Patrik Laine benched once again, vents his frustrations to the media after Thursday's loss

The plot thickens for Patrik Laine in Columbus after once again riding the pine for the majority of the third period and all of overtime against the Florida Panthers on Thursday.

I'm all for accountability, but someone needs to tell John Tortorella that:

1) Good players will not stick around in Columbus if they don't play.

And

2) It's probably a good idea to utilize your best goalscorers in tight games, as it is far more likely to lead to scoring more goals and winning more games than it is to backfire.

The frustration is starting to show with Laine, who tallied just 2:20 in the entire third period, despite snapping a 7-game slump and scoring a power play goal for the Blue Jackets to take a 3-1 lead in the game.

Following Laine's benching, the Blue Jackets surrendered 3 third period goals to force overtime, where Panthers forward Frank Vatrano completed the comeback win for his club while Laine sat and watched from the sidelines.

Laine didn't seem particularly pleased with the whole situation following the tough loss, and his response when questioned about his lack of ice time in the third period and OT was evidence of that.

"I thought I was playing good, but I guess I thought wrong," said Laine, obviously disappointed by both the loss and his second benching with the Jackets this season.

Something's gotta give in Columbus, who are 10-12-6 through 28 games and in jeopardy of falling too far out of the picture in the Central Division playoff race after losing 3 straight.

GM Jarmo Kekalainen has already publicly stated that he has no intentions of firing Tortorella, but one has to wonder whether potentially costing the Blue Jackets both the 2nd and 3rd overall picks from the 2016 draft wouldn't alter his opinion of Torts just a little bit.

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