Another disappointing season ends for Blue Jackets
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Giant navy blue gym bags, unzipped, some empty, some partially packed, lay scattered around the Columbus Blue Jackets locker room. Next to some lockers are groupings of hockey sticks, wrapped together in what looks like a version of massive plastic wrap. Some lockers are empty; others are still full.
It’s the day after the season finale for the team. Another year with no playoffs and a second-straight year of finishing last in the NHL’s Eastern Conference.
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“Waking up this morning was not an amazing feeling. It was raining. It was dark. The season was over,” said CBJ netminder Elvis Merzlikins. “There will be big changes. We need big changes. We can’t keep going like this.”
“We are not in the playoffs. That’s not good enough,” said head coach Pascal Vincent.
The regular season may be over for the CBJ; but now, the most important season is here: the offseason.
First mission will be to hire a new general manager. After that, who knows. Will Pascal Vincent return as the head coach? He says he wants to be here badly, but knows that’s not in his control.
“I have clarity. I have a very good sense of what needs to be done,” he explained. “When I look at myself in the mirror can I provide to the new GM the necessary information for him to make the right decisions? Whether it’s to keep me or not, that’s irrelevant. At that point it’s we need to help this new guy make the best decisions and I’ve done that right.”
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Vincent is going about his business like he will return as the Blue Jackets head coach. He’s already looking ahead to next season starting with training camp and some adjustments he wants to make with the team.
“Training camp is gonna be harder next year with a smaller group starting with the end in mind, which what does that mean? The end is the first game of the season. How we prepare from there,” he explained. “There is gonna be changes in how we play as far as systems. Nothing major, but a few things that understanding where our young players – Sullinger, Chinakhov, Marchenko, now that we know more about Fantilli – what are those guys good at and how can we put them in a position supported by a system to be really good at.”
There was a small portion of the season that Vincent said the team can look at as a baseline: a stretch from mid-season to the trade deadline on March 8 when the team started gelling, understanding the team concepts and winning games. There was an 11-game stretch before the trade deadline when the CBJ went 6 and 5.
“We were playing really good hockey. We were in games, we were winning games, so that’s the part that we need to evaluate, that moment, and then we have the trading period and the injuries,” Vincent said. “We need to make a step, but before making a step, that’s the tricky part, you need to secure that foundation.”
“It’s like a machine and it’s hard to start and it’s hard to stop,” said Dublin-native and veteran forward Sean Kuraly talking about the success of his former club, the Boston Bruins, who have success year after year. “No matter who’s coming in and who’s going out, it takes a hell of a lot to get it going and build it and it takes less to keep it going than it does to start it and that’s what they’ve got there. That’s as an organization where you’re looking to go. How do you start that? It’s one piece at a time.”
There are a lot of pieces that need to be put together this offseason for the Blue Jackets. Some new pieces may join the club, and some current pieces may move out.
But the key piece to this team, that corner that keeps the puzzle together, without question is the 5th Line.
“The story of the season I think is our fans,” Kuraly said. “Our fans have just shown through. Obviously, not the product we wanted to show them at all times, but wow were we impressed with how they showed up on a nightly basis. It was really impressive and obviously hit a little bit closer to home with me.”
“We love playing in front of them every night. They are the backbone of our team,” said center Cole Sillinger. “They are everything to us. It’s our goal to give them the opportunity to still play in here, give them more exciting hockey and the most meaningful hockey.”
“The goal is not to make the playoffs. It’s to be there every year,” Vincent said.
A new year for the Blue Jackets really starts today.
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