Laine shoots — his team in the foot. But what doesn’t kill you…

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This article was published 12/12/2016 (3527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Patrik Laine has already scored some huge goals in his 32-game professional hockey career.

There was his very first NHL goal back on Oct. 13, a third-period marker against Carolina in the season-opener that sparked a Jets comeback from a 4-1 deficit.

There was the overtime goal he scored against Toronto a couple weeks after that, winning both the game and his (over) hyped first showdown with Auston Matthews.

And then there was the eventual game-winner the Winnipeg Jets rookie phenom scored in a gritty 3-2 win over the New Jersey Devils on Nov. 29.

Huge goals, all of them.

But it says here that in a season in which Laine has already scored 17 times and authored three game-winners, his biggest goal of all was the game-winner he scored Sunday night — for the Edmonton Oilers.

A careless clearing attempt by Laine in the third period found the Jets’ net instead, breaking a 2-2 tie and standing up at night’s end as the margin of difference in what went into the books as Winnipeg’s fourth-straight loss.

It was a monumentally boneheaded mistake in a game the Jets needed to win. The loss was Winnipeg’s ninth in their last 13 games and with a season record that now stands at 13-16-3, that sound you hear this week down at MTS Centre is the Jets season beginning to circle the drain.

Too panicky? Maybe. But consider this: the recent history of the Western Conference suggests the Jets will need a minimum 90 points to make the playoffs in April. With just 29 points right now, the Jets could win 30 of their final 50 games this season and still come up a point short of that threshold. (It’s still doable, of course; the odds against, however, are getting longer with each mounting loss.)

But the reason Laine’s own-goal on Sunday felt so monumental had nothing to do with how costly it was to his team.

On the contrary, I’d argue that in some very important ways, that goal may yet prove in the long run to be the best thing that ever happened to Laine. And that’s good news for every fan in this town because let’s face it, just like General Motors and America, what’s good for Laine is good for the Winnipeg Jets.

It’s been said that there is nothing more liberating in life than having already realized your worst fears. And when you’re an 18-year-old kid trying to find his way in the NHL, scoring the game-winner on your own team in a crucial game has to top the list of things that terrify you, right alongside being embarrassed by a girl, losing your cellphone and, especially in Laine’s case, getting your PlayStation stolen.

And that’s why the reaction Sunday night to Laine’s blunder — first by his teammates and later by Laine himself — was perhaps more important than the goal itself.

Having just authored the worst mistake of his barely begun career, the reaction from Laine’s teammates was to rally around him. TSN’s cameras caught Blake Wheeler embracing the kid on the bench immediately after the goal and whispering in his ear something that surely sounded like, “You made a mistake, but you’ve got eight minutes left here to make it right if you can score another one — only on them this time, all right?”

It was the same reaction after the game in the Jets dressing room where, to a man, Laine’s teammates expressed nothing but empathy for the kid — “Been there done that; there but for the grace of God…”

It was exactly the right tone to set on the worst night of the kid’s hockey life. And having now realized his worst fears, the reaction of his teammates on Sunday should liberate Laine to play the only way you would want someone with his outsize talents to play: fearlessly.

Then there was Laine’s reaction. For starters, he faced the music, taking a seat before the assembled media and answering every question.

While you might think that’s an automatic response (and it should be), it’s not, especially with the Winnipeg Jets. I cannot begin to count the times that Dustin Byfuglien — an egregious example, but hardly the only one on this team — has refused to face the media after a poor performance.

But not on this night. Full credit to Laine for refusing to take the easy way out and full credit to the Jets for refusing to shield their young star from the scrutiny. Tough questions needed to be asked and answered Sunday night, and they were.

And Laine’s answers were the right ones. He made no excuses and fully shouldered the blame, even as he struggled to explain how a player who is already being credited with the best shot in all of hockey fired this one into the MIDDLE of his own net.

And that’s the other good thing that comes out of Sunday’s debacle — just like the Jets need Laine to play fearlessly, they also need him to play accountably.

Look, at the end of the day, this is all just a blip. Sunday night was a Polaroid and yeah, it was ugly. But the big picture here is still all Rembrandt.

I’d argue the first 32 games of Laine’s career prove that he was right all along when he was telling anyone who asked last spring that he was the best player available in this year’s draft.

At this point, the debate isn’t whether Laine is a better rookie than Auston Matthews, it’s whether he’s a better rookie than Alexander Ovechkin. Ovechkin had 15 goals and 22 points on 111 shots in his first 21 games as a pro; Laine had 12 goals and 18 points on just 57 shots in the same period.

Ovechkin went on to score 52 goals as a rookie and win the Calder trophy; Laine will not score 52 goals this season, but only because no one scores 52 goals a season anymore in the offensively challenged NHL. Laine will, however, also win the Calder, it says here.

Whatever Laine’s final goal tally this season, it won’t include the one he scored Sunday night. But you have to wonder whether history will eventually record it as one of the most important he ever scored.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek