Winnipeg Jets Patrik Laine’s Hat Trick Lifts Team in Finland

The Winnipeg Jets looked to continue their fickle ways in Finland, until their Finnish star lit up the Helsinki sky.

The Winnipeg Jets got lucky with a huge break centered around two games in Finland against the Florida Panthers, who are bad.

Mathieu Perreault scored in the first period, the lone goal. Patrik Laine scored the next three for the Jets. Florida tied it up, he took the lead again with a PPG, then Florida tied it again.

At this point, entering the third, I was wondering how the Jets were going to blow it. I figured Connor Hellebuyck would waver in the third, as he has too often this season.

Well, they didn’t. Laine scored again about three and a half minutes into the third, another PPG. Then he added the last goal of the game, an empty-netter.

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Patrik Laine joins Theoren Fleury as the only players to score a hat trick in an NHL game played in a foreign country. For Laine to go into his home country of Finland and pull this off, it’s fantastic.

For the sport, sure, and for the Jets. This is the way to get people invested in the NHL. Now, I figure they choose the NHL teams with the worst attendance. Would you go to Sunrise, FL, to watch the Winnipeg Jets take on the Panthers? I might, but I live in Florida. I don’t know a single Panthers fan.

I told my buddy yesterday about this game, and he said “I didn’t even know the Florida Panthers were a hockey team”. Now, he’s not exactly a hockey fan, but he knows enough.

Regardless, the Jets were a no-brainer for this one. Patrik Laine in Finland? A good up-and-coming team with a small home market? Perfect. The Panthers? Well, another solid choice.

As we’re aware, they’re not super popular. But their captain, Aleksander Barkov, is from Finland. It would be obscenely stupid not to pick teams with Finish stars on its roster.

Either way, they get to play another one today. And maybe Laine will score three more goals, wouldn’t that be fun.

Connor Hellebuyck stopped 36 of 38, and while he’s trending up and overseas, Paul Maurice is going to ride it. He’ll be in between the pipes again this afternoon. Hopefully another good start can wipe away the mediocrity of his first month.

Not much to say about yesterday’s game. The Jets let a couple of their stars power their way past an inferior opponent. Florida played well! But so did Winnipeg, and Patrik Laine provided all the offense they would need.

A good, solid win for a team that hasn’t had enough of those lately. Maybe they’ll pick up another one today.