Former Vancouver Canucks forward Andrei Kuzmenko will be a healthy scratch for the Calgary Flames game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.

Kuzmenko was on the ice during Calgary’s morning skate alongside fellow scratches Joel Hanley and Tyson Barrie. This would be his first healthy scratch of the regular season as he has appeared in all 24 of the Flames’ games before tonight’s contest against the Blue Jackets.

This trip to the press box follows an eerily similar pattern that emerged for Kuzmenko last season before the Cancuks sent him to southern Alberta in a package that brought back Elias Lindholm. After being scratched in late November, Rick Tocchet proceeded to sit the Russian forward four times to get him to improve his two-way play.

He struggled mightily in his final 24 games with the Canucks, with just seven points (five goals and two assists) in that span. All the while he was called out publicly by his then-coach as Tocchet expressed his frustration at Kuzmeko towards the end of his time in the Blue and Green.

“It’s nothing personal, it’s not a systems thing, you’ve got to participate in certain parts of the game,” Tocchet said back in January. “I think he’s trying to understand that. You have to participate. He doesn’t have to hit a guy, I don’t care about that. I think there are certain parts of his game he has to participate. You have to do it. He’s a great kid, but he’s struggling right now. We just have to keep working with him and he has to understand.”

Kuzmenko caught fire after arriving in Calgary for a strong finish to the 2023-24 campaign with 25 points (14 goals and 11 assists) in the final 29 games. Fast forward to this season and he is mired in a lengthy offensive drought through November in which he put up the same number of points as goalie Dustin Wolf with two. His scratch comes off the heels of a tough defensive showing with a combined -3 and playing under 16 minutes in each of his last two games.

While this instance is likely Flames coach Ryan Huska trying to get his star winger a mental reset given he is one of many forwards on the team struggling to score, the warning signs are already there that history could be repeating itself for Kuzmenko. Canucks fans know all too well how this ends but it will be a situation worth monitoring from afar nonetheless.