Last night with about 5 minutes to go in the first period, Pierre-Luc Dubois skated onto the ice for Columbus for what might have been his last shift as a Blue Jacket.
Here's an iso of Pierre-Luc Dubois' final shift for the Blue Jackets tonight. The center saw 3:55 of ice time for the night and did not take a shift after the first period.#CBJ
It was a pretty lousy shift...to say the least. The battle against Tyler Johnson probably sealed it. I will add this however...I have seen equally bad shifts by players many times. At the games often I will focus on a player and see if he even touches ANYTHING on his shift. Once, during the Kings/Rangers Cup Final, in Madison Square Garden, I watched Rick Nash take 4 shifts in a row where it wouldn’t have mattered if he even was on the ice for them... My point is Isolating guys you’d be surprised how many bad shifts are turned in...
As for Dubois last night...At least it is safe to say that John Tortorella didn’t approve, and Dubois never saw the ice again...
Brian Burke, who was worked closely with Torts over the years, said on XM this morning that he didn’t disagree with the benching and that he would never let Dubois wear the sweater again. He would tell Torts to give a player who wants to prove himself Dubois’ ice time...
Hard to disagree, but also hard for GM Jarmo to trade this kid for full value after this performance...and Jarmo is definitely as patient and prudent as they come..
We have heard the reports that there are teams out there with interest of course, and I am told the NJ Devils have considered a deal that would send Zacha, Butcher and draft picks to Columbus. Honestly, I wouid seriously consider that were I Columbus.
What say you?
Should Dubois ever pull on the sweater again?
Did Torts over-react?
How much would you accept for this player?