Laine will return to Blue Jackets lineup against Blackhawks after 'embarrassing' healthy scratch

COLUMBUS -- Patrik Laine will play for the Columbus Blue Jackets against the Chicago Blackhawks at Nationwide Arena on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; BSOH, NBCSCH) after being a healthy scratch for the first time in the NHL.

"It's probably over my career the most embarrassing thing that's happened to me, so I'm obviously not happy about that," Laine said after practice Tuesday. "They know that. It is what it is. It's done and now we're back, so just try to focus on playing.

"I mean, I'm not going to start analyzing it that much, because I don't know what I'm going to say. I'll just keep it at that. I'm not going to say anything dumb. It's up to them. I just play here, and I play whenever they tell me."

Laine has three points (two goals, one assist) in nine games -- he missed nine with a concussion from Oct. 21 to Nov. 9 -- and had been benched during games several times this season by first-year coach Pascal Vincent. He did not play the final 9:53 of a 3-2 loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday. He had 12:21 of ice time on 15 shifts, the last ending with 6:26 to play, in a 4-3 loss to the Washington Capitals on Saturday.

He was then scratched for a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday.

"We didn't try to embarrass anyone," Vincent said. "We will never try to do that. That's not who I am as a person anyway. We're trying to help our people and we felt, 'Take a step back, take a deep breath. We need you. You're important to our team.'"

The Blue Jackets are 4-11-4 and 0-7-2 in their past nine games, their longest skid since going 0-7-2 from April 8-25, 2021.

Laine, who has been experimented with at center, was at right wing with rookie Adam Fantilli the center and Dmitri Voronkov on the left during practice Tuesday.

"I expect from him and all the players to respond like a man," Vincent said. "And I know he wasn't happy. If he was happy today and he would say something different, I'd be disappointed."

Laine has 382 points (200 goals, 182 assists) in 471 NHL games for the Winnipeg Jets and Blue Jackets. He was traded to Columbus by Winnipeg with forward Jack Roslovic on Jan. 23, 2021, for forward Pierre-Luc Dubois and a third-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft.

"If you were in Game 7 and you wanted a guy to make a difference, Patrik Laine was your guy," said Vincent, who has known Laine since they were in the Jets organization. "So it's in him and we hope to see that tomorrow and in the future.

"We need him. We absolutely need him. We need his talent. We need his presence. We need his skill level. We need his ability to be a difference-maker in the games. We know he can do it. To me, we're moving forward."

Laine was blindsided by the scratch. He said he hasn't played to his standards and not being in the lineup was the wrong way to address his slump.

"If your confidence isn't there, I don't think you're going to find it eating popcorn watching the game. That's my opinion," he said.

"… I'm not stupid but at the same time, if you want to get going, you have to be out there. I can't get confidence drinking BioSteel on the bench. I'm not crying about it because I'm not in a position where I can complain about anything with the way I've been playing, but that's how I see it."