Losing is one thing, but the Blue Jackets can't even form an identity

Big, slow, and low event.

Waddell has assembled this team to be a big, physical, low event team-not entirely unlike the one he built in Carolina. Of note: we can't even call this a young team anymore. The real issue is, the Hurricanes have a few ingredients that are sorely lacking from this organization: speed, skill, and a head coach that works from within the trenches.

That whole system works because they have the right mix of all of the above, but mainly it's due to Rod Brind'Amour. That team responds to his leadership, because he's asking them to play the game the way he played. He understands it, and he has found a way to connect with that group.

So far, we have not seen the same buy-in from the Blue Jackets under Rick Bowness that we saw for a stretch last season. This team looks to be very disconnected at the moment, and they are simply not a group that can win games outright based on their skill.

That's due to the fact that there really isn't all that much skill here. Once you get past the top line, you run into a forward group that is old, slow, and low event. They want to play the game like a team that clogs up the zones and finds offense by hard work and physicality.

Only, they aren't doing those things.

They haven't shown us the kind of effort we would expect from a team full of experienced role players. On too many nights already this season, they've simply gone out with a flutter; not even using their rumored toughness to show the other teams that they won't be pushed around.

Of course, there are exceptions to the above rules. Conor Garland is a smaller, speedier, skill guy. Luca Del Bel Belluz has shown some flashes. But, the coach that Waddell has brought aboard to run things, doesn't see as much value with players like this, instead keeping them buried on the fourth line.

As a result, we get a second line where the "little" guy is 6'2" and over 200 pounds. That trio of Sean Monahan, Valeri Nichushkin, and Dmitri Voronkov have combined for just two goals so far this season.

For clarification: I'm not here to advocate for more playing time for Garland (he has 0 points in 16 games dating to last year); but it's time for this organization to be real with itself. I'm simply pointing out that there is no cohesiveness here.

You have to score in this league, but the skilled guys on this roster are being coached out of doing skilled things, and being replaced with bigger, "more responsible" players. It's the same mistake we have seen time and again throughout this team's entire existence.

It's a cycle. Draft high, get top-end talent. Immediately try to coach those guys into becoming "200 foot players", or simply into changing the way they play to fit into some veteran coach's preferred style of hockey. Filly don't do rebounds. Trade those guys away, get burned by them, rinse, and repeat.

No defense.

So, with a complete lack of cohesion, we should not be surprised to see this team near the very bottom of the league in offense once again. The real issue is, they aren't defending either. That's the mark of a team that isn't hearing what their head coach is spitting out.

We should be very concerned with where things are heading, because it looks like the same old cycle. I hope they prove me very wrong beginning this weekend.

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