What to watch for when Patrik Laine makes Blue Jackets debut Tuesday night

In the least surprising news of the day, the Columbus Blue Jackets removed Patrik Laine from the IR, officially making him eligible to debut for his new team. And you’ll be able to watch that game, against the Dallas Stars, Tuesday night on Sportsnet 360 at 7:00 p.m. ET.

It’s 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. Tuesday morning, in fact, was even his first on-ice practice with the team.

LAINE'S IN pic.twitter.com/o47Ihaq0CD

— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) February 2, 2021

So what can we expect out of Laine in his first game? He’s coming off an injury and some idle time, but is one of the premiere goal scorers in the league and brings what the Blue Jackets sorely need.

Here is what to look for tonight, following a Tuesday skate.

Who will he play with?
When the trade was made, first projections of Columbus’ new lineup had Laine next to centre Max Domi and winger Oliver Bjorkstrand. Domi is on the wing now, though, and Jack Roslovic has become a centre next to Bjorkstrand and Boone Jenner. Could Laine slide on to that line with his former Jets teammate?

Head coach John Tortorella was asked about his lineup on Tuesday morning and, well, he didn’t divulge much, saying he didn’t yet know what it would look like. Practice, and team social media posts, gave us an idea though. It appears Laine will be playing on the top line with centre Alexandre Texier and winger Cam Atkinson.

Projected Laines #CBJ | @BlueTech_Inc pic.twitter.com/JmrmwrWjHi

— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) February 2, 2021

It’s also worth noting that, predictably, Laine was working on the top power play unit Tuesday. We’ll see how the game goes, but presumably this is at least how the Laine era will begin in Columbus.

How will his relationship with John Tortorella begin?

Everyone wants to know how the dynamic will develop between Laine and the fiery coach. Tortorella challenges players, gets in their ears, and sometimes rubs them the wrong way. Team defence is a priority. Playing with intensity at all times is a priority. And if you’re not buying in to what he’s selling and play dips, so will your place in the lineup. Laine’s placement in Winnipeg’s lineup was one of the reasons he was seeking a way out.

But let’s slow down for a moment. It won’t unravel in Game 1. It might never come undone.

“If we have to try to get a player to ramp up to play hard and understand what the standard is as far as how we practice, how we play, that’s when there’s a problem,” Tortorella told Bob McElligott, the radio play-by-play voice of the Blue Jackets. “That’s the only time I’ll have a problem. I don’t think I’m going to have a problem with this guy Laine because judging by what Jarmo says to me about him and me watching him, he competes. He wants to play the game.”

Laine has made a concerted effort in becoming a better all-zones player and has talked about it a number of times, including when he was asked about it around the trade. Because of this evolution, Sportsnet’s Brian Burke believes the player-coach relationship in Columbus will be just fine. This isn’t the Laine from a couple years ago, when perhaps this could have been a bigger deal.

And the Blue Jackets certainly need a player like Laine. Columbus’ strength is in defence and following the coach’s structure, and their young goalies present an excellent backstop to it, but they have trouble finishing at the other end. The Blue Jackets’ power play is bottom five in the league, and their goals for per game mark is better than only Anaheim, Detroit and the NY Islanders.

“He’s a good offensive player. We have struggled scoring goals,” Tortorella said plainly on Tuesday. “There’s no question we need to score some goals. We developed some chances the last game, but we don’t finish…this guy can score goals so he’s certainly a welcome addition to the team.”

When local boy Roslovic made his debut with Columbus last week, he got the opening faceoff. He’s settled in as a 14-minute centre for his first three games and got an assist last game.

So will Laine be out there for the first puck drop? The first power play? We’d wager so. Columbus is coming off a loss to lowly Chicago and now have two games against an infinitely better team in Dallas, which also prides itself on a stout defence. The Blue Jackets’ .550 points percentage is fifth in the Central right now. It’s not must-win territory or anything, but this series — followed by one against high-event Carolina — is going to be an interesting four-game stretch for the Blue Jackets. To come out successfully, they’ll need a productive Laine.

Can he maintain his lead in the NHL points per game department?
Laine is coming in from the highest-scoring division in the realigned NHL so far, a collection of Canadian teams that has been playing mostly wide open river hockey, with little regard for defence. That’s the division where Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have jumped out to a hefty lead in the NHL scoring race and where, before those two took off, Mitch Marner was a leader.

But your leader in points per game is Laine, sitting at 3.00.

Now, of course, he only played the one game before an upper-body injury sidelined him leading up to the trade, but hey, it was a great game. He scored the overtime winner, mixed it up with Matthew Tkachuk, and was just generally engaged and emotional. That’s the Laine you want to see.

You do have to consider, though, that he was injured and now hasn’t played a game in over two weeks. Maybe sitting on the sidelines for that length of time isn’t the end of the world in a pandemic season, where not many players have played much at all for months at a time. The bit of rest may even be good for him. What did Laine say about it Tuesday morning?

“I have to keep the shifts short, play simple. Hands are definitely not there yet but they’ll come eventually. I’ll have to shoot as many pucks as I can.”

Giddy up.

And if you thought Dallas will just be a bad matchup because of how suffocating they can be, Laine has historically been great against them. He has 25 points in 17 career games against Dallas, including a whopping 18 goals. For a little more recent context, Laine played four games against the Stars last season, had a point in each of them, and ended with a tally of three goals and two assists.

So, to recap, Laine is itching to shoot his way back into game shape, is being put on the first line and likely top power play unit, and is matching up against a team he has been great against for a while?

The Columbus canon might be heard a lot tonight.

“I always thought my ears were gong to pop whenever they scored on us,” Laine said of the canon. “It’s going to be fun on the other side of that. Hopefully I can try to fire the cannon a couple of times and hopefully maybe tonight.”

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