The Road Reset – Can Finland Trip Help the Jackets?
After getting thumped by a 7-1 margin to the Devils in New Jersey on Sunday, the Blue Jackets have spent the last handful of days in Finland. Touring Helsinki as part of the NHL’s Global Series, the club headed up to Tampere this morning and will prepare to face the defending Cup champion Avalanche in back-to-back games tomorrow and Saturday. Still trying to find footing this season, is it possible that this trip could be the best thing to happen for the team?
To say that the start of the season has been underwhelming for the Jackets, would be a huge understatement. Sitting dead last in the Eastern Conference with a 3-7-0 record (6 pts); the team is not only losing games – they’re losing them by a wide margin. Their -18 goal differential is tied with Anaheim for worst in the league.
We talked about losing being part of the building process in Columbus, and I still believe that to be true. This team desperately needs to find another top-six center prospect, and the upcoming draft is a great place to do that. We’ll survive a year of struggles if it means we can have a Connor Bedard or Adam Fantilli. That’s the kind of player you can build a Championship organization with.
Really, if the team is rolling out something Fantilli-Johnson-Sillinger down the middle in a few years (in whatever order), we would probably look back at this year fondly as the year that launched our team into a completely different stratosphere. It’s just not real fun to watch as it happens.
But what cannot happen, and has to change right now – this team quitting when momentum turns against them. It feels like we’ve seen that more times this season than we have in the last several seasons combined. The culture built by the previous coaching regime here, is vital to this organization’s success. We can’t have a team that quits now, because it will teach the younger players coming into the league that quitting is acceptable.
Anyone who has played high level sports will probably agree that your best bonding opportunities come when you’re stuck together…
With six of their first ten games on home ice so far, the team hasn’t yet had a true road trip. Their four road starts were all one game stops, with their only road win coming against the New York Rangers. Is it possible that the team’s heavy home schedule early on has actually caused them to struggle?
This group has not looked like a team much at all this season, more like a collection of talented individuals who are struggling to work together. Anyone who has played high level sports will probably agree that your best bonding opportunities come when you’re stuck together. Especially with people you don’t really know all that well, or maybe even people you’ve clashed with.
Bus rides, plane rides, hotel stays … this is where teams get to know each other, for better or worse. It becomes you and your team against the world. The pressure of performing for a home crowd comes off, especially when you travel all the way to Finland for a week. I’m sure tough conversations have been had, but in the end, a lightened mood from some days off should help solidify relationships.
While the team is mostly familiar faces from last year, the players that were brought in were all brought in to play in key roles for this team. Johnny Gaudreau is expected to be a high end scorer. Erik Gudbranson, a physical veteran leader on defense. Mathieu Olivier, the new enforcer. Kent Johnson, talented top prospect. But from the fan’s perspective, I’ve seen a lot of the team waiting around for these guys to do their thing, rather than jumping into the battle with them.
It looks like a total lack of chemistry at the moment. Gaudreau has been everything he’s advertised to be – he’s leading the team in scoring. But he’s done is mostly on his own; usually assist-heavy, he has 5 goals and only 3 assists so far. Johnson quietly sits second on the team in scoring, but he’s been moved up and down the lineup as the coaching staff tries to find consistency in their lines.
I will say that both Gudbranson and Olivier have left a lot to be desired, which definitely hasn’t brought the energy we’d hoped for with them on the ice – but how do you defend teammates who aren’t really going into the battle? It’s just been a mess all around, and you really can’t blame it on any single player. Win or lose, they need to do it as a team.
Teams generally rally together when they face challenges out of the ordinary daily routine. Let’s hope that a trip to Finland gives them time to reset, regroup, and get back to what they need to be doing on and off the ice. If they’re still struggling after this trip, it will be time for some hard questions to start being asked.
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