Which is why Thursday was such a significant day in Blue Jackets history, with the team announcing the dismissal of only its third general manager ever in Jarmo Kekalainen.
There seems to be a consensus that the Blue Jackets boast a tremendous cadre of future NHL standouts – Adam Fantilli (19 years old), David Jiricek (20), Cole Sillinger (20), Kent Johnson (21), Yegor Chinakhov (23), Adam Boqvist (23), Kirill Marchenko (23) and Kirill Marchenko (23) have all earned regular minutes at this season, with others on the way – but it hasn’t translated to the on-ice record to this point.
Columbus is just 16-25-10 through 51 games this season and is on its way to a fourth consecutive season without playoff hockey, begging the question, just how far away from contention is this squad?
While many of the groceries have been bought, the delicate process of cooking them properly is in its early stages – and will now fall to a new general manager. Davidson said he and team president Mike Priest will conduct the search and look outside of the organization, with no stone unturned and no timetable set as the team searches for a new GM.
“What matters to me is we get better,” Davidson said. “We know the future primarily with our club are the veterans that we have here that are good players, and the young players that we feel are popping. You’ve seen Chinakhov pop this year. You’ve seen other players not do as well, but they’re coming.
“It’s hard. There’s no set timetable for young players to pop. There’s just not. We know we’re going in the right direction. ... We have strengths that are good; keep building on it. We have weaknesses that we have to keep working at to get better as a team. That’s been reiterated to our coaching staff. We have to keep going forward.”
As Davidson said, there is a belief that the Blue Jackets are headed in the right direction. The aforementioned pieces are in place – not to mention such veterans as Boone Jenner, Johnny Gaudreau, Zach Werenski, among others – and it’s not a situation where things have to be torn down to the studs.
Frustration has mounted, though, as the team has been unable to translate the mix of veterans and youngsters into consistent winning. Much of the narrative this season has been about an inexperienced team learning how to win at the highest level – look at how many third-period leads have turned into frustrating losses – and the reality is many of the teams that have built through draft picks and become NHL powers have had to learn hard lessons on the way to their lofty perches.
There's no cutting corners in the NHL, where most of the top squads have built “skin” in the game over their years together, as former CBJ head coach John Tortorella was fond of saying.
“You hear about it a lot, but any team that’s won or any winning teams that have that culture have been through tough times,” Jenner said. “Right now, we’re in that process. Some days, we’re not where we need to be at. It’s finding the energy to dig deep in those circumstances. At the end of the day, it’s gonna help us grow as a group.”
Perhaps knowing all of this, head coach Pascal Vincent has adopted a long-term view since taking over as the team’s head coach at the start of training camp. He has talked throughout the season about building something that will last, and that means establishing the guardrails for a successful culture going forward.
While Vincent and his staff have tried to win each and every game, they’ve also approached this season with an eye on development.
“We started with the foundation, the things we wanted to work on, which was what’s the mind-set that need to have to move forward,” Vincent said. “We talked about culture and accountability and the playoff style – how can we get to a point where we play a style of game that will be successful in the playoffs once we get there? So the process doesn’t change.”
There’s that word again – process. It’s one Davidson kept coming back to in his remarks on Thursday, and it was no accident. He knows the Blue Jackets are on a long road to get to where they want to be, and there are sure to be bumps in the road at times, as well as moments when everything moves forward.
A recent interview he heard with Vancouver coach Rich Tocchet with Jeff Rimer on Bally Sports Ohio confirmed that you have to stay the course. After years of struggles to get over the hump, the Canucks lead the NHL in points percentage this season, all because they stuck with the process.
“Rick Tocchet has done a hell of a job as a coach there,” Davidson said. “He was talking about what they’ve done, and he talks about the process, the word process. He said, ‘You know, a lot of people out there say they get tired of the word process. I don’t think it gets used enough.’ And I tend to agree with him. Sometimes the process of what you’re trying to go through on the ice can be done in a year for a certain player, or three years for another player, but it’s still a process.
“It’s a difficult thing to go through. It’s hard. It’s hard to win in this league, especially with young players, but we feel strong about a lot of our youth, the direction they’re going. The ability for our team to stick together right now through tough times, it’s quite remarkable. That’s a very tight group in that room, and I admire that.”
