Finnish star Patrik Laine scoffs at New York area blizzard

Winnipeg Jets super rookie Patrik Laine doesn’t have time for your weak snow storms, America.

A blizzard pounded much of the Northeast United States on Tuesday, forcing a scheduled game between the Jets and New Jersey Devils to be postponed. When asked about the storm compared to those he’s used to in his home country of Finland in an interview with NHL.com, Laine referred to it simply as “Finns’ beach weather.”

Much of New York was in a state of emergency, while many businesses and highways were reported closed as a healthy dumping of snow and high winds pounded parts of the New York metropolitan area. Laine was (probably) just taking a friendly jab at the frantic way officials and media handled the storm, but to understand where Laine is coming from you have to understand, well, where he’s coming from.

Winnipeg – the city Laine calls home during the hockey season – is one of the coldest places inhabited by humans. With an average low of -12 Celsius in December and -19 Celsius in January – and some of the nastiest winds in the country – the Manitoba metropolis isn’t exactly a beacon of heat in the winter months. Laine’s hometown of Tampere, Finland sits at the subarctic threshold and is also a tundra for several months of the year — averaging freezing temperatures from November to April with a whole lot of snow.

Laine may have a different definition of “beach weather” than most, but when you’re tied for third in NHL goal scoring as an 18-year-old rookie, every day is beach weather.