Laine, Lund share Finland roots, NHL success

Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," shares his humor and insight with readers each Wednesday.
This week Stan features his monthly "Then and Now" segment, comparing the first Finland-born star in the NHL, Pentti Lund, with the Columbus Blue Jackets' fleet Finn, Patrik Laine.

Pentti Lund and Patrik Laine.
Here we have a player born in Finland who played in the NHL 70 years ago and one from the present, each a star in his own right. Lund excelled in New York during the Original Six era; Laine is reaching his prime in Columbus as we speak.
Their common denominators are competence and clutch play. Yet their backgrounds are as diverse as the hamlet of Karijoki and the metropolis Tampere, where Lund and Laine, respectively, were born.
Lund was a pioneer, one of the first Finland-born players in the NHL, and a hero for the New York Rangers. He helped lead them to double overtime in Game 7 of the 1950 Stanley Cup Final, coming within a goal post of winning the championship before losing to the Detroit Red Wings.
Laine has been a headline-grabber since 2015-16 when he starred in Finland before he was selected No. 2 by the Winnipeg Jets in the 2016 NHL Draft behind Auston Matthews, who was chosen No. 1 by the Toronto Maple Leafs.
As a rookie in 2016-17, Laine dazzled with his elite skating and shot. In 73 games, he scored 36 goals and 64 points. He finished second behind Matthews again, this time in the voting for the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year.
One NHL scout described Laine as "a human highlight reel." Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella remarked, "He's so dangerous coming down that left side."

Even as a rookie, Laine was not bashful about giving himself praise.
"I know what I'm capable of doing," Laine asserted, "and I'm not afraid to say it out loud."
Most recently he was part of a blockbuster trade this season that sent him from the Jets to the Blue Jackets along with forward Jack Roslovic for center Pierre-Luc Dubois.
Lund's career skyrocketed a few years after World War II. With the Rangers, he became the first Finland-born player to star in the NHL, winning the Calder Trophy in 1948-49.
The following season Lund led all players with 11 points (six goals, five assists) in 12 games in the 1950 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He successfully blanketed Montreal Canadiens legend Rocket Richard in the first round enabling New York to win its best-of-7 series in five games.
"Lund's performance inspired the Rangers to that upset victory," said former Rangers publicist Stan Saplin. "Few players ever were able to check the great Richard as well as Pentti did. He played clean and masterfully."
In contrast to the pioneering Lund, Laine is following in the skate strides of skilled offensive-minded Finland-born stars Jari Kurri, Teemu Selanne and Tomas Sandstrom, who combined to score 1,679 goals and 3,711 points in 3,385 NHL games.
"I'm aware of them," Laine said. "but I don't have to compare myself to anybody. I want to be me and create my own path."
Since his impressive rookie season, Laine's shooting skills have been the bane of goalies' lives, which is ironic since Laine originally had planned to be a goalie not a forward.
"Actually," Laine recalled, "I played goal from the time I put on skates until I was 12. That's when my father said I'd be better off if I played up front. I took his advice and it turned out to be the right move."
Laine took quickly to the position change.
"I'd line up empty aluminum soda cans and fire away at them until they were broken," Laine remembered. "Then, I'd line up some more until there were none left."
Lund, who was born in a village which had a population less than 2,000, didn't start skating seriously until his family moved to Port Arthur in northwest Ontario when he was six years old.
Like Laine, the youthful Lund had no trouble finding ice nor games. The twin cities of Port Arthur and Fort William -- now combined as Thunder Bay -- offered many hockey programs where future pros developed.
Three of Lund's contemporaries -- Gus Bodnar, Bud Poile and Gaye Stewart -- wound up as the "Flying Forts" line on the 1946-47 Cup champion Maple Leafs.
"By the time World War II had started, I was playing for a Junior team and looked forward to moving up," Lund said. "But the war changed everything … I felt I had to do my duty so eventually I joined the Canadian Navy."
Lund managed to stay in shape playing for a Navy service team. One night, a Boston Bruins scout eyed him and liked his size, shot and driving two-way style. He advised Bruins general manager Art Ross to put Pentti on their list.
When the war ended in 1945, the Bruins assigned him to the champion Boston Olympics, their farm team in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League. By then Lund was a diamond in the rough.
"I had two good years with the Olympics, '45-'46 and '46-'47 when I led the league in scoring," Lund recalled. "I thought I had an NHL career ahead of me with the Bruins."
But Ross thought not and traded Lund to the Rangers after he played in three playoff games for the Bruins. However, the Ross snub turned out to be a favorable turning point in Lund's career and for the Rangers, who put the left wing on a line with crafty center Edgar Laprade and Tony Leswick. The trio became a hit and known as the "L line."
"It was the best thing that could have happened to me," Lund admitted, "because Edgar was such a fine stickhandler and Tony played a tough game, keeping the opposition honest. I thrived with them."
As a rookie Lund scored 14 goals and 30 points; and in 1949-50 he scored an NHL career-high 18 goals. Lund played 259 NHL games and scored 99 points (44 goals, 55 assists), finishing back with the Bruins in 1952-53.
Laine scored almost as many points in 2017-18 with the Jets as Lund did in his entire NHL career. He scored an NHL career-high 44 goals and 70 points that season and followed with 30 goals in 2018-19.
Maple Leafs goalie Michael Hutchinson said he credits Laine's scoring prowess to his days as a youth goalie in Tampere.
"As a former goalie," Hutchison explained, "Patrik learned goaltending tendencies faster than most young forwards would. That experience helped him tremendously as a shooter.
"Right off the bat he didn't pick the corners all the time. He had no problem shooting for a rebound that a teammate could use to score. Or, he'd go for the five hole or low corner over the pad."
By contrast, Lund excelled during the long bygone era of straight-bladed, all-wooden sticks. This was well before the slapshot and one-timer became de rigueur.
"Pentti may not have had the hardest shot," said Laprade, "but it was one of the most accurate. That was evident when he led us past Montreal in the 1950 playoff semi-final. And we almost beat Detroit for The Cup."
Laine has yet to get that close to winning the Stanley Cup but, at age 22, he's got plenty of time for the championship that barely eluded Lund.
Two fine Finns, Lund and Laine.