Laine is scoring amid Blue Jackets losses
Patrik Laine wasn’t thrilled after the Blue Jackets were swept in back-toback games to start the weekend, but at least he’s back to scoring again.
Not that anybody believed the towering Finn when he recently harpooned himself by saying he was no longer a goal scorer, but Laine’s output had dipped a bit for a player with 195 career goals in 455 games.
That’s no longer an issue. Laine scored his second goal in as many days and fifth in the past eight games in the Blue Jackets’ 5-2 loss Saturday at Ottawa, firing a wrist shot over goalie Cam Talbot’s glove late in the second period. The night before, in a 4-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken in Columbus, it was a wrister that beat Philipp Grubauer under the crossbar on the blocker side.
“You can’t really score if you don’t shoot it,” Laine said. “I had to take that (pass) with my backhand and you can’t really one-time it. I’m not a Houdini … so, I just had to take it and I had some time.”
Two injuries to start the season caused him to miss significant stretches, a COVID infection put another hurdle up and it then took a few weeks to get his timing, legs and shot into midseason form. Once he got there, the Blue Jackets have usually received the player who last season averaged a point-pergame for the first time in his NHL career.
Since Jan. 10 in Tampa, a 6-3 loss to the Lightning, Laine has 26 points (10 goals, 16 assists) in 24 games. That includes a hat trick Jan. 14 in Detroit and two games with three points on a goal and two assists. He is one goal shy of reaching 20 for the sixth time in seven NHL seasons.
Laine might be happier if the Blue Jackets weren’t last in the league, but his hot spell is a contributing factor in Columbus stringing together a bunch of close games since the All Star break.
The loss to Seattle on Friday was the most recent, decided by two goals (4-2) with an empty-netter. Playing most of the third period one shot away from a tie was no consolation.
“I don’t think anybody here cares at the end of the day,” Laine said. “It’s zero points and it doesn’t matter if it’s 4-2 or 9-2. It’s zero points for us, so I don’t think anybody cares that we were one shot away.”
SENATORS 5, BLUE JACKETS 2
Columbus 1 1 0 - 2
Ottawa 2 2 1 - 5
FIRST PERIOD: 1. Ottawa, Hamonic 4 (Joseph, Sanderson), 5:17; 2. Columbus, Roslovic 7, 5:35; 3. Ottawa, Stutzle 30 (Chychrun, Tkachuk), 11:18. Penalty - Berni, CBJ (cross checking), 19:31. SECOND: 4. Ottawa, Hamonic 5 (Debrincat, Sanderson), 2:16; 5. Ottawa, Chychrun 8 (Gauthier, Brannstrom), 3:04; 6. Columbus, Laine 19 (Marchenko), 10:56 (pp). Penalties - Joseph, OTT (kneeing), 9:45; Chychrun, OTT (unsportsmanlike conduct), 15:11; Jenner, CBJ (slashing), 15:11; Boqvist, CBJ (hooking), 17:25. THIRD: 7. Ottawa, Stutzle 31 (Joseph), 12:07 (sh). Penalty Brannstrom, OTT (illegal equipment), 10:35.
Shots on goal: Columbus 3-8-10 - 21; Ottawa 16-13-11 - 40. Power plays: Columbus 1 of 2; Ottawa 0 of 2. Goalies: Columbus, Merzlikins 7-17-2 (23 shots-19 saves), Hutchinson 0-0-0 (16-15); Ottawa, Talbot 15-14-1 (21-19). A: 18,073. T: 2:21.