Name: 'This is kinda new': Patrik Laine opens up about deep struggles with the Blue Jackets
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'This is kinda new': Patrik Laine opens up about deep struggles with the Blue Jackets

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Mar 30, 2021COLUMBUS, Ohio — Horns blared and shouts erupted in Egypt over the weekend when the enormous cargo ship, the MV Ever Given, was finally dislodged from its slaunchwise wedge in the Suez Canal.A similar rescue mission continues in Columbus, however. Forward , a towering player of massive importance to the , is stuck in one of the worst slumps of his young NHL career.Laine has truly gone sideways, with just 1-3-4 and a minus-10 rating over his last 16 games. It is true that the Blue Jackets have no playmaking centers who can bring life to Laine’s game — there’s a tugboat joke to be made here, isn’t there? — but it is also true that Laine isn’t doing enough to help himself or the Blue Jackets.He has 33 shots on goal in those 16 games, barely two per game.“I’ve always told everybody, I’m not worried as long as I’m getting chances,” Laine said. “So I feel like this is kind of new. I’m not even getting chances. That’s something I’ve never had before. I guess that’s just the way it goes sometimes.“(I) still have to play the same way, play just as hard and hopefully find a way to do your best and hopefully score every now and then.”Laine made an instant impact after he was acquired from Winnipeg in the blockbuster trade that sent center to the . In his first 10 games in Columbus, Laine had six goals, four assists and 10 points,&nbsp;including three power play goals.By mid-to-late February, Blue Jackets coach began commenting publicly about his desires to turn Laine into a more complete player, noting that his 6-foot-5, 210-pound frame could do more than bomb one-timers from the left faceoff dot.“I’d like to see (Laine) go with the puck more,” Tortorella said. “I envision him as an unbelievably skilled power forward. I’d like to see him bring some power into his game, and that’s skating with the puck, taking people on one-on-one.”Laine’s body language can be tough to read. But that, along with his play and recent comments, paint a picture of a player who’s not exactly enthused by the coaching he’s getting.In several recent games, Laine could be seen skating the puck directly into one more defenders and immediately turning it over without much of a fight. It happened multiple times in the Blue Jackets’ dreadful weekend losses to Detroit.Asked directly if Tortorella’s attempts to change his game were playing a role in his slump, Laine tried another form of delicate stickhandling.“I don’t know, it’s hard to say,” Laine said. “I’ve never really been a guy who’s playing in the corners or behind the net too much.“I’m usually the high guy looking for openings where I can maybe receive the puck and try to shoot it. That’s what I’m good at. But you still have to do other things. So I don’t know. That’s a tough one.”Tortorella appears to have the full support of GM Jarmo Kekäläinen in trying to reshape Laine’s game. Kekäläinen has known Laine since he was a teenager, so he knows his strengths, weaknesses and tendencies.Kekäläinen has always believed that Laine could be more than one of the NHL’s most powerful shooters. He’d like to see him work on other aspects of his game, to not settle for being one dimensional … even though his shot is one hell of a dimension.“Every player in this league has to be a 200-foot player if you want to be on a winning team,” Kekäläinen said. “I don’t think that’s too much to ask of anybody. You see some of the most talented guys in this league, and they haven’t won a championship yet. It comes down to understanding that everybody has to buy into the team concept and be a 200-foot player in order to win a Stanley Cup.“Based on my conversations with (Laine), he understands exactly what’s asked of him and nobody’s trying to make him into a grinder. Being a power forward certainly doesn’t mean that. It just means you use your size to an advantage to stay on pucks. You’ll create more if you have the puck more.”It’ll be interesting to watch the final 20 games of the season, beginning tonight when the Blue Jackets play in Tampa Bay.Tortorella decided after the weekend debacle in Detroit that the Blue Jackets would spend the rest of the season as a puck-hounding, defensive-minded club that plays with very little offensive risk.It’s the only way he believes the Blue Jackets, still three points back of the final playoff spot in the Central Division, can possibly forge an identity and hang in the playoff race.But it may leave certain players behind. Tortorella has indicated that players who aren’t going — even high-priced veterans and established players — will find themselves on the bench or as healthy scratches if they aren’t fully committed to playing the new style.Laine may view this as a thoroughbred being asked to harness race. The final five weeks of this season, which will likely be Tortorella’s final days as the Blue Jackets coach, could get very interesting.

Mar 30, 2021COLUMBUS, Ohio — Horns blared and shouts erupted in Egypt over the weekend when the enormous cargo ship, the MV Ever Given, was finally dislodged from its slaunchwise wedge in the Suez Canal.A similar rescue mission continues in Columbus, however. Forward , a towering player of massive importance to the , is stuck in one of the worst slumps of his young NHL career.Laine has truly gone sideways, with just 1-3-4 and a minus-10 rating over his last 16 games. It is true that the Blue Jackets have no playmaking centers who can bring life to Laine’s game — there’s a tugboat joke to be...

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Aaron Portzline

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'This is kinda new': Patrik Laine opens up about deep struggles with the Blue Jackets

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