What’s Next For The Blue Jackets After Laine’s Injury?

A little less than 7 minutes into the second period Wednesday night, Laine would suffer a hit in the offensive zone. After that hit, Laine would end up going to the bench before leaving the game.

Replay of what happened to Laine:

Getty Images (From: sportingnews.com)

Laine scored the only goal in the 1-4 loss against the Carolina Hurricanes, which came 11 seconds into the second period.

Laine is now expected to miss the next 3-6 weeks with a sprained elbow, where he could miss up to the next 20 games with the Jackets, including the games in Finland against the Colorado Avalanche

For the 7 minutes and 49 seconds that Laine was on the ice for, he was on the top line with newly acquired Johnny Gaudreau and captain of the Blue Jackets Boone Jenner. Laine would also get 2 shots with his goal and he had 1 blocked shot.

Laine missed 26 games last season due to injury as well. WIth this we can kind of get an estimate on how the Jackets will do without him.

In those 26 games that Laine missed, the Jackets went 10-14-1, a PTS% of 0.42. But with Laine they had a record of 27-24-5, a PTS% of 0.53. But the interesting thing is that the Jackets actually scored more without Laine, even though he led the team in points per game, 56 points in 56 games (1.00 PPG). However, it wasn’t by a lot. With Laine they scored 3.18 goals a game, but without him they scored 3.23 goals a game. But if you look at the schedule, the Jackets didn’t play much heavy competition during Laine’s absence:

Red Wings (30th in Goals Against)

Coyotes (31st)

Sabres (25th)

Jets (20th)

Sharks (21st)

Kraken (24th)

Senators (22nd)

In every game but one, they would score 3 or more goals, 4 times, they would score 5 or more.

Laine being gone for the Blue Jackets will hurt. But it does give players like Justin Danforth, Yegor Chinakov, and Kent Johnson a chance to shine and show that they belong in the league. Also, Johnny Gaudreau will now have a chance to become the star of the team for a bit and light up the lamp for the Jackets after not getting a point on Wednesday.

The Jackets all play the Lightning, Penguins, Rangers, Avalanche, Panthers, and Bruins during the time that Laine could be out. They will have to prove that they can contend with these teams without Laine to still maintain a spot to fight for the playoffs this season.

The Jackets will play the Tampa Bay Lightning Friday night for their first home game.

Stats from: nhl.com, hockey-reference.com