The blockbuster trade of the season so far sent forward Patrik Laine to Columbus in exchange for Pierre Luc Dubois. PLD famously wanted out of Columbus for whatever reason who knows no one can say, and Laine just needed a change of scenery from Winnipeg.
Checking in on that change of scenery: After four games, Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella has benched Patrik Laine for being a lazy ungritty do-nothing. Heck yes. This is the good stuff. Inject into our veins along with the vaccine.
On Monday night, the Blue Jackets had a small lead over the Carolina Hurricanes when Brock McGinn tied the game:
You can see Laine in front of the net, but he doesn’t get involved in the play. McGinn snatches up the loose puck and scores the big goal.
That was just about the last ice he saw for the night.
— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) February 9, 2021
It wasn’t necessarily a great night for Laine, but it wasn’t atrocious by the numbers. Here’s the game score chart, showing Laine in the red, but not dramatically so.
And here’s Laine’s abruptly ending ice time chart.
Zero ice time in the third period. The game however ended in Columbus’ favor when Jack Roslovic, also acquired in the PLD/Laine trade, pulled this god-tier move out of nowhere.
So the Jackets win the trade. Obviously.
Greg Wyshysnki got the pertinent quote from Columbus lifer Cam Atkinson after the game.
“Torts expects us to play as hard as we can,” Atkinson said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, and I think everyone knows that. If you’re not giving 100% and looking like you’re trying, he’s going to sit you.”
And then
“The last thing I want to do is bench a player.” – John Tortorella
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) February 9, 2021
So this is working out well.
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