Welcome to another Tuesday edition of Columbus Blue Jackets News & Rumors. We are approaching the American Thanksgiving holiday in which teams start to get a sense of where they’re at and if the playoffs are within reach.
For the Blue Jackets, they’re looking for just one win at this point. Entering this week’s action, they’ve lost nine in a row (0-7-2) and sit last in the Eastern Conference and 29th in the NHL standings. Should the Chicago Blackhawks win at Nationwide Arena Wednesday, it’s possible that the Blue Jackets could enter Thanksgiving 31st overall, with only the San Jose Sharks behind them.
Nobody envisioned the season going the way it has so far. Everyone is frustrated. However immediate answers have been hard to come by.
This week in News & Rumors, we’ll start by tackling the big story in the hockey world.
Patrik Laine Benched
Everyone wondered if something like this would eventually happen. After being benched for two-straight games in third periods, head coach Pascal Vincent elected to make Patrik Laine a healthy scratch for Sunday’s game in Philadelphia. This marked the first healthy scratch of Laine’s career.
This got national attention. It got a lot of folks wondering what would happen next? Could it even be the end for Laine with the Blue Jackets? Let’s not get carried away here.
First, Laine has really struggled this season. He missed nine games due to a concussion. He’s also playing center, a position he is still in the midst of learning. He hasn’t played the kind of game the Blue Jackets are used to seeing.
Laine was held shotless and won just two of eight faceoffs in last Thursday’s game against the Arizona Coyotes. Then in Washington, he didn’t fare much better. He sat the last six minutes of the game despite the result being in question.
Then came Sunday. Vincent explained his decision pregame. If there’s anyone in hockey that knows Laine, it’s coach Vincent. They go back to their Winnipeg Jets’ days. That means he’s seen Laine’s best days. Here is part of what he said Laine needed to do with the time.
“But right now I think Patty needs to take a deep breath, go back to the working lab and get his touches back, get his shot back, get his confidence back. So he can be the Patrik, the number 29 Patrik Laine we all know he can be. So it was a hard conversation.”
Vincent went on to say that no one is bigger than the team in cases like this. There has been no hesitation in benching star players early on this season. The question now shifts to does this approach work? At least so far, it’s a mixed bag.
Johnny Gaudreau was benched along with Laine on Thursday. Gaudreau responded with a goal Saturday in Washington and was at least more noticeable Sunday in Philadelphia. It was the more typical Gaudreau.
Laine however continued to struggle. The Blue Jackets were willing to play a game with 11 forwards and seven defensemen instead of playing Laine. Imagine how far a fall that really is.
It does seem this is just a temporary thing. What will be interesting to see is how Laine responds. He is known as a sensitive player. Will he take this in the intended way and get better from it? Or will the struggles continue?
Vincent does believe Laine can be a center. However if it continues to falter, they will get away from it. The team practices on Tuesday. It’ll be interesting to see where he lines up and with which players. No matter how it goes, he must find his game. Otherwise, questions about his future could get louder.
Boone Jenner Looking for Help
Boone Jenner is the new Blue Jackets leader for games played. He got that milestone by playing the same, consistent way every night. That’s with energy and the ability to pull his teammates into the fight of a game.
These days, there hasn’t been much help in that regard. Mathieu Olivier got into a spirited fight with Nic Deslauriers on Sunday night. That got both benches energized.
Besides that fight, there wasn’t much energy to be had. Granted, Sunday’s game in Philadelphia was the Blue Jackets’ seventh game in their last 11 days. Coach Pascal Vincent called that out during postgame.
However Jenner was not happy with the overall effort in their 5-2 loss.
“We have the streak we’re on. We have to have a lot better effort if we want to get out of it,” Jenner said. “We need (emotion.) I think the urgency and that emotion needs to be ramped up if we want to get out of this funk.”
There are many issues with the Blue Jackets as we’ve discussed. But having just two players showing fight Sunday is not ideal. Much more is needed up and down the lineup if they want to avoid becoming the first Blue Jackets’ team to lose 10 straight games.
Zach Werenski Conversation
If there is one Blue Jacket who is invested in what’s going on, it’s Zach Werenski. When he admits he’s seen nothing like this before ever in his life, it’s eye opening. He expressed what every fan is probably feeling right now.
“I know it sucks,” Werenski said. “It sucks for us. It sucks for coaches. It sucks for management, sucks for fans. Sucks for everybody.”
Werenski knows the time is long overdue for things to start turning around. He realizes there have been good moments. But the time is now for results.
“And it’s just those three or four lapses in a game that are killing us right now. And you gotta try to stay positive because we’re not far off. We’re there but at some point it’s just gotta get done. We gotta find a way to win hockey games and play with the lead. Teams are gonna score goals. We gotta find a way to come back or hold it. It’s just part of learning and growing, but it has to. We have to find a way to do it now.”
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Puck management has been a major topic of conversation within the Blue Jackets. It’s an area where the team has mightily struggled. Easy passes are missed. Suddenly, they have to chase the opposition because of simple, missed plays. Werenski shares what each player needs to do in order to be better in that regard.
“I think it’s just having that hockey IQ, that awareness throughout the game. Kind of knowing the temperature, knowing the situation. If we have the lead and they’re in our zone for a while, it’s knowing on the next shift whoever’s going out there has to get the puck in and keep it simple and kind of change momentum. I think we can all do a better job of that, just having the awareness of the temperature of the game and making sure those puck placements and getting pucks in and out don’t come back to hurt us.”
The power play is another area of grave concern. Werenski and the players know it. He compares it to the way the rest of their game is going right now.
“It’s kind of the same thing with the way our game goes. We’re there when we have our chances, but at a certain point, it’s probably passed to be honest, you have to find a way to score and get your team in it. I think it comes down to execution and work ethic and getting the puck back, like being hungry on the penalty kill. We’re more hungry on the penalty kill than on the power play. If our power play is going right now, it’s probably a different story to be honest.”
The one thing that can be told from hearing Werenski discuss these things is just how sick of losing he is. It’s wearing on everyone. It might not always come out on camera but internally, there is immense frustration to how this season has started. They do care. Now it’s a matter of finding ways to win games instead of making crushing mistakes.
Side Dishes
- On Monday’s 32 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman suggested the Blue Jackets could be ramping up efforts to trade for a center. No names were mentioned. But with the idea that something has to change, a trade is one of those options. However finding one right now could prove difficult. It already has on defense.
- The four wins in the first 19 games this season tied a franchise low for number of wins. The other time this happened was the 2011-12 season when the Blue Jackets were 4-13-2 after 19 games.
- Wednesday night will mark the first NHL meeting between Adam Fantilli and Connor Bedard.