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Canadiens' Patrick Laine and Ivan Demidov face backlash after severe disrespectful act towards Alex Ovechkin
Montreal Canadiens forward Patrick Laine has sent a message to Washington Capitals' Alex Ovechkin before facing off against them in round one, game one on Sunday and he is drawing backlask for his comments.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs are officially here after day one which saw the Avalanche beat the Stars and the Jets beat the Blues on Saturday.
But what about Sunday's set of games, where the arguable best goal scorer of this generation is set to face-off against a young Montreal Canadiens team?
Patrick Laine seemed to be all business after taking the ice for practice before facing off against the Washington Capitals in game one
Patrik Laine was all business after the Montreal Canadiens took the ice for practice ahead of their first-round matchup against the Washington Capitals.
The 27-year old may want to do some learning on the old saying 'respect your elders'.
When Laine was asked about his thoughts on facing off against Alex Ovechkin, who NHL's All-Time goal scoring record, he seemingly couldn't care less.
«Doesn't matter,» Laine said while rolling his eyes. «Couldn't care less.»
Laine was sure to add some snarkiness into the controversial comments on facing Ovechkin, which he may want to reconsider due to his career-low average ice time this season alongside poor point production.
The Finnish-born forward is on record stating Ovechkin was his 'childhood hero' in the past and fans are bringing it right back up to put in Laine's face.
«Washington, they've always been my favorite team when I was growing up,» Laine said in 2018. «It's always been my dream to play against them.»
According to Laine, he is set to 'turn it up' and lock into another gear for this upcoming series against the Washington Capitals.
«Yeah, I'll turn it up,» Laine said. «I think I've always - regular season is a different thing. Playoffs is a different kind of animal, and I always got fired up in playoffs or big games overall, the national team, or whatever. It's always kind of been the switch for me, so just excited to turn it on Monday.»
Laine has been skating on Montreal's second line alongside Alex Newhook and phenom Ivan Demidov, who also seems to not be fond of The Great Eight.
The second line of Montreal has seen 9:58 of combined five-on-five ice time and was widely out-attempted 15-11, seeing just 45.6 percent of the expect goal total.
Another extra layer of anticipation is added onto this interesting matchup between the Habs and Capitals.
Game 1 puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m inside Capital One Arena in Washington Monday.
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 20 | 520 ANSWERS Canadiens' Patrick Laine and Ivan Demidov face backlash after severe disrespectful act towards Alex Ovechkin Do you think Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals will humble the Montreal Canadiens in round 1? | ||
| Yes | 326 | 62.7 % |
| No | 194 | 37.3 % |
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