SvoNotes: Laine has big game in return for Blue Jackets

This week, like clockwork, the Blue Jackets media would hop on a Zoom each day to talk to Brad Larsen and ask about Blue Jackets sniper Patrik Laine.
Fans of course wanted to know if the star winger would be ready to return to the ice, and as it turns out, whether Laine was ready to come back to action after nearly two months on the shelf was just as big a topic of conversation inside the CBJ locker room.

The Finnish sharpshooter last played Nov. 3 when he suffered an oblique injury at Colorado, then also returned home for a time in December after the sudden passing of his father, Harri. Laine told the media early this week he was ready to go, but given how little he had skated over the preceding weeks, it felt like Larsen and the team's coaching staff wanted to take things a little more cautiously.
But Laine's message Thursday morning before the Jackets' first game in two weeks vs. Nashville was a compelling one.

"I've been dying to get on the ice with the boys and be able to play again," Laine said. "Sorry, Lars, for being all over you for this, but it will be worth it."
Hours later after the Jackets' 4-3 shootout win over the Predators clinched by Gus Nyquist's shootout goal, it's fair to say Laine was right.
It took him little time to recapture his form, as Laine scored his fourth goal in 10 games this season early in the second period and carried the puck with confidence and strength all night. By the time things ended, he had a game-high 14 shots attempts, putting seven on net, and came close to racking up a few more goals with his shot.
If there was any frustration, it was that he was unable to produce more given the opportunities he had, including five shot attempts on an overtime power play when the Jackets did everything they could to give him a chance to win the game (per the official stats, three went wide, one was blocked and another stopped by Nashville goalie David Rittich).
But considering the time off it was hard to fault him. His return was an exclamation point and a reminder of what exactly the Jackets were missing during his 19-game absence.

And it was also a salute to his father, the man who would often wake up in the middle of the night in Finland to watch his son play, and the man who not only introduced him to the sport of hockey but bonded with him over it for their entire time together.
"Yeah, definitely," Laine said when asked if there was extra emotion in the game given everything he had been through over the past two months.
"I think that was probably one of the only games my dad has never seen me play, so it was definitely emotional before the game at home before I left to come here. I just tried to make him proud. I know he always wished for me to work hard every time I go out there, and that was kind of my mentality today. It was nice to be back."
Larsen said that if the Blue Jackets had played Tuesday in Chicago as the schedule originally read when the team reconvened Sunday, Laine likely wasn't going to play because of the lack of practices. But when that game was postponed and the Blue Jackets were able to practice four days in a row through yesterday, the decision was made to have him go against the Predators.
And yes, the head coach confirmed, Laine -- who now has a 4-7-11 line in 10 games this year -- did his fair share of bargaining to make it happen.
"I think he came to me the day before the game and he said, 'I won't let you down,'" Larsen said. "And he didn't. I'm really proud of him. This kid has been through a lot this year. He has. He had a heck of a game for a guy who hasn't played. He had a great work ethic all game. I thought he was strong on pucks, and he had the game on his stick a few times in the third and overtime especially.
"So I'm really happy for him. He was dying to play, and he played a heck of a game."

Another Texier Moment

Last January, Alexandre Texier won hockey Twitter for a night when his "firepoker" goal not only gave the Blue Jackets a shootout win over Florida, it turned heads across the hockey world for its skill, deceptiveness and general dirtiness.
And as Texier said, "I did it once, so why not two?"
Firepoker Part Deux, then, was Thursday night. With the first three CBJ shootouts - Yegor Chinakhov, Laine and Jakub Voracek - all coming up empty and Nashville's doing the same, Texier skated in on Rittich and brought back a classic.
Forehand … backhand … forehand … backhand … and a quick poke through the legs of the goalie.
Video: NSH@CBJ: Texier scores slick shootout goal
So the move is now 2-for-2 in games, but Texier said he has to have confidence in his game to pull it out. And why wouldn't he have that right now, as Texier also scored the game-tying goal with 6:27 to go in regulation with a bullet from the top of the right circle. He now has an 8-7-15 line in the last 20 games and at 22 years old looks to be a key part of the CBJ future for years to come.
Anyway, that's the big picture part of things. Going back to the shootout goal, Texier said it's something he would not have tried in the early part of the season when he was still trying to find his game.
"No," he said. "No, no. Simple. I wouldn't have done it early in the season. I just feel good right now, and you have to score (in the shootout) so I think that's a way to score."
For his part, Larsen is a fan.
"It's a confident move," the head coach said. "He trusts it. He's done it in practice. We worked on the shootout a few times here in these four days (of practice) just in case we got to this scenario, and he pulled it off in the shootout. And again he's doing it in front of what, 18,000 people? And doing it with confidence, so good on him. It's not an easy move, either.
"I'm sure kids will be trying that now to see if they can pull it off. Might even get it named after him, I don't know. Maybe someone else has done it, but he might get it called the Tex. I'm not sure."
While the move has been referred to as the firepoker up to this point, for his part, Texier said he wasn't giving anything away.
"There is no name," he said. "It is a secret."

Stats and Facts

• Jenner scored the first CBJ goal of the game, tipping a shot past Rittich to give him a team-best 12 goals on the season. He also added an assist for his fourth multipoint game of the season.
• Texier's goal was his 10th of the year, making him the second CBJ player to hit double digits in tallies this year.
• Jakub Voracek entered tied for the most primary assists in the NHL this season with 17, then added an 18th in setting up Laine's goal early in the second period that gave the Blue Jackets a 2-1 lead.
• CBJ goalie Elvis Merzlikins finished with 31 saves.
• Blue Jackets forward Eric Robinson missed his first game over the past two seasons, sitting out because of COVID protocols. He had his 126-game playing streak that dated back to Dec. 7, 2019, snapped by missing the game.
• Robinson was joined on the shelf because of COVID by leading scorer Oliver Bjorkstrand, defenseman Gavin Bayreuther and goalie Joonas Korpisalo, while forward Gregory Hofmann has joined his pregnant wife ahead of the birth of their first child.
• Columbus is now 10-3-1 this season in Nationwide Arena to tie the best-ever home start in franchise history, while the Jackets also are 7-1 when a game goes past regulation and 3-1 in extra time at home.
• The Blue Jackets have trailed in 10 of their 15 games this season and notched their NHL-best fifth win of the season when trailing after two periods.
• Nashville scored a pair of goals 35 seconds apart in the second period to take a 3-2 lead, the eighth time in the last 11 games that the Blue Jackets have allowed consecutive goals within a minute of one another.
• The Predators had a 34-29 edge in shots on goal, a 46-39 edge in shot attempts at 5-on-5 and a 1.69-1.56 edge in expected goals at 5-on-5 per Natural Stat Trick. But things flipped after 40 minutes, as Nashville had a 26-13 edge in shots on goal the first two periods but Columbus was up 16-8 over the third period and overtime.
• Former CBJ center Ryan Johansen, who gave Nashville the lead in the second on the power play, scored for just the third time in 16 games against his former club.