SvoNotes: Gavrikov faces the music as the Blue Jackets' team DJ

SvoNotes is a weekly column posted by BlueJackets.com reporter Jeff Svoboda. It will run each each Wednesday during the season except this week because there is a Wednesday game.
Vladislav Gavrikov is a fantastic defensive defenseman at the NHL level, and you can't sleep on his offensive abilities either. Off the ice,

Want proof? As it turns out, he's also filling a pretty important role for the Blue Jackets -- he's the team DJ.
The playlist that DJ Daze rolls through during warmups each game in Nationwide Arena was curated by Gavrikov, who stepped into a void opened when noted DJ Michael Del Zotto left the team after the 2021 season.
The D in DJ must stand for defenseman, because Gavrikov jumped at the chance to put together the list.
"After he was gone, I decided to take charge with the music and made some playlists," Gavrikov said. "It was just a mix where I sent our DJ the songs, how it's going to look like, and he made a mix for us. He made a couple, like three or four."
A Spotify playlist Gavrikov forwarded along features 25 songs, which DJ Daze cycles through during the 16-minute warmup session before each game. DJ Daze also said he works in a few songs from the team's playlists from previous seasons, and Gavrikov said the goal is to make sure there's enough music that while the hits are constant, the rotation changes up each game so that players don't get bored.
"If we play a back-to-back, we don't need the same music all the time," Gavrikov said. "It has to be changed or it will get boring."
Fans who have attended games throughout the year would likely recognize many of the songs. Some hits from a season ago that are still on the list include such songs as "Pump It Up" by Endor, "Drop That Low (When I Dip)" by Tujamo and "Better When You're Gone" by David Guetta, Brooks and Loote. Some new additions this year include "Piece of Your Heart - Alok Remix" by MEDUZA featuring Goodboys and "Numb - DJ YUKI remix" by Marshmello and Khalid.
Gavrikov said he's most comfortable choosing tunes from the EDM sphere, and he asks for input from teammates when it comes to other genres.
"I heard before the season he was spending hours just putting together songs and making playlists for the locker room," said Andrew Peeke, a go-to for country and rap suggestions. "If you take the DJ role, you have big shoes to fill. He does a good job."
As Peeke said, there's a lot of pressure when it comes to trying to keep an entire locker room of players with different tastes happy, but so far there's been no complaints with Gavrikov's work.
"If the guys like it, that's good," Gavrikov said. "If they don't, we can switch it easily. For me, it's not a big deal because I can listen to pretty much everything. If it's going to be like rap, I would be good with that. … I would take requests. The iPad is always sitting on the table. If you want to put something in the queue, you're free to do that."
Del Zotto is known for his DJ work away from the rink, and Gavrikov said he recently found out that New York Rangers star Mika Zibanejad moonlights as a DJ in the offseason as well. Will Gavrikov follow in their footsteps?
"I can do that after my career," he said with a laugh. "Probably not."

Johnson Nearly Does It

The "Michigan" goal in hockey is so named for Mike Legg, who famously brought the lacrosse-style goal into prominence back in 1996 when he scored one for the Wolverines in a key situation during the 1996 NCAA tournament.
So maybe it's not a huge surprise that one of the Blue Jackets' Michigan products, Kent Johnson, is an aficionado of the play. Michigan goals are becoming more and more commonplace in the game as players have worked on the skill, and Johnson is in that group.
He nearly pulled one off during Sunday night's game vs. Florida, as he happened upon a puck near the post, quickly pulled the puck onto his stick and wrapped it around the net. Unfortunately for Johnson, and highlight reels everywhere, he wasn't able to sneak the puck into the net behind Sergei Bobrovsky, but he wasn't far off.

"It was close there," he said. "It obviously happens quick, but I think I just got the puck there and saw Bobrovsky was on his post, so I had nothing I could do on the short side. I just thought if I go behind the net quick, I didn't think there was a defender there, so I thought I had a bit of time to try it. It was close. I felt like I could have had it, but whatever."
Johnson pulled off a lacrosse-style goal when he was playing for Trail of the BCHL in juniors, then did it again this summer at the World Juniors when playing for Team Canada. Ironically, though, he never was able to do it while wearing the maize and blue of Michigan.
"My whole life, I'll probably be wishing I did," he said. "Guys would be like, 'Kent, when are you doing this?' I tried it a couple of times, but yeah, obviously a lot has to go right. It's too bad."
Along with the proliferation of lacrosse-style goals has come some criticism of the move, with some viewing it as disrespectful or a showboating play (Florida forward Matthew Tkachuk appeared to voice his displeasure with Johnson at the next whistle). But CBJ head coach Brad Larsen said he has no issue with a player trying to do it, especially as it came at a key moment where Johnson could have added to the CBJ lead.
"If you can pull it off in a game, good on you," Larsen said. "I have no issue with that. I don't think he's doing it trying to embarrass anyone. That's the play he thought he could score with. I really believe that was the shot selection for him, in golfing terms. He almost pulled it off."
As for Tkachuk's reaction, Johnson could only laugh.
"It's fine," he said. "I don't really care. Guys are going to hit you even if you don't try that move, right, if you're a top guy. I don't really mind it."

Goaltending Ties

When Sergei Bobrovsky was growing up in Novokuznetsk, Russia, the local hockey team, Metallurg, had one of the best goaltenders in the country.
Year in and year out, Vadim Tarasov was one of the top players in the Russian league, consistently turning in save percentages in the .920s and even posting a couple of seasons for Metallurg with a goals-against average below 2.00.
Seeing such impressive performances on a regular basis helped inspire Bobrovsky to become a goaltender, and the former Blue Jacket became one of the world's best. He won the Vezina Trophy twice with Columbus, but before that, he came up through the Metallurg system and eventually replaced Vadim Tarasov between the pipes.
All these years later, Bobrovsky is now with the Florida Panthers, while Tarasov's son, Daniil, is with the Blue Jackets. And in Daniil's 10th game of his NHL career Sunday night, he made 47 saves and got the win against the Panthers with Bobrovsky in the opposing net.
Hockey is a small world, but it feels even smaller when something like that comes full circle.
"When you play against Russian goalies in the NHL, every time, it is special," Tarasov said after his win Sunday. "Tonight, it was special because we are from the same town."
Tarasov said he and Bobrovsky haven't become close, in part because Tarasov's father eventually moved on to play with Salavat Yulaev Ufa before Bobrovsky made his debut with Metallurg, so they never really had much chance to interact. The younger Tarasov eventually came up through Salavat Yulaev's system and played for the KHL squad before heading to North America to join the Blue Jackets.
Still, the ties between Bobrovksy and Tarasov made for a notable goaltending matchup Sunday night.
"My dad started his pro career in Novokuznetsk when Bob was young, so he was watching him a lot," Tarasov said. "It's pretty cool."