Visibly frustrated with his stars’ lack of offensive production, Columbus Blue Jackets head coach decided to punish Pascal Vincent, Patrik Laine and Johnny Gaudreau during his team’s 3-2 loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night.
In fact, the two aforementioned attackers didn’t see much of the ice in the third period. Incidentally, Laine was on the bench for the final 9:53 of the game, while Gaudreau did not play from the moment the clock read 6:23 before the end of the game.
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Vincent made this decision while the Blue Jackets were down two goals halfway through the final period, showing his displeasure with both players.
As a reminder, Gaudreau has only scored three points (one goal and two assists) in his last 11 games. Laine, on the other hand, has only shown the red light once since returning to the game on November 11th.
On the ice, defenseman Damon Severson scored both goals for the Ohio club. He scored first, but the Coyotes scored three unanswered goals thanks to Barret Hayton, Logan Cooley and Lawson Crouse. It was the latter who scored the winning goal.
Arizona goaltender Connor Ingram had a strong game, making 39 saves on 41 shots.
Bedard is silent against the lightning
After two games in which he scored two goals in each game, Connor Bedard was left out of the Chicago Blackhawks’ 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. This is only the third time since October 24 that the Canadian prodigy has failed to clear the balance.
It all started well for Luke Richardson’s men. They were the first to score when Lukas Reichel beat Jonas Johansson by blocking Philipp Kurashev’s power play shot.
Two former Montreal Canadiens also stood out. Guard Mikhail Sergachev gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead midway through the second period before Corey Perry brought the two teams back to 2-2 in the opening moments of the final period.
Victor Hedman, who scored the game-winning goal, Brandon Hagel and Brayden Point also made a splash.