Laine hat trick for Jets steals show from Selanne in Finland

HELSINKI -- The sight of Teemu Selanne on the ice with Patrik Laine and Aleksander Barkov would probably have been enough for most of the 13,490 fans at Hartwall Arena attending the 2018 NHL Global Series game between the Winnipeg Jets and Florida Panthers on Thursday.

Selanne is the most beloved hockey player in the history of Finland, and Laine, the Winnipeg Jets forward, and Barkov, the Florida Panthers center, are two of the newest, brightest Finland-born players in the NHL.
So it was no shock the ceremonial face-off featuring all three in the first standing ovation of the night.
As for the second standing ovation, that was all Laine.
RELATED: [Laine hat trick powers Jets past Panthers at Global Series | Complete Global Series coverage]
The 20-year-old from Tampere, who hadn't had a goal in five straight games, scored a hat trick to help the Jets to a 4-2 win over the Panthers.
After he had scored the third goal, the hats, and love, rained down from the fans in his home country.
"I don't think you guys can even imagine how good that feels," said Laine. "It might be different if I had played really well in the first (12 games) that we have played. I was a pretty bad player and now, getting rewarded like that was pretty awesome.
"Obviously, it's good to be home and to be able to score those goals here."
Before the game Thursday, Selanne, the Hockey Hall of Famer from Helsinki who scored 684 goals in 1,451 NHL games, painted a precise picture of what has been happening and would happen to Laine.

"I was talking with Patrik yesterday, (telling him) to relax, don't try too hard," Selanne said. "Nothing great happens when you are squeezing your stick. Just relax. Everything has to come smoothly.
"He's one of the guys, like all of the goal-scorers, and I've been thinking about this, he needs a couple of good confidence games to get a couple of goals and then it's like the Heinz ketchup bottle syndrome. Sometimes you don't get the ketchup out, but when it comes, it really comes. That's what he needs. He needs to get that ketchup moving out."
Selanne, who scored an NHL-rookie-record 76 goals in 1992-93 with the Jets, said the feeling of being both stuck and unstuck remains vivid from his playing career and he can relate to Laine, who scored 44 goals last season, second in the NHL only to Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals (49).
"I know exactly how (Laine) feels and how the city feels," he said. "I went through it during my time and there is nothing better. Winnipeg has great fans and that's why I know so well how he feels, when he has a lot of goals and when he doesn't have a lot of goals.
"I think experience really, really helps with this. You can't start feeling sorry for yourself when you have a couple of bad games. And I know that kid and he doesn't read the newspaper and he doesn't take pressure from there. But he's expecting the most from himself and a lot of times that makes you try too hard and start forcing stuff."
Laine ended the scoring slump when he snapped a wrist shot past Florida goalie James Reimer on the power play at 15:41 of the second period, breaking a 1-1 tie. His second goal, a one-time slap shot on the power play on a perfect pass from Blake Wheeler, gave Winnipeg a 3-2 lead at 3:28 of the third. An empty-net goal with 43 seconds left in the game capped the scoring and his big night.

"(Laine) is a 20-year-old young man that has a level of pressure on him that probably most people would never feel, coming home and his game isn't where he needs it to be," Jets coach Paul Maurice said. "Tonight was a good example of what we see from [Laine] so often. He's scoring three, but I think he could have had seven.
"That's the Patty Laine we get to enjoy in Winnipeg almost nightly. And I'm just so happy for him and his family, that he could have a night like this at home. It's just outstanding."
Maurice had a hand in Laine's hat trick, putting him on the ice when the Panthers pulled Reimer for an extra skater late in the game. The empty-net goal was Laine's sixth of the season and first that didn't come on the power play.
"It was right, the right thing to do," Maurice said. "Had he struggled 5-on-5, had I been uncomfortable with his game... ah, I still would have put him out. Who am I kidding?
Maurice said the setting of the game gave him little choice but to give Laine a chance for the hat trick.
"I'm in Finland. I put him out there because I want to be able to get to the bus after the game," Maurice said. "If [Laine's] not on (the ice), it might have been a 50-50 proposition, me getting out of here alive."
Alive was what the arena was at the end of the game. For Laine and Finland's passionate hockey fans, it couldn't have turned out better.