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Laine spoke with reporters in Finnish and English and has embraced the spotlight that comes with playing in his home country.

“This might be the only time in my life that I’m able to play an NHL game back home,” said Laine. “Who knows, but I’m not going to look at the game like that. Just try to enjoy every second that I’m here and try to win those two games.”

Laine also let reporters know that Barkov has more personality than he might show when not speaking his first language.

“He’s not the kind of guy that you think he is. He’s not a shy guy,” said Laine, who spent time with Barkov in their hometown of Tampere during Monday’s off day. “I don’t know if he’s that funny in English. I’m not sure because I don’t talk English to him. But he’s a really funny guy in Finnish. He’s an amazing player, it will be great to play against him and hopefully he enjoys this moment just as much as me.”

LAINE CONCERNED WITH OWN ZONE

Laine isn’t afraid to be critical of his own game.

When the topic of what he wasn’t happy with was brought forth on Tuesday afternoon after the Winnipeg Jets skated at Hartwall Arena, the Finnish sniper expressed his disappointment with his play in the defensive zone.

“Overall, it kind of feels like the pucks are bouncing and when I’m trying to get it out of the zone, it feels like it’s going to hit something and stay inside. That’s probably the biggest thing I need to work on,” said Laine. “To get pucks out and get pucks deep, those are the small things that the team and the coaches and all of the other players respect and they want everybody to do the same things. That’s something especially that I don’t like about my game.”