On December 23, the Canadiens were in Columbus for their last game before the holiday break. It was an important game for Patrik Laine, who was returning to Columbus.
That being said, a few hours before the game, Laine spoke to the media… and he threw his former team under the bus a bit. He essentially claimed that the Blue Jackets were complacent in their defeat.
And that did not sit well in the Columbus locker room.
Laine was targeted throughout the first period, and he left the game afterward. Zach Werenski was furious about his former teammate’s comments after the game.
In short, it quickly snowballed… and today, Laine acknowledges that he made a mistake. In an interview with Helsingin Sanomat (a Finnish media outlet), the Canadiens forward admitted his fault for his comments on December 23.
In the same interview, Laine explains that he knows the Blue Jackets deliberately targeted him that night. Given the number of hits he took in the first period, the opposite would have been surprising.
This makes him aware that he should have been more careful with his words… but he doesn’t seem to take all the blame for it:
I should have kept my mouth shut. The journalists wanted me to say it, though. – Patrik Laine
Two things can be true: the journalists who spoke to Laine that day may have tried to get him to talk about that (and that’s their job, after all)… but Laine shouldn’t have fallen into the trap either. He could have simply said he requested a trade because he needed a change of scenery… and all of this could have been avoided.
But instead, he threw his former team under the bus… and obviously, that’s what drew attention.
The good news, however, is that he learned his lesson regarding all of this:
I will never say anything negative about another organization again. I learned it the hard way. – Patrik Laine
At least, if he leaves Montreal one day, we can believe he won’t trash the Canadiens with such comments.
That can obviously change in due time, but it’s good if he learned a lesson.
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