After watching Thursday’s 7-5 win over Arizona from the press box, Ryan Johansen will suit up against the Flyers on Saturday night.
Tortorella: #CBJ Ryan Johansen will return to the lineup tonight vs #Flyers. Savard out. Johnson questionable. G Joonas Korpisalo to start.
— Shawn Mitchell (@shecky218) December 19, 2015
Coach John Tortorella hasn’t been pleased with Johansen’s overall effort and he’s hoping that sitting his star center will “reset” him.
Before being made a healthy scratch on Thursday, Tortorella sat Johansen for the third period of a 5-1 loss to Dallas on Tuesday night.
A lot of the friction between coach and player comes from the fact that Johansen isn’t in shape.
On Thursday, he admitted that he couldn’t train as hard as he wanted to in the off-season because of his elevated heartbeat.
“I won’t get into details about what was going on, but I definitely wasn’t able to be myself, keep my regular schedule,” Johansen said, per the Dispatch. “That’s something I’ve been trying to catch up with this season, and I’ve started to feel really well the last little while.”
The 23-year-old was skating on Columbus’ top line with Boone Jenner and Nick Foligno during the morning skate.