Laine: already one foot in Tortorella’s doghouse in Blue Jackets debut

Patrik Laine made his Columbus Blue Jackets debut on Tuesday night in a game against the visiting Dallas Stars. This was the first time Laine has been available to the Blue Jackets after the Jan. 23 trade. Laine had to have his visa taken care of and then do a 48-hour quarantine after first arriving in Columbus on Friday.

It didn’t go as he had hoped. The Blue Jackets lost 6-3 at the hands of the Stars with veteran Joe Pavelski scoring two goals in the contest. Mike McIntyre who followed Laine as a Winnipeg Jets insider shared the forward’s statistic in his first game with Columbus and unfortunately for him, he was in the penalty box when the Stars’ Denis Gurianov scored the game winning goal on the power-play. 

Laine ended the game with this record : 24 shifts, 20:54, 2 shots on goal, 7 shot attempts, 2 hits, 1 give away, -2 rating and those two penalty minutes during with the Stars scored the game winning goal… 

We could understand how this performance could put Laine close to the entrance of head coach John Tortorella’s doghouse. However, Laine did play many more minutes than what Pierre-Luc Dubois was given since the start of the season. It is also easy to see how this was a first bond between Laine and his new teammates as he took part in his first on-ice practice with the team earlier that day. 

He’s also coming off an injury and some idle time… After the game, Laine himself admitted that he needed to be better on Thursday. 

“I’m not here to make excuses. I wasn’t at the level I needed to be at.”

We don’t believe Torts will unravel his temper right away on Laine even if the bench boss is known for challenging players and getting in their ears. 

Let’s wait and see for Game 2. ;)