It's no secret: injuries are an unfortunate reality of playing hockey.
All 31 NHL team's have to deal with them to a varying level, and every organization's depth is tested at some point in the season.
The Blue Jackets are certainly no exception, and with long-term injuries to Cam Atkinson, Alexander Wennberg, Brandon Dubinsky, and Ryan Murray, the club's organizational depth is being tested eavery night.
John Tortorella has seen his veterans struggle to elevate their games in the absence of key cogs, which has given younger players more of an opportunity to climb the depth chart.
Markus Nutivaara, for example, was the beneficiary of a Zach Werenski injury when he was promoted to the top defense pairing alongside Seth Jones. Werenski has since returned, but Nutivaara's play hasn't escaped Tortorella's memory.
"This is what happens when you have some injuries, you have some guys with different minutes. As I told you about (Markus) Nutivaara, we feel very comfortable if we have to playing him on the top pair. Same thing with the forwards. Guys have to accept the responsibility with the injuries that we do have."
As a reward, Nutivaara has been bumped up from his original third-pairing minutes and is now playing on the second pair.
For forwards, the story is a bit different. After the "PB&J" line of Pierre-Luc Dubois, Artemi Panarin, and Josh Anderson, it's been tough sledding to get consistent offense. Tortorella briefly split the line before reassembling it again in recent games.
Tortorella says he doesn't think of his remaining lines as lines two, three, or four, but rather, whichever line's are playing best will play more. Whichever lines struggle will not.
"I'm going to coach the hockey club. I'm going to coach my lines, I'm going to coach the team, and wherever they fall during the game, as long as they're trying their best, we're going to leave the rink happy."
Injuries have forced this lineup to be interchangeable, using people in different roles than they may otherwise play. Lukas Sedlak has been promoted to the third line center role and has "improved" in recent games, to quote Tortorella. Playing on the third line means contributing more offense than he's used to in a fourth line capacity. He responded by tallying two assists in the 2-1 win over Dallas.
Sonny Milano has played up and down the lineup but is clearly an offensive-minded player. Injuries have given him an opportunity to play with Boone Jenner and Nick Foligno, two veterans who have struggled to put up points, but appear to be trending in the right direction.
When asked about how we likes to split his lines, Tortorella responded in his classic tone.
"Listen, we knew when we lose the four people that we have out, we knew we were going to have to kick, scratch, claw, and find a way to get points. It's not an excuse, it is what it is."
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