Patrik Laine trade proves that the Blue Jackets are embracing a culture change

It does seem like the Blue Jackets have been disjointed for the last several seasons. The locker room may have been a bigger part of things than we first assumed.

Just looking back at last season, there are a few glaring examples that this team wasn't on the same page with Patrik Laine or Elvis Merzlikins.

In the fourth game of the year, garbage time was ticking down towards a Blue Jackets win over the Calgary Flames. As you'll remember, Laine was leveled by a dirty hit from Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson. Immediately, Erik Gudbranson rushed to confront Andersson in reaction to the hit. He wasn't able to get any kind of retribution, however, because the linesmen jumped into the fracas.

The rematch loomed large, but when the teams met again on January 26, nobody from the Jackets seemed concerned with Ramus Andersson at all. In that regard, the game was a bit of a letdown (though, the good guys did pick up a 5-2 win).

They failed Laine to come to Laine's aid again when he was tripped into the boards, fracturing his clavicle on December 14th - in what would be his last appearance with the Blue Jackets. Maybe I'm reading more into these than I should be. But, I can speak from experience that most NHL teams - or teams in any sport and level - will defend their star players over just about anything.

You know who else gets defended valiantly, nearly 100% of the time? Goaltenders. I don't think I'm stretching anything by saying that the Blue Jackets did not go out of their way to defend Elvis Merzlikins this season.

I only need one example: the Tom Wilson incident. I've watched a lot of hockey in my lifetime, and I've never seen anything quite like this. Yes, I've seen goaltenders lose their temper before. I've seen punches thrown both ways. But in overtime? I

I'm also not sure I've ever seen someone throw a haymaker on a goaltender and not immediately get jumped by every player on the ice. When backup arrives, it's Kent Johnson - far from the guy you want confronting Tom Wilson. Expectedly, he doesn't really affect the outcome much. But, when secondary backup arrives, nobody comes to Elvis' aid - they all rush in to protect Johnson.

After the game, Merzlikins talked about getting tripped by Wilson in the first period. We watched him get in Elvis' face all night long, with no real repercussions. I don't think the Blue Jackets were a soft team this year, by any stretch of the imagination. So, the fact that nobody did anything about this, is really telling.

Compounding my theory: I talked several times throughout the year about the team playing better hockey in front of Daniil Tarasov and Jet Greaves. Even journeyman Spencer Martin saw better efforts defensively. Often, Merzlikins was hung out to dry - which at least partially contributed to him being statistically the worst goaltender to play for the Blue Jackets this year.

Coaches are usually quick to defend their goaltenders. I've even heard one former assistant tell the ref "protect our goaltender, or else we're gonna" - but the Blue Jacket staff did not do so after that loss against Washington. Pascal Vincent himself called it disappointing.

It sure seems like Jarmo Kekalainen chose the wrong side when his leadership core approached him with concerns. Instead of trading them all away, maybe he should have been receptive to what they were telling him.

Instead, we've seen this organization waste two years of development while waiting for Patrik Laine and Elvis Merzlikins to find their games. One of those pieces of business was solved this week. We'll see what happens with the other one in due time.

Sometimes, there has to be addition by subtraction. Trading Patrik Laine for pennies on the dollar proves that Don Waddell is committed to correcting the locker room in Columbus.