During John Tortorella's tenure in Columbus, the Blue Jackets have cemented their identity as one of the toughest teams to play against in the National Hockey League.
This year, they've gotten away from that a little bit. On Tuesday night against Dallas, the Stars outworked the Blue Jackets in every facet of the game.
"It’s hard to get your lines together when so many people aren’t going. I’m hoping we get some confidence with the puck…we’re a forechecking team. We need to get that going and then the other offensive things will come," said Tortorella on 97.1 The Fan's weekly Hockey and Hounds segment.
"We have to get back to our identity. We're playing like we don't know who we are."
When the Blue Jackets take control of games, they're able to do it because they're forechecking effectively. When that element is taken away by another team, they don't offer much going forward, as we saw on Tuesday night. With that in mind, Tortorella plans to shuffle up the lineup for tomorrow's game: "We’ve got a line of Foligno – Koivu – Jenner. That line will have identity, and they’ll be tough to play against.”
When Josh Anderson was in Blue Jackets' colors, he, Foligno and Jenner made up the Blue Jackets' identity line. Now, Mikko Koivu is coming in to fill that void.
Tortorella summed it up succinctly: "“We need to be a harder team to play against.”
Laine Combinations
Patrik Laine had a tough debut, but you can't fault him. He hadn't had a single practice with the Blue Jackets before Tuesday night. Tortorella commented on that, as well as his playmaking ability: “The thing I noticed right away…[Laine] can pass the puck. I liked the way he passed the puck and how he sees the ice. By no means is his timing or conditioning there, but he still made a difference when he was on the ice.”
He created chances when he was on the ice, and he played over 20 minutes despite his conditioning not being where he wanted it to be.
""My head was definitely not there. My hands were not there," said Laine after the loss. "I wasn't at the level I need to be for this team to be able to win."
The Finnish winger bounced around on different lines as the Blue Jackets tried to mount a third-period comeback, and he found some success with fellow ex-Jet Jack Roslovic.
On Thursday night, Tortorella is going to have Domi center Laine: “I’m going to give Max [Domi] a chance with [Laine]. [Domi] has 72 points two years ago, 55 points last year…he can play. I’m going to give him a chance and see where it goes.”
“We gotta get more top guys going.”– John Tortorella on his team's offensive struggles
Domi can produce at the center position, but he's struggled this year, with just one goal and two assists through 11 games. The offensive difficulties aren't exclusive to Domi, though. Cam Atkinson and Zach Werenski have a combined two goals so far this season.
The "big names" have had a rough go of it so far. “We gotta get more top guys going," said Tortorella.
With a practice under his belt, Laine should be more well-prepared for tomorrow's rematch against Dallas. The Blue Jackets will need him to produce at a solid clip if they are to have any chance at making a postseason run.
