Several former Montreal Canadiens players hold prominent roles in the Pantheon of hockey excellence, a permanent reminder that the franchise was built upon the excellence provided by numerous larger-than-life athletes.

They’re the vestige of a franchise that once dominated the hockey world, and has since struggled to adapt to the modern realities of an ever-shifting sports landscape. And while we should never forget those who forged the path toward one of the most successful sports franchises in the world, there’s no denying their success still impacts how we perceive players who were born many decades after the team’s last dynasty.

Take Carey Price, for example.

Some would hesitate to retire his number, since he was not fortunate enough to be part of one of the best teams in hockey history. Rather, Price sacrificed his body to drag the Canadiens to respectability, and by doing so, has engrained himself in the memories of an entire generation of Habs fans, cementing his place among the team legends forevermore.

I’m not here to suggest the Habs must retire No.31, but we do need to shift our parameters and expectations beyond those established in 1937, when the Canadiens immediately retired Howie Morenz’ No.7.

The same can be said about Patrik Laine’s play with the Habs.

Yes, Laine did struggle to produce decent underlying numbers at 5v5 last year, but we’d be lying to ourselves if we said he had a bad year. With 20 goals in 52 games, Laine had the best goals per 60 (all situations) ratio on the team (1.61), ahead of Cole Caufield (1.51), Brendan Gallagher (1.1), and Nick Suzuki (1.09).

We tend to put an onus on 5v5 production, but by doing so, we undersell the value of powerplay goals. In the long run, they all count the same on the scoreboard. Furthermore, without Laine’s powerplay goals, it’s safe to say the Montreal Canadiens would have missed the playoffs last season, by a rather wide margin.

And yet, some of  the opinions regarding Laine’s first season with the Habs are filled with an unreasonable level of negativity when we consider he had all the chips stacked against him.

Not only did he essentially miss an entire calendar year of hockey due to injuries and other medical issues, which means he did not have the benefit of participating in a full training camp with his new team, he also had to work hard to improve his mental health, while being honest about some of the difficulties involved in being in the public’s eye.

Changing Perspectives

If I’m being perfectly honest, I’m only muddying the waters, falling into that same negative trap that has lead to a myriad of hot takes about Laine’s status as a hockey player and human being.

Instead of addressing the hot takes from people who have unreasonable expectations, I should focus on the good.

And there has been a lot of good in Laine’s short tenure with the team.

In the grand scheme of things, Habs fans have done a great job making Laine feel at home, a situation that he recognized on Thursday as the Canadiens players at training camp hit the ice for the first time.

As Laine explained, Montreal Canadiens fans helped him “fall back in love with hockey,” the ultimate compliment for a hockey-crazed market that has had its fair share of strenuous relationships with players.

In a sense, the Laine experiment has done almost as much to rehabilitate Montreal’s standing as a destination city in the NHL as the recent uptick in results from the team itself, and the fans who have done a great job supporting him deserve a fair share of the praise.

While we will never return to the glory years of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, we can still honour the past without using it to denigrate the present or the future. Teams will change, players will come and go, but we must never forget the bond we share with NHL players—a love for all things hockey.