It was not a storybook Columbus Blue Jackets debut for Patrik Laine.
The Jackets fell behind by four goals before rallying to make the third period interesting, but it wasn't enough in a 6-3 loss to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night at Nationwide Arena.
Laine was scoreless in his first game for Columbus following his trade Jan. 23 with Jack Roslovic for Pierre-Luc Dubois. After a delay to obtain a U.S. work visa, recover from an upper-body injury and quarantine for two days upon his arrival, Laine was eager to get back on the ice. So were the goal-starved Blue Jackets.
"This guy can score goals," Tortorella said earlier Tuesday. "So it's certainly a welcome addition to the team."
Laine scored 140 goals in 306 games for Winnipeg, but he didn't have a major impact in his first game as a Jacket. He had two shots on goal.
Seth Jones, Mikhael Grigorenko and Dean Kukan had the Columbus goals.
Laine started the game playing left wing on a line centered by Alexandre Texier. By late in the second period, he was skating with Roslovic.
Laine took one one penalty, for high-sticking, and the Stars capitalized on that for a power-play goal. They spent a lot of Tuesday capitalizing.
Dallas took a 1-0 lead less than four minutes into the game. Stars defenseman John Klingberg took a harmless-looking shot from inside the blue line, but Joe Pavelski tipped the puck past Korpisalo.
The Blue Jackets (4-4-3) generated little offense in the first 20 minutes. They had trouble clearing their own zone and difficulty setting up in the Stars'. Tortorella juggled his defensive pairs entering the game, but it didn't have the desired effect.
Jackets right wing Oliver Bjorkstrand was called for a 4-minute high-sticking penalty when he tried to swat a puck out of the air but instead hit defenseman Joel Hanley with 4.6 seconds left in the period.
Dallas scored early in the second period on the ensuing power play as Pavelski again tipped a shot from Klingberg by Korpisalo.
Jones made it 2-1 on a wrister at 5:41 of the period with the Jackets on the power play for his first goal of the season. The one-goal deficit lasted only 17 seconds. Pavelski fed Jamie Benn after a rebound to make it 3-1. So much for any Blue Jackets' momentum.
Dallas added two more goals in the second period to chase Korpisalo and take a 5-1 lead.
The Blue Jackets kept the third period from being a formality with the goals by Grigorenko and Kukan, the latter with 12:37 left. But the Jackets couldn't get any closer. Dallas ended an empty-net goal with 1:41 left by Alexander Radulov.
