SvoNotes: Boqvist is rounding back into form on both sides of the ice

SvoNotes is a weekly column by BlueJackets.com reporter Jeff Svoboda.
The most difficult part about being injured in the NHL is the time you miss on the ice.
The second most difficult part might be the games you play once you're back on the ice.
Players do everything they can to be ready to return to form when they've missed extended time, but the reality is going from individual skates and team drills to games themselves is like jumping onto the Autobahn in a smart car. It gets fast pretty quickly out there.

One of the latest Blue Jackets players to go through that process is Adam Boqvist. The defenseman was out of action for two months from late October to late December with a broken foot, and it took some time for Boqvist to shake the rust off.
He had just one assist and a minus-3 rating in his first four games back, but since then, Boqvist has started to look like the Boqvist the Blue Jackets were hoping for when they acquired him in the Seth Jones trade last summer. In the last 17 games, Boqvist has points in 12 of them, posting a 2-12-14 line, and in his current four-game point streak, he has a 2-3-5 line.

"I think he's found a rhythm here in the last four or five games since he's been back where he looks better," head coach Brad Larsen said. "He's more engaged. He's competitive. He's obviously scored a few times. That helps. Just keeping him moving in the right direction here."
The 22-year-old defenseman sees another reason for why things are looking up -- he's simply being himself. Boqvist has been injured before, and he does his best to stay as sharp as possible when he's on the shelf. It was tougher with an injury like a broken foot that kept him out of skating, and he said that while he did everything he could to get back to his best as quickly as possible, there's still a physical and mental adjustment to be had.
"For sure," Boqvist said. "And you always have to build the trust from the coaches. I broke my foot, was out for 28 games or something. You have to build up that trust, and I have built back that trust now pretty good from (assistant coach Steve McCarthy). As an offensive defenseman, he can trust me a little bit more than maybe he did before. You just want to keep building on that."
In some ways, it's great to see Boqvist starting to fill up the stat sheet because the Swede's offensive abilities are what made him such a sought-after defenseman to begin with. He went eighth overall in the 2018 draft to the Blackhawks because of his skill with the puck on his stick, and Boqvist showed that a season ago as despite injuries that limited him to 52 games, he posted 11 goals, tied for sixth all-time in a single season among CBJ defenders.
Boqvist didn't score for the first time this season until his goal last Tuesday vs. New Jersey, which came in his 22nd game of the season.
"A little weight off the shoulders," Boqvist said. "I've had a few opportunities, but it's always nice to see the first one go in. It took 22 games, but never too late."
But maybe the most encouraging sign of late has been his play on the other side of the ice. Boqvist is listed at 6-0, 182 pounds, which doesn't make him the smallest of the CBJ defensemen, but he's also not a hulking defender in the mold of an Erik Gudbranson.
While the Blue Jackets will want him to continue to keep getting stronger as he goes, his abilities in the defensive zone will be defined by things like a good stick, positioning in battles and his ability to skate or move the puck out of trouble.
To that end, Larsen said he's seen improvement out of Boqvist, who despite playing in four different NHL seasons has still played only 153 NHL games.
"Much better," Larsen said. "To me, it started here at home in the Jersey game (last Tuesday). I thought his 50-50s were really good that night. He was closing plays out, but he was killing the cycle and then making the next play. That's something we want all of our defensemen to do, and that's something we've been working at with him."
The CBJ power play also has improved as late, in part because of Boqvist's passing abilities, which have earned him six assists on the man advantage so far this year. In the last four games, Columbus is 3 for 12 on the power play, and Boqvist has an assist on each of the tallies.
It's taken some time for Boqvist to settle in and find his game this year, but considering he's an integral part of the team's core of young players going forward, it's fair to say it's better late than never.
"I feel good," he said. "I think before the break with the whole foot injury and all that stuff, I just wanted to get back to playing at the level I can play. Now it's just natural. I'm able to help the team the way I want to. Hopefully we can keep doing that."

Laine's Lament

On Saturday, before the team's game in Dallas, Patrik Laine was asked about his thoughts on Kirill Marchenko, one goal scorer to another.
Laine gave a good answer with his thoughts about the most prolific scorer to start a career in CBJ history, but as part of it, the Finnish star also expressed frustration on what he felt was his current lack of production.
"I used to be a goal scorer," Laine said. "That was fun back in the day."
There does seem to be a bit of a vibe out there that Laine has hit a rough patch this season, especially in comparison to a year ago when his red-hot, 19-goals-in-22-games streak showed he can still be one of the NHL's most dangerous scorers.
Through injuries and illness, it feels like Laine hasn't quite regained that form this year, but he's still at 16-19-35 through 42 games, which translates to 31 goals and 68 points in an 82-game season. Those aren't bad numbers, especially when you consider that after scoring two goals in the last three games, Laine is over a point per game in the last six weeks (7-12-19 in 18 games).

Some of the perception of disappointment is driven by Laine himself, as the forward often seems a bit down when the puck isn't going in the net.
"This is where he gets a bad rap for body language and different things," Larsen said. "He really cares about how he is playing and he is his hardest critic, he really is. He gets down, and that's something we're trying to coach out of him."
The head coach does seem happy with the way Laine has adapted his game of late in contests where the puck isn't going in. While Laine's best attribute continues to be one of the best shots in the game, the forward who is now in his seventh NHL season has worked to become a more complete player, and Larsen sees it in the way he's done the little things in games recently to help the team win even when he's not getting on the board.
"He is still young," Larsen said. "It seems like he's been around forever, but he's still young. That's the next hurdle for him is how do you deal with adversity. If adversity is you're not scoring, well then, 'OK, impact the game in other ways. You're 6-5. You're a big guy. You can do a lot of damage out there if you wanted,' so building to his game."
Some examples of that include managing the game, putting the puck in the right places at the right times and, yes, occasionally throwing the body around. But there's no denying Laine's bread and butter comes from putting the puck in the net, and he said he's working diligently to start making that happen on a more consistent basis.
"Sometimes it goes in and sometimes it doesn't," Laine said. "It's been one of those years, but it's not going to come without the work. So I have to put the work in. You can't just hope for the best and wait some someone to give it to you. You have to work on it, and it's going to come eventually."

Foudy on the Board

It didn't feel like Liam Foudy went 62 games without scoring his first NHL regular-season goal, but the stats show he did.
Part of that is because Foudy scored in the NHL playoff bubble back in the summer of 2020, with just two regular-season gams under his belt, so he knew the feeling of scoring a goal at the highest level. Part of it is also because the games had been so spread out, as he debuted back in the spring of 2020, had a tough rookie season of 2021, then skated just one NHL game last year thanks to injury and time spent developing in the minors.
This year, Foudy has worked his way into being a consistent member of the team's bottom six, but he still hadn't scored in 35 contests this year before tallying on a rebound Saturday night in Dallas to open the scoring. Foudy had come close plenty of times but just hadn't had the puck luck to get the biscuit in the basket, so the 2018 first-round pick said he wasn't too worried about when the first tally would come.

"To be honest I thought I did a pretty good job of putting it in the back of my mind and didn't think about it," Foudy said. "It was just hockey, going out there. I knew it was going to come eventually. So going out there, I just felt confident in my game lately, and for it to go in finally, it felt good."
The Ontario native is still just 23 years old, and his speed and straight-ahead game have allowed him to find a home on the CBJ penalty kill -- as many predicted when he was selected by the Jackets after tearing up the Canadian junior ranks in London -- in recent weeks. And putting a puck in the net can only help when it comes to confidence for a player who still has a bright future as an NHLer.
"It's great to see him score," Larsen said. "They say they don't think about it, but they think about it. They want to get that first one and feel good about their game offensively. It's great to see."

Gaudreau's Streak Ends

Before missing this past weekend's games at Dallas and Arizona, Johnny Gaudreau had played in 349 consecutive games, the third-longest active streak in the NHL.
So it had to be tough for the CBJ forward to see that streak -- a five-year run of excellent luck and dedication from one of the game's top scorers -- go by the wayside, right?
"No big deal," Gaudreau said Tuesday. "My sisters were probably more upset than I am. It's not the end of the world."
Don't make a mistake, Gaudreau would rather be on the ice than watching on TV. It's just that the streak itself didn't mean much to the first-year Jacket, who cares much more about winning than anything else along those lines.
Gaudreau said he suffered the lower-body injury when he felt a tweak during Thursday night's game vs. Winnipeg. He went to the locker room in the second period of that game then returned for the third, but the team decided to be cautious over the weekend. That means he missed both games on the weekend, which was not music to his ears.
"Yeah, it wasn't fun," he said. "You obviously want to play and help my teammates and compete with them every game, but it's the way sports is, you know? Sometimes you get hurt. You gotta rest up."
The good news is Gaudreau said he's hopeful he'll be able to return to action tomorrow vs. Minnesota.