Patrik Laine Appears On The Spittin' Chiclets Podcast And Opens Up About His Time With Columbus

Patrik Laine made an appearance on the always controversial and talked about Spittin' Chiclets Podcast and was asked about some things regarding his time in Columbus.

He was asked about John Tortorella and his dealings with the former Columbus bench boss. Laine says, "I think he benched me, it was like the third game or something. We got scored on. I was so pissed coming into the bench, and one of the assistant coaches came up to me with the iPad right away. I said not so nicely that you can leave with this iPad right now, and Torts heard it. He's like "Don't you f---ing talk to my assistants like that ever again." And yeah, I didn't play another shift in that period. So I learned pretty quick. Definitely shouldn't have said that, but the heat of the moment you say things, and of course he heard it. At least I learned the hard way, don't say those things in front of Torts."

He also talks about stepping away from hockey and going into the Player Assistance Program. "It was, at the time, the hardest decision I've had to make. Like walk away from something you love, and you kind of sacrifice everything to be here. And then, because of your own struggles, you have gotta leave that behind for a little bit. At the time, I didn't know for how long, I didn't know if I was going to play again. It was the best decision I've ever made to take that time off and prioritize my head," Laine says.

Laine says his issues started the summer before. Laine says, "I think I told Jarmo a couple times that I'm done playing, Im not coming back, I'm not going to play again. And then I ended up coming back and I probably shouldn't have. At the time I think I should've taken the time then. Then it just started going downhill and just got to that point I was so depressed that I couldn't function anymore and just had to blow the whistle that this is not going to be good if you just try to run through the wall like it's not going to work out."

Laine talked about a variety of things, but opening up like he did was a cool thing to listen to. He wasn't asked about the comments he made about the Columbus front office and players a few weeks ago, however.

This was a very good interview.

What's Next - The Blue Jackets travel to Toronto to play the Maple Leafs on Wednesday night.