TAMPERE, Finland — Patrick Laine didn’t want to reflect on the good that happened this week in his return to his hometown.
The pain of another loss, another game the Columbus Blue Jackets let get away, was too raw to allow the forward much room for positivity.
So, after a 5-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche in the second game of the 2022 NHL Global Series at Nokia Arena on Saturday, Laine didn’t sugarcoat his feelings.
“It [stinks],” Laine said. “Kind of wishing that this trip never happened. After this, I feel like it was a waste of time for us. It [stinks]that is all I have to say.”
Make no mistake, Laine will come around. There is too much good that happened since the Blue Jackets arrived in Helsinki on Monday and headed to Tampere on Thursday.
There were the meals at his favorite restaurants, an emotional trip to the children’s hospital in Helsinki, a nostalgic trek to the outdoor rink he played on as a teenager, the laughs shared as he sat with teammates in the sauna, and the warmth of having family and friends around for this week.
None of that mattered after a game when the Blue Jackets were outclassed for long periods of time by the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Unlike Friday, when Columbus fought back from a three-goal deficit to tie the game before losing 6-3, there was no pushback Saturday.
After the game was tied 1-1, Colorado scored three goals in 3:28 during the second period to pull away. The Avalanche outshot the Blue Jackets 17-4 in the period.
“I feel like we just lost it,” Laine said. “I don’t know where, but we couldn’t find it. The result, you can see it up there (on the scoreboard). It is not what we are looking for.”
Columbus (3-9-0) was looking for answers after its fifth straight loss, having been outscored 28-8 during that span.
In the third period Saturday, Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen broke up the first line, separating Laine and Johnny GaudreauColumbus’ big offseason signing.
“We had to do some soul-searching there,” Larsen said. “You want to play the best against their best and tonight there best was better, so we had to do some soul-searching.”
Nathan Mackinnon had three assists for Colorado on Saturday after having four on Friday. He factored into seven of the 11 goals the Avalanche scored here. Mikko Rantanen had a hat trick for the Avalanche on Friday.
Laine had a goal, an assist and a game-high seven shots Friday. He did not score a point and was a minus-3 on Saturday, when Gaudreau also did not have a point and was minus-3.
“Obviously for our line, we have to play better,” Laine said. “It’s just as simple as that. Playing against one of the best lines in hockey, they were just full-on giving it to us.”
Laine and other Blue Jackets players said they felt bad for the goalie Joonas Korpisalo, who was under siege for most of the game, his first since March 22 of last season because of a hip injury. He made 40 saves.
But, as much as Korpisalo was happy to play in his native Finland and be back on the ice, he knows giving up five goals wasn’t good enough and said he’d like to have two of the second-period goals back.
“It’s hard, it’s going to be a long flight home,” Korpisalo said. “We put the effort there, but I don’t know. … We have to get more points.”
Captain Boone Jenner said consistency is lacking and that if the Blue Jackets can find that, they’ll start to turn it around.
“First period, it was kind of back and forth and we had some good minutes,” Jenner said, “but second period we played into them a little bit too much and gave them opportunities, too many odd-man rushes, and they’ able to capitalize.
“We wanted to come here and get some wins and some points and weren’t able to do that. So, you know, we’ve got to get back to work. There’s a lot of areas that we want to get better at. “
And despite the pain and disappointment of the two games here, Laine said he believes his team will find its way out of the wilderness.
“I don’t think we are going to lose the last one [70] games in a row,” Laine said. “We have everything we need in that locker room to win games. We just have to figure out how to play a full 60 [minutes]. I think that has been the main issue this year. That is our main focus right now.”
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