The Winnipeg Jets can thank their own St. Patrik for their success this season and potentially for years to come.Patrik Laine was the consolation prize in the 2016 NHL draft behind generational talent Auston Matthews. But he has been a cause for celebration in Winnipeg as a franchise-changing superstar at age 19.Mathieu Perreault saw the power Alex Ovechkin had to alter the direction of the Washington Capitals and turn them into a perennial playoff team and Stanley Cup contender. When Laine arrived from Finland http://www.hurricanesshoponline.com/authentic-jeff-skinner-jersey , the winger started doing the same things in Winnipeg.”The organization wasn’t having a whole lot of success, and then they get Ovi as a young kid and he starts scoring goals, and all of a sudden the team starts winning,” Perreault said.”They became a very dominant team for many years. So you kind of sense that here, where the team’s been struggling for many years, not making the playoffs. And then you get this young kid coming in and scoring goals for your team and helps your team win games. I think coming up in Winnipeg we’ll have a dominant team for many years.”That’s because Laine is already a dominant player. With 16 goals and eight assists in his past 14 games, Laine has the longest point streak by a teenager and already passed Wayne Gretzky for the most goals by a player before turning 20.The best part for the Jets? Laine is just getting started.”It’s really impressive when you factor in he’s still learning the game,” coach Paul Maurice said. ”His scoring has taken off of late, but so has his game, his all-around game. … He’s an impressive young man at 19. At any age, those numbers would be elite. But at 19 http://www.hurricanesshoponline.com/authentic-justin-williams-jersey , that’s pretty exciting because there’s lot of room as he physically matures, for his game to change and become a power forward and a big, strong man who can score off the rush. Take pucks to the net. There are lots of places Patty is going to improve over the years.”Laine is drawing comparisons to Ovechkin for his shot, which teammates and opposing goaltenders say is even more deceptive than the Russian 600-goal scorer ‘s blast. Capitals goaltender Philipp Grubauer, who has taken Ovechkin shots in practice for years, said Laine’s long stick changes the angle of where the puck is going.”He shoots it, he pulls it in a little bit weird – long stick – and makes it really hard for us to read,” Grubauer said.As much as Laine looked up to Ovechkin as a kid, the respect is now mutual. When Ovechkin scored twice Monday to reach 600 and get to 42 this season, Laine answered with his 41st and showed he has what it takes to go goal-for-goal with hockey’s best.”He’s a great talent and still young and still can produce lots of dangerous (chances),” Ovechkin said.Laine said it has always been a goal to win the Maurice ”Rocket” Richard Trophy as the league’s top goal scorer Minnesota Wild Hoodies Womens , and he’s in the race to do that. Entering Saturday, he’s one behind Ovechkin and one ahead of Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin.”It’s always been one of my dreams to win it,” Laine said. ”It’s good motivation for me.”Laine is also motivated by trying to help set the Jets up for the playoffs and make a long run this spring. Winnipeg has been banged up and secondary scoring has been hot and cold, but Laine’s scoring pace has his teammates believing anything is possible.”You give him one opportunity and it’s in the back of the net,” Perreault said. ”Right now every shot it seems goes in. It helps us win games when he scores like that. It’s been fun to see.”Maurice doesn’t know what he sees as Laine’s ceiling, but doesn’t think it matters. As Laine’s game rounds out, he’ll face different kinds of defensive challenges, and then it’ll be up to him to prove he can sustain scoring the way Ovechkin has over the past decade-plus.”The overall game Patty will play will become far more important than whether it’s 40, 50 or whatever that number (of goals) ends up being,” Maurice said.”At some point, Patty is going to play 20 minutes a night. Maybe not at 19 Rod Brind'Amour Jersey , but when that happens, he’ll be playing against the `A’ group. It’s not as easy to keep scoring like Ovechkin has when you move up the lineup and you play more minutes and you play against the other teams’ best.”— ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) Next season’s defending champion Washington Capitals will look a lot like the group that won the Stanley Cup last month.They re-signed defensemen John Carlson and Michal Kempny and forward Devante Smith-Pelly and have so far only lost fourth-line center Jay Beagle and backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer from their title-winning roster.Yet the few changes could be substantial for the Capitals, most notably new coach Todd Reirden taking over for Barry Trotz with a roster that is so similar that the expectation will be another deep playoff run.”There’s going to be many things that stay the same, but there’s gonna be some things that I think I have to be cognizant of,” Reirden said as he was introduced Tuesday. ”I want to create an environment where players are going to continue to be challenged with new ideas and new ways to improve their games.”Based on the continuity of promoting a four-year assistant, general manager Brian MacLellan and Reirden expect this to be a ”seamless transition.” Set aside the awkward circumstances of Trotz’s departure and the Capitals had been grooming Reirden for a head coaching job somewhere in the NHL for some time now.Reirden was the finalist for Calgary’s job two years ago and in retrospect is glad that didn’t work out. His first NHL head coaching job happens to be this one, as just the fourth coach in the past 30 years to assume control of a Cup champion.With the vast majority of the roster back, Alex Ovechkin coming off a playoff MVP performance and almost the entire defense he helped develop back to try to repeat, the pressure is on.”Todd’s at that point in his career where he’s earned a head coaching job,” MacLellan said. ”He’s put in all the work. He’s got all the experience. It’s just a matter of seeing him take control. I have all the faith in the world that he can accomplish it. He’s just ready to do it right now.”Beagle signed a four-year Womens Scott Darling Jersey , $12 million contract with the Canucks, and the Capitals traded Grubauer and defenseman Brooks Orpik to the Avalanche to clear the cap space they needed to ink Carlson to a $64 million, eight-year deal. Orpik could still return after Colorado bought him out and made him a free agent, which could mean 18 of 19 players who skated in the Cup-winning Game 5 against Vegas are on the roster to begin next season.”It’s one of those offseasons where you’re not trying to make a change because you like what you have culturally,” MacLellan said. ”This group really seems to like playing together and there’s a good chemistry there, so I think it was our decision to try to (keep) as much as we could.”That did not extend to Trotz, who wanted to be paid closer to market value for a Cup-winning coach than the automatic extension that kicked in with a small raise from his previous salary. MacLellan believes Reirden can build on what Trotz started, and the 47-year-old new Capitals coach is confident in his abilities because of how much responsibility he had the past two seasons as associate coach.”We all had input in it in what our decisions were made,” Reirden said. ”I feel strongly about the direction of our team and the style that we played during the year that it wasn’t necessarily just one person’s idea, but it was our whole staff that had large input into how our team was going to play.”The Capitals will need one assistant coach to replace Trotz choice Lane Lambert, but will keep the rest of the staff intact. They’ll look to Travis Boyd or recently signed Nic Dowd to replace Beagle. And if they can’t bring back Orpik Youth Sebastian Aho Jersey , they’ll likely find a veteran defenseman to play on the third pair.That’s about all that’s different when the Stanley Cup banner is raised to the rafters Oct. 3, which is no accident.”We’re always looking to improve certain areas,” MacLellan said. ”We always look at, `We’ve got a hole here. We need to fix that.’ Or, `This is a way we can get to that next level.’ We’ve always had that type of attitude. This year, it’s trying to maintain what we had.”—