This is getting ugly.
Blue Jackets center Pierre-Luc Dubois dressed for Thursday night's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning but saw just 3:55 of ice time in his team's 3-2 overtime loss.
Dubois was not seen after his final shift of the first period, coming at the 4:36 mark as he sat on the Blue Jackets bench for the entirety of the second and third periods, as well as his team's overtime session.
Footage of the shift, shown here, erupted on Twitter shortly after the game.
Not exactly what you want to see from your star center, who requested a trade out of Columbus prior to the start of the season.
“My job is to worry about our game and who's playing,” captain Nick Foligno said when asked about Dubois after the game. “I can't worry about who is out [there]. That's the coach's decision.”
Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella refused to discuss the specifics of Dubois' benching.
“I’m not going to have a discussion with you guys,” Tortorella said after the game.
“I've told you many times, I really don't make decisions as far as minutes, it's up to the player to show me,” Tortorella said. “And if there's one thing I'm pretty easy to read on is the minutes. You're going to get out there if you play, and if you play the proper way you're going to get back out there. The onus is on the player, and all players, not just the player we're talking about here that sat. It's all the players, and I'm not a hard guy to read as far as that's concerned.”
Dubois declined to speak with reporters following the loss, the result of which has the Jackets at 1–2–2 to start the 56-game season.
The third overall selection in the 2016 NHL Draft, Dubois requested a trade shortly after signing a two-year, $10 million contract in training camp.
