Kent Johnson's return to practice is great news for a Blue Jackets team that has trouble scoring

The Blue Jackets got wonderful news on Thursday, with Kent Johnson returning to the ice for the first time since suffering an upper body injury on October 17th. This is great news for a team that is struggling to score goals.

Struggling may be under-selling the situation. The Jackets have not scored more than three goals in a game since October 28th; a stretch of 7 games that has seen them win just once. They've currently lost six in a row, scoring just 11 goals in that time. Outside of the top line of Yegor Chinakhov, Sean Monahan and Kirill Marchenko; offense has been hit or (mostly) miss through most of the lineup.

Johnson is a big difference maker...

A strong rookie season unfortunately turned into a terrible sophomore slump for Kent Johnson. After seeing that second season ended by injury last year, he spent the summer recovering, getting stronger, and rebuilding his confidence.

He came into camp this year and stood out from the moment he took the ice. That carried over into the preseason games, which in turn gave him extra jump to start the regular season. In less than four games played, Johnson scored two goals and five points, which had him amongst the team leaders in both categories early on.

With him gone, the Blue Jackets have clearly needed some more offensive punch, especially in their top-two lines. Things have gotten so dry for the team offensively over the last couple of weeks, that we've seen Chinakhov moved around the lineup to try to spark scoring on other lines. It hasn't worked, at least not consistently.

He could slot right into the top line...

Just this morning, we brought up the play of the top line in spite of the fact that they don't have a real puck distributor to play alongside Monahan and Marchenko. Kent Johnson would certainly fill that void, but even if not, his presence alone creates a different kind of balance to the lineup. It would mean opposition teams having to plan for two scoring lines from the Blue Jackets.

If the team decided to keep Chinakhov on that top line, it would be hard to be upset. That trio has worked very well so far. Johnson could then slot into the second line alongside Adam Fantilli; who has yet to really start playing up to his full potential. The lack of talent around him could be a big factor in that.

Whatever the case, for a team who has to scratch and claw their way offensively even when healthy; getting back one of their most skilled players is certainly going to help. Hopefully Kent will be in the lineup very soon.