Laine focused on enjoying NHL Global Series with Jets

HELSINKI -- Patrik Laine knows he is in the spotlight. The Winnipeg Jets forward is about to play two NHL regular-season games in his own country, against the Florida Panthers at Hartwall Arena on Thursday (2 p.m. ET; NBCSN, TSN3, NHL.TV) and Friday, in the 2018 NHL Global Series.

As he prepares for two of the most special games of his NHL career, the native of Tampere, Finland, also knows he likely could not have picked a worse time to be struggling on the ice.
Laine, who had 44 goals last season, second in the NHL to Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals (49), has five points (three goals, two assists) in 12 games this season.
His offensive numbers have stalled because he has bobbled or misfired on some of his scoring chances, but he said shooting and scoring aren't his biggest worries.
"Just overall it kind of feels like the pucks are bouncing, and when I'm trying to get it out of the zone it feels like it's going to hit something and stay inside," he said Tuesday. "That's probably the biggest thing I need to work on, to get pucks out and get pucks deep. Those are the small things that the team and the coaches and all of the other players respect and they want everybody to do the same things.
"That's something especially that I don't like about my game."
The attention brought by the Global Series games -- all eyes and camera lenses were on his every move at practice -- will not get in the way of him enjoying these games or doing his best to improve his play.
"This might be the only time in my life that I'm able to play an NHL game back home," Laine said. "Who knows? But I'm not going to look at the game like that. Just try to enjoy every second that I'm here and try to win those two games.

"The game is here because of me and (Florida Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov, also from Tampere). We'll try to play the same game we always play and not worry about the spotlight."
In attempt to find a spark for Laine, Jets coach Paul Maurice has moved him around the lineup, putting him at different times with centers Mark Scheifele, Bryan Little, Adam Lowry and Jack Roslovic.
Maurice liked what he saw from Laine with Lowry and Brandon Tanev during a 3-2 loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, and will stick with that combination Thursday.
"I've liked Lowry and Tanev with Laine because it gave them a different look in the offensive zone," Maurice said. "It was a more physical game. The pucks got contained. It was easy for him to read."
Maurice never has been shy about changing his lines but previously had been reluctant to alter a reliable line of Lowry, Tanev and Andrew Copp.
"I move the lines around all the time, sometimes just to change them," Maurice said. "If you don't love where you're at, you discover things that you didn't possibly see (before). It happened last year that I put Laine out there with Lowry's line and I liked it."
He said he understands why anyone would question putting a scorer like Laine with two forwards who normally are used in a checking role in Lowry and Tanev.
"But you're saying it doesn't make a whole lot of sense (that) you've got this shooter with two grinders," Maurice said. "But when you take a look at the offensive-zone time, Lowry and Tanev, wherever they play get a tremendous amount. It was the one thing that with Little, (Nikolaj) Ehlers and Laine, they didn't have the offensive-zone time. The rush is one thing, but this is a real fast game. (Laine) needs zone time. We'll watch it and let it develop a little bit and see what happens."
Lowry said he doesn't believe Laine is that far off his pace from last season, when he had seven points (five goals, two assists) in the first 12 games.

"I know people are kind of on him for his start," he said. "I think people need to take a step back. He's still got three goals and he's one of those guys that can score two, three goals in a game and he gets hot for a week and all of a sudden he's right back up there."
Lowry said the line shuffling isn't a big deal to the Jets forwards, and that regardless of who he and Tanev are playing with, they won't stray too far from their approach.
"The change was made on the fly in Toronto and we kind of know what's expected when he (Laine) comes up (to the line) and what we need to do," Lowry said. "We can't just abandon all of our previous responsibilities now that we have him on our line. We have to stick to what's made our line successful in the past, kind of try to get him accustomed to our style of play.
"We've got one of the best natural goal scorers in the game today. Anytime you have him on your line you're a threat to score anywhere on the ice. Traditionally, our line, we've just scored goals in and around the net. But he's a guy that can beat a goalie from outside the top of the circles and make it look easy. I won't necessarily force pucks to him, but we can use our size and use our chemistry together to kind of get him the puck and hopefully get him going."