Columbus Blue Jackets Getting Back to Physical Roots
By William Espy
The Columbus Blue Jackets only have two fights this season, but they’ve been in the last two games.
The Columbus Blue Jackets are historically known as a physical, hard to play against team. The start of the season pushed them away from that however, and just recently they’ve been making strides to get back to that type of play.
Riley Nash‘s first career fight took place against Tony DeAngelo of the New York Rangers on Saturday night, while Josh Anderson had a heavyweight scrap against Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars on Monday.
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While just a few years ago, that would’ve seemed like a fairly regular occurrence those were the first two fights the Blue Jackets were involved in this season.
Fighting is down around the league however, so that’s expected to be down in Columbus. Where it’s noticeable that they’re playing a more skill based game rather than a physicality based one is on the hits leader board. The Columbus Blue Jackets are currently 25th in the league in hits, which would have been unfathomable just a couple years ago.
With players like Pierre-Luc Dubois, Josh Anderson, Brandon Dubinsky and Nick Foligno just to name a few the lack of physicality seems fairly out of place.
The only benefit to the lack of physicality is the Blue Jackets falling down the board for penalty minutes, considering the fact that they’re less likely to take major penalties or any type of penalty along the boards besides basic stick infractions.
The last few games however, have seemed like a different Blue Jackets team. They’ve gone back to their roots and it’s resulted in physical, entertaining to watch hockey. While a good skill based game can be just as entertaining, it’s not what Blue Jackets fans have come to expect over the past couple years.
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The biggest thing to take out of this development is that the team can adapt, which will be great for a playoff run. If they can change between physicality and speed, then they’ll be set to do some damage regardless of opponent.