SvoNotes is a weekly column by Blue Jackets team reporter Jeff Svoboda.
If it's true that you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone, the Blue Jackets found out exactly what they had a year ago in Alexandre Texier.
The French forward spent last season playing in Switzerland to be closer to home, and while he was away, there was a hole in the CBJ locker room that no one could fill.
“You know you’re going to miss him, but you don’t know how much you’re going to miss him,” head coach Pascal Vincent said. “And last year, I think it made us realize we missed him quite a bit."
The feeling is mutual. While Vincent raved about what Texier brings to the Blue Jackets both with his personality and his play, one of the most well-liked players in the CBJ dressing room said he’s happy to be back in Columbus.
“It’s nice,” Texier said. “There’s a lot of young guys, new faces that I never played with – Voro, Marchy, KJ I never played with, Silly, Fants is here too. We’re on the same page. It’s fun off the ice.”
On the ice, he’s been more than a welcome addition. Texier is a glue guy, someone who can be put anywhere in the lineup and thrive. He has some scoring touch, but he’s also a defensive responsible player who has found a home as a key component of the Blue Jackets’ penalty kill.
Vincent has often said Texier makes the players around him better, and the head coach compared him to longtime NHL center Guy Carbonneau as a player who can provide offense but has leaned into a dependable defensive role as his NHL career has unfolded.
Texier has a long way to go to be at Carbonneau’s level, but Vincent’s words are high praise considering the Montreal legend was a three-time Selke Trophy winner.
“He’s a guy that gives us quite a few options,” Vincent said. “And I think he knows that. He knows that we value what he does. He takes great pride in his job description.”
On the season, Texier has played in 42 games to this point, notching six goals and seven assists for 13 points. Like any player – especially one who was the leading scorer on his team in Finland at age 19 and burst onto the scene with two goals in Game 4 of the Jackets’ sweep of Tampa Bay in 2019 – he would like to provide more offense, but he also judges himself on his full game.
“I think you always want to help the team by being on the score sheet, and as a player, you always want to score goals,” he said. “But the small details in my game are way better. Defensively, small chips, blocking shots, continuing to make plays, those small details, my game is way better. I’m not worried about the points and stuff. They will come. Being in the lineup, you can help the team, and if you’re still in there, it seems like you’re doing a good job.
“I didn’t score the first 11 or 12 games early in the season, but I was playing good hockey. I talked with the coaches at that time and they were like, don’t worry about the points. As a player, you always want to score, but it’s not about that. It’s about doing the small details, get more ice time, help the team and do the small details at the end of the game that make a team win.”
As the season has unfolded, Texier also has found a new group of friends as an honorary Russian. He’s often the target of tape balls lobbed his way by Dmitri Voronkov, and the two finished practice today with a playful wrestling match. He’s picked up a little bit of the Russian language thanks to conversations with Voronkov, Kirill Marchenko and Yegor Chinakhov, and in turn, he’s taught the others some French as well.
“They’re fun to be around,” Texier said. “They’re chill. We do the same kind of stuff, like European stuff. Just like go to dinners, simple stuff. We’re having a lot of fun. They’re great guys. We play video games. Obviously with the language, Voro, he doesn’t really speak English, but I feel like he gets into it.
“He’s joking around, and Marchy, too. Marchy, Chinny, all of the young guys. It’s been really fun off the ice to be honest. You can see on the ice, we are excited when everyone scores. Marchy the last game, we were so happy.”
Texier added that he wasn’t mad that Marchenko used his signature firepoker shootout move for the game winner Monday vs. Vancouver. It’s that type of personality that has made Texier a favorite of many around the Blue Jackets.
“I see a guy that comes to the rink and he brings joy,” Vincent said. “We don’t talk about that very often, but coming to the rink and having fun. He doesn’t speak a whole lot – he's more of a quiet guy – but he’s always consistent with his moods and what he brings to the game. He goes with everyone – he's with the Russians, the young guys, the older guys. He’s a guy that has great social awareness and social intelligence.
“He cares about the Blue Jackets a whole lot. It’s good to have him back.”
Jenner Ready for Return
If there are two heroes for Boone Jenner over the last month, they’re his wife, Maggie, and Cody Goloubef.
Those are certainly different personalities, but for Jenner, both have been indispensable as he’s lived the last few weeks with his jaw wired shut, the result of a wayward puck to the face in a Dec. 8 game vs. St. Louis.
With Jenner unable to eat solid food, he’s had to get creative for nutrition, and one of his first calls was to Goloubef, who took a puck to the face in 2015 while playing with the Blue Jackets.
“We’ve actually been texting throughout this here and there,” Jenner said. “It’s nice to talk to someone. He said he should have made a cookbook because he has a bunch of recipes.
“We talked about food and what to do and how you feel, how you feel when the wires are off, what you can do.”
This is where Maggie comes in. While Goloubef’s advice has been helpful, Jenner was quick to credit his wife for her abilities in the kitchen when it comes to executing what has been a liquid diet.
“Think of what you can eat. It’s not much,” he said. “As far as getting food, it’s a lot of the same things every day. Breakfast looks the same — it’s a smoothie. My wife got pretty creative for lunch and dinner. Started off with just soups, but now she’s blending up everything as far as tacos and pasta and chili. At the end of the day, you’re just drinking something, so it’s about getting the taste. It sounds gross, but when you’re going through it, it tastes pretty good.”
“It’s been a grind, but I’m lucky she’s been there making all that for me because if it was just me, I think I’d have lost a lot more weight.”
In the end, Jenner said he’s been able to stay right around his usual playing weight, an impressive accomplishment given the situation. And while the injury certainly was annoying, the good news is that Jenner has been on skates for the past few weeks as he gets ready for tomorrow’s anticipated return to the ice.
“You can see both sides,” Jenner said. “Obviously eating, talking and doing what you want to do in your day-to-day life, it’s tough like this, but in hindsight you can get on the ice. You can work out fairly quickly after about 10 days. The pain goes away and you can skate. You can do everything with your body. That's the good thing about this.”
Jenner will have to wear facial protection for the first few games, but don’t expect his game to change. The captain known for his netfront presence – how many of his 13 goals in the first 29 games this year came from the blue paint? – said he has no plans to do anything differently, and he’s been back in front of the goalie while skating with the team’s power play units the past few days. After practice, in usual Jenner fashion, he’s been working on tipping point shots past CBJ goalies.
If Alexander Ovechkin’s office is in the left circle, Jenner’s is in the hard areas in front of the net, and you’ll find him there again tomorrow night against the Devils.
“You can’t play the game like that,” he said when asked if he’d be worried about going back to the net. “It’s a freak thing. Obviously it’s happened a couple of times. It happened to (Connor) Bedard in Chicago in a totally different area of the game. It was just a routine check; this was a routine shot from the point. It just gets deflected and gets you in the perfect spot and breaks it.
“Obviously it’s not ideal, but it’s part of the game, a bad bounce or whatever you want to call it. But I think when I come back, I’ll be wearing the bubble. I won’t be too worried about it.”
Jenner’s return will be a welcome sight for Vincent, whose biggest problem will likely be in deciding how to avoid turning to the captain too often given what he brings at 5-on-5, on the power play and on the penalty kill.
“He’s our leader,” the head coach said. “He’s our captain. He’s pushing the pace. He leads by example, first of all, by being a good pro. We can play him in different situations, but just his presence around the team makes a difference.”
The wires were removed from Jenner’s jaw today ahead of his return, so the obvious question is, what will he eat first? Unfortunately, the answer is not as exciting as he’d likely hope.
“I get that question a lot,” he said. “If it was up to me, it would probably be something heavier like a steak or a burger or something. But I think the jaw is going to be a little sore. Nothing crazy like that. I think we’re going to start with soft foods, pasta and eggs. I’m just looking forward to a piece of bread at this point.”
