways it has and in others Winnipeg still lives in the dark ages. It’s the capital of NIMBY-ism in Canada and holds onto bastions of inefficiency as if they are scared cows. The world has changed and it’s time Winnipeg realized it and accepted it. The players aren’t the problem, you dear city and it’s occupants are.
The job of Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff is to build the best team his employer and team owner will pay for with the assets and tools provided. If you don’t like the players he has that’s fine but deciding on who or what an 18 year old is before he’s given a chance to prove himself seems rather protectionist for all the wrong reasons.
What exactly is bad about what Laine has said? What is the potential challenge should he continue to express himself as he has in the recent past?
It’s time to make a decision for many in the fan base, or is it decisions?
If you want a winner, a team that competes for a Stanley Cup you may not always like who is on that roster. Would Jets fans still spew venom at Kane if he were on the team and putting up 30 goals each season?
Are all Chicago fans heartless, amoral and criminal-loving because of what Patrick Kane has been accused of or done in the past? That’s the challenge here- fans want the success but they don’t want it at any cost- or at least in Winnipeg.
The Winnipeg Jets have enough players fans can relate to, players from northern US states, so what’s wrong with one or two from some northern countries to round out the balance?
There is the fear that seems to come with Winnipeg, but maybe it’s something different and based more around insecurity than anything else. Part of what made the Kane situation so frustrating to watch is that eventually Kane rejected Winnipeg and that played at the psyche of the city and a large segment of fans.
Eventually the scenario devolved into a chicken and egg-like battle; you don’t like us so leave or you’re not like us so we don’t want you. Now with the chance to draft what could be a similar player (to Kane) in skill and flash, Jets fans seemingly want nothing to do with some one who may display traits that come along with immense skill and talent.
They want the Finnish Flash.
The point here for Jets fans is that if you want the kind of players who GMs build with to win Stanley Cups then you don’t get to pick and choose all parts of the player. Laine has not played a game in the NHL but here come the critics about his personality and what ‘kind’ of person he ‘could be’ if he has success.
Laine is clearly the player the Jets should take, or any team with the second overall pick, and he’s probably the player the Jets and their fans need. One who has some swagger, willing to give an interesting quote and to be front and centre. For those doubters, he may not be the player you want but he’s the player you need. Regardless of if you love him or hate him.