CBJ Q&A: Checking in with Nathan Gerbe

It's hard to imagine it now but Nathan Gerbe didn't play until December for the Blue Jackets this year, and in the end, he played only 30 of the team's 70 games.

Yet the smallest player on the team -- in fact, the smallest player in the NHL this year -- had an outsized impact. The 5-foot-4 forward had four goals and 10 points in those 30 games, but he contributed so much more, providing a spark to the team with his professionalism and dedication as well as his passionate and physical play.

That made the 32-year-old 10-year NHL veteran a key figure in the locker room -- head coach John Tortorella often pointed to him as one of the catalysts for the team's turnaround after a rocky start -- as well as a nearly instant fan favorite.

The Michigan native caught up with BlueJackets.com from his offseason home of Traverse City last week to talk about how he's been spending the coronavirus pause, the chance to get back to play and his season with the CBJ.

The first thing I've been asking everybody is where they've been riding this pause out. What's been your home base through this whole thing?

I've kind of bounced around a little bit. I had to do therapy in Cleveland and Columbus (for a groin injury that hampered him late in the year) up until about two weeks ago, so then I drove up to Traverse City to be with the family. They have been up here for a while, a couple of months now, so it's just an easier place for the kids just to be relaxed and quarantined. It's good to be up here with the family.

You were banged up at the end of the year. One of the biggest questions with the team is who's getting healthy during the pause, so how are things going with you and your rehab?

Things are coming along well. I guess looking over everything, it was kind of perfect injury-wise for our team for everyone to get healthy and for myself, to have the surgeries I've had and to be able to be ready. I've skated a couple of weeks here and I'm ready to get on the ice a bit more. I'll be ready and good to go.

You talked about being in Cleveland, and one thing I wanted to ask is about giving back. A bunch of guys on the team have done some things in the community during the pandemic and I know you were one of those guys, buying lunch for front-line workers among other actions. What motivated you to do that in a place like Cleveland?

I don't think anything in particular motivates me to give back. It's just the thought of giving back and helping people. We're very blessed, and I'm very grateful for what I get to do. I know it comes with the territory of hard work and sacrifice, so I see those traits with the front-line workers, the hard work and sacrifice in what they're doing. It's very appreciated, and these guys have been fighting for all of us on the line and you don't really hear them complain too much. They just do what they do and without them, we'd be in some pretty big trouble. So to give back, there's no motivation, just the thought of helping out others. My wife and I are always looking for ways to help as much as we can.

One thing I saw too on social media that you've done during the pause was the Scoop challenge. Was it cool to see how that took off and see some of your teammates chiming in?

Tweet from @NathanGerbe14: Here is the slow mo of the scoop challenge! I used a fake slap shot to scoop the puck, would love to see your videos #hockey pic.twitter.com/e9sXC8qbAg

That's fun. Cam (Atkinson) asked me to do something for The Battery, and that's what I came up with. I know not a lot of people could do it, but I thought it would be fun. Fans don't really get to interact with us too much or see what guys can do and the fun we can have with the puck and whatnot. Stuff like that, when you get the time now, it's not really like an offseason for us. We're still mentally engaged into hockey, so just to have some interaction on social media a little bit kind helps you engage also. You're not completely sitting out. Usually when the season ends, for the first month I try to completely shut my mind off with hockey, but it's a unique situation right now and I'm not really shutting off so I'm trying to keep everything going, keep my mind going. A little interaction like that is fun with the fans and I'm sure they appreciate it also.

I think you've had your kids in some of the videos on social media as well. You fall in love with the game as a kid and it's a kid's game, so is it cool to have the ability to introduce your kids to the game and see the joy they can get from it?

It's awesome. And me playing hockey has never really been about me. It's been about the chance to inspire others to do great things. When people see me play hockey, they feel like, 'Hey, I can do it. He's not that big,' or whatever they're tackling in their life, I would like to give them inspiration that they can tackle it and get after it with hard work and dedication. It's the same with my kids. I love having them around it, but it's not about me. I hope they can see the work that gets put into hockey. I hope they can see the amount of practice and how much I care and just the sacrifice you can have with it because whatever they want to do in their life, I don't really care what it is, I just hope they go into it 100 percent and try to do something great. That's when you start to learn most of the lessons in life and valuable lessons is going through the ups and downs and little adversities and mental battles every single day for me to play the way I want to play. I never played for the accolades, I've never played for myself, I love playing for other people.

That dovetails into what I wanted to ask next. It didn't take very long this year for the fans to embrace you here in Columbus, whether it be because of your size or the passion you play with. Was it cool to embrace that and ride that wave with the fans when you got here?

I think it's fun. It's always fun when you can engage with the fans and the fans can identify with you or understand you. For me, I've never changed. Bringing passion to the game, that's just everyday living for me. That's normal. I don't have to change. And for them to embrace me for who I am, that's really what this world is all about or should be about is embracing everybody, and for them to embrace me was special. But it's not so much that. It's just been for me the journey to get back here and the amount of work and surgeries and the never wavering, never changing, that to me is more special than anything because once you learn to appreciate the everyday journey and the battle and the ups and downs, you're going to take a lot from it. I think that's what meant the most for me is just knowing I pushed through, and if the opportunity never comes, it never comes. But if it came, I wanted to be ready and wanted to make the most of it. It's been a great journey.

You obviously had the surgeries last year (to your hip and a sports hernia) and had nothing guaranteed for you coming back this year, yet you were able to make it back to the NHL. As you have had the time to look back here, what was it like not just to return to the league but be a contributor for a team that was a contender and be a big part of their success?

It means a lot. Just the journey to get back means more than the actual playing of the game. That's where you learn the most and that's where I've learned the most. I hope people start to realize, they always want to skip the journey. People want to go to the NHL, they want to not go to the American league or whatever, but if you embrace it and go through it and grind through it, you're going to learn so much more by the time you do get to the NHL. Nothing was guaranteed, that's for sure. I put no expectation on myself because I didn't know. I didn't know what would be OK, what would not. It's been a lot of time. I had three repairs last year and four repairs just now in March now, so nothing is ever guaranteed, but that's the beauty of it, right? Why would I ever want it to be guaranteed? I want to earn what I'm given and that's what I thought I did this year. Getting the chance obviously with the injuries, that's not up me, that's not up to anybody else, that just happens in this game. It's unfortunate, but to contribute to a team that is such a tight group, playing as one, it's special to me and I think everybody just glued together to win games. Sometimes it's ugly, but at the end of the day, you just win the game and we did that as a team.

A number of guys have talked about that, too. You've been on a number of teams throughout the years -- from the time you were a teenager with the USNTDP, you've been around this game at the highest level for a long time. Was it special to see how this team really did come together and bond in a way that teams don't always do?

That's the difference, right? I think at the end of the year everyone always sees the team that wins the Stanley Cup, and it's not necessarily the best team every single year, but it's the team that stuck around and starting playing together and brought that into the playoffs. That's a hard mentality to break, going against that mentality. If you took a poll around the league, I have no idea, but I'd guess we're probably one of the most hated teams to play against because of how tight we were and how stingy and how good defensively we were. That to me is hard to play against. When you play those teams, it's like, 'Oh gosh, this is going to be a tight game. We're going to have to earn everything we're going to get.' It's hard to play against, and those teams do well in the playoffs, so I'm excited about the possibility of coming back. Who knows what can happen now, but that's the fun of it too because who knows? You never know what can happen. You can go on a great run and win the whole thing.

One last thing. You talked about getting back in action here. Is it nice to see a light at the end of the tunnel as far as there being hockey again?

Yeah, absolutely. I think what we are the worst at as athletes is having no structure or just an open time frame because that sucks. I always have plans. I map out everything. I like to have a good idea of the details of what I'm doing and the time periods of what I'm doing, and to just have it be open ended, that's hard to live in and I don't like that. But to throw around some dates here and at least get the format and structure so we know we're playing, that's exciting. That's something to look forward to, something to push yourself to work a little bit harder now and get ready because whenever it kicks off, you want to be in top shape and be ready to go.