"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.