Jets Say Hit on Patrik Laine Just Part of the Game
Patrik Laine has accomplished a lot of firsts this season, but the first superstar of the modern Winnipeg Jets era could have done without this one.
Laine suffered his first NHL concussion on the weekend and, like his impact on the Jets lineup so far this season, it wasn’t exactly subtle.
Like many of the Finn’s goals, the hit that sidelined him indefinitely was highlight-reel material, a thunderous open-ice collision you don’t often see in today’s NHL.
That’s too bad, because it was a dandy display of body contact, one of the things that make hockey worth watching.
If you don’t have a rooting interest, you enjoy the kind of hit Buffalo’s Jake McCabe delivered on the 18-year-old, a momentum-changer that delivered a jolt through both benches.
Not even Laine’s teammates want to see that kind of open-ice hit removed from the game.
“That’s impossible,” Drew Stafford said Monday.
