Patrik Laine heating up for struggling Columbus Blue Jackets
Patrik Laine wasn’t thrilled after the Blue Jackets were swept in back-to-back 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 guy with 195 career goals in 455 games.
Good thing for the Blue Jackets it’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 the Ottawa Senators, 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 on Friday 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.”
That’s something Laine hasn’t always had.
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 mid-season form. Once he got there, the Blue Jackets have usually received the Laine of last year, who averaged a point-per-game 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 the past 24 games. That includes a hat trick Jan. 14 in Detroit, two more games with three points on a goal and two assists, and he’s now 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.”
Columbus Blue Jackets make good call pulling Elvis Merzlikins
Larsen wasn’t asked his logic behind pulling goalie Elvis Merzlikins just five minutes into the second period in Ottawa. He’d allowed his fourth goal on 23 shots, a heavy workload for the finale of a back-to-back, and Merzlikins started both ends of it.
The score was 4-1 when Michael Hutchinson took over in his Columbus debut, making 15 saves on 16 shots in what was also his first NHL action this season.
“Well, you don’t want to be in that situation, right?” Larsen said. “Obviously, you’re hoping you’re not going to have to, but it was the right time and I thought he went in (and) did a real good job for us tonight.”
Merzlikins wasn’t pleased, but it was a smart decision.
Starting his first set of back-to-back games, the Latvian goalie got a breather for the stretch run, which starts Tuesday in Pittsburgh and includes nine of the next 11 on the road. Sitting also allowed Hutchinson, 33, to get his first NHL action of the season while trailing 4-1 in a “house money” situation.
Former Columbus Blue Jackets center Derrick Brassard honored
Prior to the game, the Senators held a ceremony to celebrate Derick Brassard reaching 1,000 NHL games Thursday night against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
It was fitting since Brassard used to play for the Rangers on one of his 10 NHL stops during a 16-year journey. The Senators and Blue Jackets are two of the others in a career that began with Columbus selecting him sixth overall in 2006.
Brassard, 35, played the first five-plus season of his NHL career for the Blue Jackets and spoke fondly of his time in Columbus during interviews shown on the television broadcast. Brassard was given a silver puck, silver stick and more before posing with his family and Senators players in a team photo.
Jakob Chychrun shows Columbus Blue Jackets what they missed
After sending goalie Joonas Korpisalo and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov to the Los Angeles Kings in a trade for draft picks, the Blue Jackets hoped to land defenseman Jakob Chychrun in a subsequent trade with the Arizona Coyotes.
It didn’t happen, though.
The Coyotes accepted the Senators’ offer instead, putting the 24-year old defenseman on the ice for his first home game Saturday. Chychrun didn’t disappoint with a two-point game (goal, assist), two shots, a +3 plus/minus rating, one hit and two blocked shots.
Chychrun is playing left point on the Senators’ third pairing and can play his way up the depth chart. He’s off to a good start and the Blue Jackets are left wondering what might’ve…
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