Over the past couple of weeks, there have been numerous players who have skated at the Complex Bell in Brossard. Among the most frequent guys are Patrik Laine and Ivan Demidov, who have developed a great amount of chemistry skating with each other every day.
Fans and reporters have posted videos of the two working on one-timers and skating around at the practice rink. While it may only be a summer time skate but the fact that the two are putting in the work together is a great sign for how they should start the season if they have the right guy to be able to win faceoffs and get the duo the puck as the centre. Alex Newhook’s struggles in the circle may be one of the main reasons why the line struggled during the playoffs. Therefore, the plan needs to identify who the guy is in the organization who can complete this line. I have mentioned options for this in a previous article.
A good sign of seeing Laine on the ice with Demidov is that he’s showing he does care about being a star hockey player, and his time in Columbus affected his love for the game. Expect Laine to have one of his best seasons in years if he stays healthy and continues to be among the guys who are putting in extra work.
Previously, I had questioned Laine’s dedication to the game of hockey, but over the past few weeks, since I wrote about Laine’s spot within the team, he has proven me wrong. Which fits with a video I recently saw where you hear Laine say that no one should ever bet against him. Watching him this summer, I think he will be a much better 5-on-5 player this year as opposed to last year. Now he won’t ever be the best defensive player, but I think he can be decent enough to not hurt his team too much. At 3-on-3, a healthy Laine can be a true superstar like he was in last week’s LSHL game (summer pro league run in Montreal by former Habs prospect Zachary Fucale). In his only appearance to date in that league, Laine scored a hat-trick, which included breaking David Perron’s ankles for a beautiful goal.
Now, about Demidov, similarly to Lane Hutson, who showed he can’t ever take a day off, he seems to see the game the same way. It seems like there isn’t a single morning when he’s not out on the ice in Brossard. It’s crazy how a workhorse like this fell to the Canadiens at pick 5 in 2024. For so long, there was a stigma against Russians not wanting to put in the work, and Demidov is putting that narrative to bed with how hard he works every day. His goal seems to be the very best player in the NHL.
Like Laine, Demidov also played in the LSHL game last Tuesday, where he scored a nice breakaway goal that got the whole arena giving him a standing ovation. The team that both Laine and Demidov played on was filled with only Habs or Rocket players. For the entire game, the only 2 players who consistently played together were Laine and Demidov. The duo had a mix of Nick Suzuki and Jake Evans as the third guy throughout the game.
The fact that they played together the whole time shows that even their teammates see how they have developed chemistry every day with those early morning skates, and nobody wants to break them up. Now, hopefully, this summer time chemistry transitions to chemistry when the games matter, starting in October.
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