"Pretty Amazing"

Most athletes are taught early on that you never want to give the other team any sort of bulletin board fodder when it comes to what is asked of you in an interview. With the Pittsburgh Penguins getting ready to face the Winnipeg Jets following Patrik Laine's 11-goal week which included a five-goal game against St. Louis, NHL.com writer Wes Crosby - no relation to the Penguins' Sidney Crosby - decided to go and get some reactions from the Penguins' star and other players as they prepared for the Finnish sniper.

What does Sidney Crosby think of Laine's five-goal game?

"It's pretty incredible," Sidney Crosby told NHL.com's Wes Crosby. "I think he had five shots on net, so that's even more incredible. He's a goal-scorer. He's shown that since he's got into the League. But pretty amazing what he was able to do."

I'd say so. Since 1995-96, Patrik Laine's five-goal performance equalled the mark set by four other men. Detroit's Johan Franzen accomplished the feat on February 2, 2011 against Ottawa, Minnesota's Marian Gaborik did it against the New York Rangers on December 20, 2007, Detroit's Sergei Fedorov scored five against the Washington Capitals on December 26, 1996, and Pittsburgh's Mario Lemieux pulled off a five-goal game against the St. Louis Blues on March 26, 1996. That's some pretty elite company for Laine to join!

Kris Letang knows what he's up against as Laine has scored just one goal in four career games against the Penguins.

"We're going to play a guy that scored five goals," Letang said to Wes Crosby. "Obviously, we're going to pay big attention to him, but they still have a lot of weapons. They're a good hockey team. They're a contender every year. So we're just going to have to play a good, solid road game with a defensive conscience and that's it."

For Crosby, this is a guy who outscored him as a teenager as the 20 year-old Laine set marks for goal-scoring that even "The Kid" couldn't touch. Since 1987-88, no NHL player has scored more goals as a teenager than Laine did with his 80, leaving Sidney Crosby's 75 goals, former Thrasher and current King Ilya Kovalchuk's 67 goals, and currently-in-limbo Rick Nash's 58 markers in his rearview mirror. Currently leading the NHL in goals with 19, it appears that there may be no way to stop Laine from setting new marks as he matures.

"It just shows he can finish," Penguins netminder Casey DeSmith said to Wes Crosby. "I think three of those goals were off the post and one was a one-timer deal. The guy knows how to score and that's pretty impressive. The chances, today in this game that we're playing now, chances are hard to come by."

Last season, Jets head coach Paul Maurice told TSN's Frank Seravelli, "I don't want to put a ceiling on the guy, so I don't want to tell you how important he is to our team just yet, but I think he's got a lot of room to get better."

If that statement holds true, we could be talking about one of the best pure goal scorers of all-time, and we're just seeing him round into form. What makes Laine's totals thus far so impressive is that he doesn't take a lot of shots, yet his career shooting percentage is sitting at 18.5% while his shooting percentage this season is already 21.1%. If you're playing with percentages, what that's saying is that Laine scores a goal on every five shots. The player he's most compared to is Alexander Ovechki, but Ovechkin's career shooting percentage right now is 12.5% - one goal for every eight shots. If Laine got the total number of shot opportunities that Ovechkin gets, we could be talking about considerably more goals for the Finnish sniper already.

"I think, like any young player, you just gain confidence every year," Crosby told Wes Crosby. "With his shot, he's well aware of the shot he has, and he uses it. He's got great hands. But yeah, his shot sticks out the most."

For the Penguins, who currently sit four points back of a wild-card spot, this will be a test. They recently broke out of a 1-7-1 funk with a 2-0-2 record in their last four games including a 4-2 win over division-leading Columbus, but Winnipeg poses a different test for the Penguins. For the Jets, they need to play their game as the Penguins seemingly have rediscovered their game, so this contest on tomorrow should be entertaining. While there's no doubt that Crosby and Laine will have an impact for their teams in this game, the two teams need to remember there are other weapons up and down each other's lineup that can do just as much damage.

But that five-goal performance is still "pretty amazing".

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!