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Tortorella tells reporters he wasn't benching Laine on Thursday

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Cooper Godin
March 12, 2021  (8:11 PM)
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Columbus Blue Jackets forward Patrik Laine spent the last seven minutes of the third period and the entirety of overtime on the bench during Thursday night's loss to the Florida Panthers. Despite his limited ice time late in the game, head coach John Tortorella told reporters that Laine wasn't being benched.

"You guys call it a 'benching' and all that. My job is to, throughout hockey games, make decisions on who's going, who isn't, situational play, momentums of games, what the other team's putting out there. There's a lot of things that come into play, especially when we're reeling a little bit there," Tortorella told reporters.

"I make decisions on players' ice times and where I put 'em all the time. Is it a benching? No, I didn't bench anybody last night. I just decided to play some other people in situations late in the third period that I felt more comfortable with at that time. Those are the calls I have to make running the bench," Tortorella added. "I know all the drama starts with the benchings, and this and that — I don't get it. It's just my decisions as far as who I think is going to give us the best chance in those minutes."

Laine recorded an assist in the second period to snap his seven-game pointless streak and added a goal early in the third period on the powerplay. Tortorella said that the Finnish sniper had a fairly good game on Thursday.

"You guys think I don't wanna play Patty? I mean, I wanna play him. But I still have to make calls as far as how the players are playing at that particular time," Tortorella said Friday. "I'll go a little deeper for you, just to try to explain it so you understand it: I thought Patty probably played one of his best periods in the first period. He played really well. But I also have to make calls as the rest of his game is going on, where he is at that particular time, especially late in the third period and us reeling a little bit.

"I'd love to be able to put all of my top guns out there, but I also have to look at how they're playing at that particular time too. So I hope that explains it for you," Tortorella continued. "There's no free passes because you're notably the top gun. I don't look at it that way. I look at what's happening right now as far as in those minutes in the hockey game and go that way."

Laine was asked post-game what his thoughts were after not playing in the last seven minutes of the third, and overtime.

"Um, yeah, I got scored on a couple times, but I think the first two — if you take out the one play where the puck was bouncing a little bit and couldn't get it out and they end up scoring — I thought I was playing good, but, I guess, I thought wrong," Laine said after the game.

Laine and the Blue Jackets are back in action on Saturday at 5pm ET against the Dallas Stars. It will be interesting to see how Tortorella deploys Laine throughout the game.

Source: Sportsnet