Despite an offseason health scare that resulted in an elevated heart rate and visits to numerous specialists and a recent, reportedly unrelated issue that caused him to leave the team and fly home for yet another consultation, Columbus Blue Jackets forward Ryan Johansen declared himself back to "100 percent" on Thursday, one day ahead of the Blue Jackets' game against the Washington Capitals.
"I feel good," Johansen said, per Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Post-Dispatch. "I just had some things I'm not used to and I wanted to do some digging and figure out what's going on. I'm happy that I can come back out here and get back on the ice today and know that I'm 100 percent now. I'm ready to go, for whatever the team needs me for now."
What the team likely needs him for is a fresh set of legs. While Columbus came out on the winning end of their Tuesday game against the New Jersey Devils - the team's second victory in a row - the group looked overly tired, especially through the first two periods. Johansen, who was forced to leave the team on Saturday and fly back to Columbus after dealing with his own issues of "late game exhaustion," now says that he's ready to return to the lineup and the elite form he's shown in the past.
"I don't even know how to explain it, really," Johansen said, via Portzline. "Basically I just haven't been the same, and that's all I'm going to touch on. I just wasn't playing to the level I should be playing at and now I'm back to 100 percent. That's all that matters. It's in the past. I'm good to go now."
Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen, no doubt happy to have his star forward back in the Blue Jackets lineup, would add only that doctors determined whatever was ailing Johansen was not a "long-term" issue and dubbed Johansen ready for work against the Caps.
