Olivier Primeau: 'What’s Patrik Laine got to do with it?'

The craziest thing about this clip is that Primeau accuses Laine of having a bad first game with the Canadiens. In his mind, the newcomer should have “ripped off the boards” and he “should have scored four goals by now”.

That’s a lot to ask for a player who hasn’t played an NHL game since December 2023.

Laine did well in this first game, even if he didn’t score. In his situation, being a little rusty is easy to understand.

In fact, Primeau hates Kent Hughes’ idea of going after Laine because, in his opinion, the Finn is stealing a youngster’s spot on the team.

“What does it have to do with getting Laine to take the place of a lot of the young guys we have? […] Soft de même, c’est zéro un bon exemple.” – Olivier Primeau

Stealing the place of a young player is a pretty strong statement, especially when you’re talking about a player who has proven he’s capable of scoring 40 goals in a season. In any case, there aren’t that many young players who deserve Laine’s place.

Maybe he’d like to have seen a Florian Xhekaj, an Owen Beck or an Oliver Kapanen take his place, but right now, Laine can bring a lot more to the Habs than those three players.

It’s important to remember that Primeau is often very hard on Habs players. About two weeks ago, he attacked Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, explaining that they had done nothing to deserve their multi-million dollar contracts.

This may remain a debate, I grant you, but the worst was when Primeau took the liberty of saying that Carey Price hadn’t had a great series in 2021. That was simply madness.

That’s why his statements should be taken lightly.

I think the theme of the podcast was to go after Laine.

After Primeau’s comments, Jean-Charles Lajoie explained that he expects 20 goals from Laine between now and the holiday break. Immediately afterwards, he said that Laine will finish the season with 27 goals and that he’s going to crash.

Will he?

The season hasn’t even started and we’re already hearing criticism.

Overtime

– Bad news for Anaheim.

– We’re expecting a big year for Guhle. [BPM Sports]

– This could be a great duel.

– The Montreal team wants great players!