Patrik Laine scores despite sitting near bottom of the Canadiens in one stat

Patrik Laine had no points in eight straight games before the Four Nations Faceoff break, and the Montreal Canadiens hoped some added responsibility for his home country of Finland would increase his confidence. Laine had a rough outing in the opening game against the United States, but finished the tournament with three assists over his final two games. Laine's most impressive performance was a two-assist effort against Sweden where he showed some moxy with post-game comments directed at Victor Hedman.

The post-game quotes towards Hedman weren't the only time that comments from Laine made the rounds at the tournament. He also turned some heads when he criticized the amount of ice time he was getting back in Montreal. People tried to play it off as Laine being hard on himself and not meaning to call out Martin St. Louis or the rest of the coaching staff. However, there was an aura of him blaming his poor play on the ice-time allotment.

"Do I wish to be out there more? Absolutely. Who doesn’t? Also, I don’t wanna get into that too much. When you’re out there for 10 mins, I guess it’s hard when you’re used to playing more. You’re not in the rhythm and all that. But you still gotta try to be out there and do your best," Laine quipped.

However, he did add that he understood that there had to be some more production from his side, which was hard to argue when he had just played eight games with zero points. "At that point, you gotta take a look in the mirror as well. You just gotta put in the work and gotta make things happen," Laine added. "Sometimes, it is a little tough. But I feel like now, this will be a good turning point to get confidence back & get some boost for the rest of the year.”

When the team returned to practice earlier this week, Martin St. Louis pushed back on Laine's comments. In one of the best foreshadowing moments St. Louis could've ever made, he alluded to the fact that Laine would need to start earning more ice time instead of thinking he deserved it. "If you can play 11 minutes, prove to me that you can play more," St. Louis stated. Laine heard the message loud and clear as he finally broke his scoreless drought on Saturday night.

St. Louis won't automatically start giving Laine more ice time because he scored one goal, as was evident by Laine finishing second-last in the stat on Saturday night. The only player to play less time than Laine was Brendan Gallagher. However, it's important to note that the Canadiens had only two powerplays. Laine scored his goal just four seconds into the first powerplay, which means the team had a man advantage for just 2:13 of game time.

Considering Laine doesn't play as much at even-strength anyway and doesn't play on the penalty kill, the ice time isn't too disappointing. However, with continued offensive production, we could see Laine get more chances at even strength.