They're back: Returns of Jones, Bjorkstrand to help Blue Jackets' push

The Blue Jackets survived a lot on the injury front during the 2019-20 season, but there were two bad breaks that almost broke the camel's back during February.

First came Seth Jones clattering into the net during a Feb. 8 game vs. Colorado, with him suffering a sprain and hairline fracture of his ankle that was scheduled to keep him out eight to 10 weeks.

Twelve days later, Oliver Bjorkstrand went down in nearly the exact same area of the ice with the same injury and the same return timetable. Bjorkstrand's slide into the boards behind the net in the waning moments of a game vs. Philadelphia left the team without two of its top performers.

To that point, Columbus had survived injuries to Cam Atkinson, Josh Anderson, Joonas Korpisalo, Zach Werenski, Alex Wennberg, Emil Bemstrom, Alexandre Texier, Markus Nutivaara, Ryan Murray and even Bjorkstrand earlier in the season.

But that double dose of ankle injuries -- one to a player head coach John Tortorella has called the engine of the team's defensive corps, the other to a forward in the midst of a breakout season who Tortorella said was the team's best player at the time of the injury -- clearly made an impact.

After Jones' injury, the Blue Jackets went 3-5-6 in the ensuing 14 games while being outscored 3.6-2.4 per game. In the eight games after Bjorkstrand's injury, the Blue Jackets were 3-3-2 and scored two or fewer goals in four contests, and Columbus was holding on for dear life in the Eastern Conference standings.

"Let's face it, guys," Tortorella said. "When we went through a ton of injuries. When Oliver goes down, he was probably our best player at that point in time the way he was playing. When Jonesy goes down, we were swimming upstream big time. I'm not sure where we go without those two for another 12 games I think we had to play. I'm not going to say we weren't going to get in (to the playoffs), but it was a struggle."

Losing a Norris Trophy-contending defenseman and one of the most underrated forwards in the NHL -- one who had scored 14 goals in his previous 17 games -- would have been difficult for any team in the league to weather. Doing it on top of all the other injuries the Blue Jackets suffered throughout the season was going to be an especially onerous task.

But the good news now is that both Jones and Bjorkstrand are healthy, looking good and ready to contribute as the Blue Jackets get ready for the start of the Stanley Cup qualifiers Aug. 2 vs. Toronto. For both, it's a new lease on life considering the 2019-20 campaign could have been over at the time of their February injuries.

"It sucked," said Bjorkstrand, who led the Blue Jackets with 21 goals this year despite the missed time. "It always sucks when your season ends like that and you're injured, you can't play. I was playing some good hockey and of course it's annoying to be injured, but again, it also sucks the way the world is right now.

"For me, I'm lucky enough I can play now I guess. I'm just ready to play. I didn't expect to be able to come back and play playoff hockey this season."

It's also the latest situation in which the careers of the two appear to be on parallel paths in some ways. Both came out of the powerful Portland Winterhawks junior program in the WHL, playing together in 2012-13 when the Winterhawks won the league championship and lost in the final of the Memorial Cup.

Now, both hold outsized roles on the Blue Jackets, and both traveled the same rehab path this spring. When the coronavirus pause hit, they were among the handful of rehabbing players still allowed to visit Nationwide Arena to work with team trainers, and Jones' rehab provided a blueprint for the Bjorkstrand's to the point the two would compare the size of their ankles and their muscles around them as they rebuilt strength after the time off their feet.

"I got the surgery about 10-14 days before Bjorky did," Jones said. "We were here the whole time, rehabbing together at the rink every day. The things I was going through were things he would be going through 10 days later, so we were here every day with the trainers rehabbing, focusing on breaking up scar tissue, strengthening your ankles together, so it seemed like we were just doing it together side by side. We were getting better at the same time, we started skating at almost the same time."

For Jones, it also helped to have Bjorkstrand around as his rehab stalled around the two-month mark. Jones went the surgery route in an effort to try to hasten his return to the ice -- eight weeks after Jones' injury would have been the beginning of the playoffs -- but the defenseman who had a 6-24-30 line and played more than 25 minutes per night said he struggled through rehab.

"It was good for the mental help," Jones said of Bjorkstrand's presence. "I think the 10- to 12- to 14-week mark, it wasn't really getting a whole lot better. It was the same every day. The ankle wasn't getting better as quickly as I wanted it, so there were some tough days, but having him there was definitely a big help."

Bjorkstrand felt the same way, if only because he knew what was coming throughout the length of his rehab.

"We kind of joke about it, he was a little bit the test dummy here," Bjorkstrand said with al augh. "He went through it two weeks before me, and I could ask him for advice about specific things. I think in some areas it helped me get a picture of what I should be doing and so on. A little bit of an advantage on my side, I guess."

They say all's well that ends well, though, and even though this story involves a global pandemic, the two CBJ standouts did have the chance to rehab at their own pace and not hurry back. Now, they'll be key parts of a Columbus team that yet again has the chance to play postseason hockey.

"For me it's exciting this year that I have an opportunity to help the team hopefully make a playoff push here," Bjorkstrand said. "I'm super excited and ready to go."