Columbus Blue Jackets: 5 questions about the opening week
The Blue Jackets are officially skating into a new season.
Adam Fantilli looked great in his first NHL game, Zach Werenski’s hurt again, Elvis Merzlikins is gaining confidence and the Jackets are still battling issues that vexed them last season.
Here are five questions about this year’s opening week:
How concerned should the Columbus Blue Jackets be with their early struggle to control the puck?
In the short term, warning lights should be flashing inside coach Pascal Vincent’s office.
The Jackets’ inability to clear their zone and transition to the offensive zone looks a lot like last year’s Blue Jackets, who finished 31st in the NHL while setting a franchise record for man-games lost to injuries.
If there's good news about the Jackets' early possession woes, it's that Vincent saw this coming during training camp. He it could be a bumpy ride until his team reaches a point of comfort “playing fast” within with his systems and defensive structure. There was evidence of those issues during the preseason and a season-opening loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, but it wasn’t all bad.
There were stretches in the preseason when the Blue Jackets dominated the puck, and Vincent is confident they’ll eventually become a team that “plays fast” and frustrates opposing teams while doing it. That remains his long-term goal.
How will the Columbus Blue Jackets deploy four right-handed defensemen in the lineup while Zach Werenski is out?
Finding a right-handed NHL defenseman used to be tough for NHL general managers, but the Blue Jackets are overflowing with them.
That's great for boosting trade assets, but it presents a challenge for coaches tasked with finding which righties are best suited to playing the left side while paired with a right-handed partner. Same-handed defensemen playing together forces the one playing the “off” side to send and receive passes differently, and it usually requires the off side defender to receive and send cross-ice passes on their backhand.
Werenski is expected to miss 7-10 days with a “Charley Horse” after being kneed in the thigh and that means a lefty will be replaced by a righty. Four of the Blue Jackets’ top six defensemen will be righties until Werenski returns, which means it’s up to the coaching staff to find usable “righty-righty” combos.
Vincent said Adam Boqvist, Damon Severson and Erik Gudbranson are the most experienced playing on the left as a righty, so look for one of them to flip sides.
Will Elvis Merzlikins be dependable for the Columbus Blue Jackets?
This is the $5.4 million per year question that arose last season with Merzlikins, whose five-year contract carrying that number as a salary-cap charge began with a belly flop.
Merzlikins battled injuries and inconsistency last year, which led to career-low numbers that were partly caused by facing far too many dangerous scoring chances. Vincent’s goal is to reduce those ‘Grade A’ chances against Blue Jackets goalies through increased possession time, but the Jackets also need a backstop who keeps them in games with consistent results.
Merzlikins appears to be gaining confidence in that regard, finishing the preseason strong against the Washington Capitals and beginning the regular season with a 33-save performance against Philly.
“I’m just taking it day-by-day, step-by-step,” Merzlikins said. “I’m feeling good. I feel confident. I just want to keep working. I don’t want to focus on the future. I don’t care what happened in the past and I don’t care about opinions. I just want to play hockey with a free mind and that’s it.”
How are the Columbus Blue Jackets doing in the slot areas?
One of the Jackets’ focus points is improving in the slot area between the circles at both ends.
Most goals are scored from that real estate, especially close to the net, and the NHL’s best teams get there quite a bit. Through six preseason games plus the start of the regular season, Vincent said the Blue Jackets are a mixed bag in the slot.
“I think we’re getting better at preventing slot chances against,” he said. “We’re still not there attacking.”
There are different ways of getting into the middle of the ice offensively, but the common denominator is willingness to do it.
“It’s hard to stay there,” Vincent said. “Not only do you have a big guy trying to push you out of the way, there’s pucks coming your way. But if you look at where the goals are scored, if you look at the heat map … I mean, Sidney Crosby goes to the net and it’s not about his skills. That’s a mind-set.”
Why was Philadelphia Flyers forward Garnet Hathaway fined only $5,000 for injuring Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski?
Garnet Hathaway should’ve been suspended for his late hit in the Blue Jackets’ opener.
Not only was the puck in the corner, but the Flyers forward led with his right knee and drove it into Werenski’s right leg, just above the knee. The NHL, however, works in mysterious ways. Hathaway's hit drew only a minor penalty for kneeing, which was upheld after a video review to see if should’ve been called a major.
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety also took a look Thursday night and assessed a $5,000 fine to Hathaway as supplemental discipline. That’s the most the league can fine a player for that type of hit, which is mandated through the NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NHL Players’ Association. Player fines are added to the Players Emergency Assistance Fund.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets 5 questions first week
