Throughout his NHL career, Patrik Laine has been known as a streaky scorer. That doesn’t make him an ineffective player, it just means that when he’s feeling it, he’s feeling it. And holy smokes has the 23-year-old sniper been vibing lately.
He extended his point streak to 10 games on Feb. 22 against the Toronto Maple Leafs and did so in a dramatic fashion. With the Columbus Blue Jackets getting caved in during the second period and Toronto looking to put the game away, Laine took a slick drop pass from Boone Jenner—who was the recipient of a fantastic outlet look from Zach Werenski—to tie the game at one.
Laine wasn’t done yet either. With the game in overtime, the wing found himself in a fantastic shooting position again and put the game away with a glove-side game-winning goal. The snipe sent the hometown Blue Jackets crowd home happy and allowed the team to begin a tough stretch of games with a victory.
Patrik Laine sniping the OT winner through the legs of Auston Matthews pic.twitter.com/FwESX3ZRM5
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) February 23, 2022
It was a big win for Columbus, pushing them to 8-2-0 in its last 10 games. From Laine’s perspective, he believes that the Blue Jackets actually played well enough against the Maple Leafs to score even more goals.
He had this to say following the game, according to Craig Merz of NHL.com:
"“We had a chance to score more. Four was enough. I was happy to get two of them and help get the two points that we need.”"
Columbus took a total of 30 shots on goal in the contest, with another 10 getting blocked by the Maple Leafs.
OUR TAKE ON LAINE QUOTE
It’s definitely preferable that a player is confident, especially one like Laine. His scoring seems pretty tied to how he’s feeling out on the ice, so this kind of quote is the kind of thing you want to hear from him.
Still, we can’t shake the feeling that the Blue Jackets stole one from the Maple Leafs. The second period, in particular, was brutally lopsided. Yet it only takes one shot to score a goal, and Laine and the rest of the Jackets made the most of their opportunities.