SvoNotes is a weekly column by BlueJackets.com reporter Jeff Svoboda.
It’s the holiday season, a time for good tidings and good cheer around the world.
But if you’re a Blue Jackets fan, the reality is you haven’t been able to unwrap a lot of victories this season.
With an 11-18-7 record, Columbus is fourth from the bottom of the NHL in points percentage, meaning that barring an unlikely run, it will be another season without playoff hockey.
Adding to the frustration is the fact that the Blue Jackets have been thisclose to winning more games, including eight times the team has held the lead in the third period and gone on to lose. Flip all of those games and the Jackets would be in a playoff spot; flip even half of them and they’d at least be in the race.
It’s understandably tough to watch it happen at times, especially for as dedicated and patient a fan base as the Jackets have.
But I also have something I have to say – I really enjoy watching this team.
It’s a young team figuring out how to win in front of all of our eyes, and there’s been tangible growth throughout the season, especially among the team’s youngest players.
A prospect pipeline that was thought to be barren a couple of years ago now has delivered such exciting players as Adam Fantilli, Kirill Marchenko, Yegor Chinakhov, Dmitri Voronkov, Cole Sillinger, Kent Johnson and David Jiricek – all in their first two full seasons in the league outside of Chinakhov – with more talent on the way.
All of those players have improved as the season has gone on, some of them by leaps and bounds. It’s not hard to imagine a future where those players lead Columbus to an extended run of success as they keep growing their games, as all of them have their best years ahead of them.
In the present, though, it’s a group that has had to go through the trials and tribulations of learning how to win, and it admittedly hasn’t been pretty at times. But the fact that the Blue Jackets have been in just about every game this year is major progress, and it’s not hard to imagine a future in which close losses turn into victories.
It’s a process that just about every good team in the NHL has had to go through over the years. If you look at the teams in recent years that have young cores that help build the team to the level of championship contenders, there’s always a learning curve that has to happen on the ice; it’s a major part of what makes you better and gets you over the hump.
Just ask someone like Erik Gudbranson, who has been in just about every situation you can be in the league in a 13-year career spread out over eight teams. A draft pick of the Florida Panthers who debuted in 2011-12, he saw the cycle firsthand as the team built with such players as Jonathan Huberdeau (2011 first-round pick), Aleksander Barkov (2013 first) and Aaron Ekblad (2014 first).
“We won the division my first year and we moved on from a bunch of older guys and pretty much started from scratch,” Gudbranson said. “We had Huberdeau, Barkov and Ekblad come in in consecutive years, and there were some really hard times there. And eventually you go, ‘Oh, this is how this works.’ My last year there, we won the division again and went to the playoffs.
“It is a process. It takes time, and you have to be a sponge to all the experiences that you’re involved in and squeeze as much as you can out of them and be students of the game.”
For Damon Severson, the first-year CBJ defenseman went thorugh a long rebuild in New Jersey that recently has started to bear fruit. The Devils made the playoffs just once in his first eight seasons, but after the team drafted Nico Hischier first overall in 2017 and Jack Hughes two years later, observers around the league wondered when the winning would return to New Jersey.
The 2021-22 season was a massive disappointment for the Devils, as the squad won just 27 games in Hughes’ third season, but last year the team made a 49-point jump in the standings and won a playoff round over the rival Rangers.
As Severson said, learning how to close out close games was a skill the team had to acquire before it took the next step.
“That was an issue we had here when I played here with the Devils that we cleaned that up and we started winning a lot more hockey games,” Severson said. “So that’s something we have to find a way to do it here as well.”
Ironically, while Wednesday night was another point lost for the Blue Jackets, it still symbolized growth. The Blue Jackets were able to close out a 2-1 victory over the Devils on Black Friday in New Jersey, but they were out-attempted 27-11 at 5-on-5 in the third period of that game and were lucky to hold on to the victory. On Wednesday night, Columbus didn’t sit back but instead continued playing its game, and the Jackets actually had an 18-11 edge in the third at 5-on-5 in shot attempts.
It didn’t result in a victory, but at some point that type of improvement will. The Blue Jackets are learning on the job, but the growth is starting to show. They have to stay on the path, and certainly some improvements are necessary – especially defensively, where again the team just gives up too many goals.
But there are a lot of good signs in most places I look as I watch this team. Here’s hoping we see even more as we turn the page to 2024.
Gaunce Makes His Mark
When the Blue Jackets needed a forward in mid-December after Patrik Laine was injured, the team turned to Brendan Gaunce for the recall.
At this point, the 29-year-old – a first-round pick back in the 2012 draft – has reached an age where he’s no longer considered a prospect. But he is a key player in the organization, serving as a captain of the first-place Cleveland Monsters down in the AHL as well as someone who can step in and play at the NHL level at a moment’s notice.
He’s proved that the past four games, playing both center and wing for the Blue Jackets and providing two assists in that span. It’s a continuation of another solid season down at the AHL level, where Gaunce has been a key part of the Monsters’ success.
“The work is there,” he said. “I put in the work every day. I feel like I’m an NHL player, whether that’s at the start of the year or at the end of the year. Whenever I come up, I feel like I can play in the NHL and contribute the way I can. And it’s just exciting to play.”
While Gaunce was happy to get the call, also understands the situation that he’s in. The Blue Jackets have a lot of depth at the forward position, so there has been a fair number of options from Cleveland to help fill in as injuries have started to mount this season. Because of Gaunce’s age and his importance as a veteran voice with the Monsters, he’s not the first person the team turned to for reinforcements, but the NHL dream still is alive for someone who entered this year with 153 games in the league.
Yet his focus hasn’t been on making it back to the highest level, with Gaunce instead just trying to make the most of each day.
“You can’t think (about getting called up) or else you’re gonna get stuck in your own thoughts,” Gaunce said. “Try to enjoy where you are, where your feet are. Hockey is hockey. I get to play a game for a living, regardless of where that is. I think people look at other leagues as a little bit less than what they are. I’m still playing hockey and making money to play hockey and play a game that I love and a game that I’ve loved my whole life.
“I know a lot of people, if they get to do what they like for a job, they say it’s not work. Anywhere I am, there’s perspective to it for sure, but playing in the NHL is always fun.”
Indeed, five-star hotels and chartered jets beat the bus trips of the AHL, and Gaunce has earned his chance to play some games with the Blue Jackets. And when asked what his approach has been to stepping into the lineup, he sounded like the veteran he is.
“I want to bring what I bring to any team, and especially a team that I’m comfortable with, which is energy, good attitude on the bench, good attitude in the room, and then be a confident hockey player, play the right way,” Gaunce said. “I think the success we’ve had in Cleveland this year is a benefactor of playing the right way, and trying to bring a little bit of that here. I know it’s obviously a different league and everything, but if you’re a certain player, you play the way you play.”
