With his nearly ever-present smile and joie de vivre, Kirill Marchenko has drawn comparisons to the football-loving Danny Rojas from the show Ted Lasso.
But there’s another Blue Jackets player – at least in style of play, not temperament – that could also draw a comparison to a player on the show.
“He’s here, he’s there, he’s every ... where,” was the supporters’ chant for do-it-all midfielder-turned-coach Roy Kent. (Viewers of the show know there’s a certain word also in there that we can’t publish on a family website.)
In the early throes of the 2024-25 season, that applies to Zach Werenski, the All-Star defenseman who it could fairly be said is playing the best hockey of his career to start the campaign.
It’s not just in the statistics, though those are plenty impressive, as he has two goals and four assists plus 23 shots on goal – fourth among NHL blueliners – through six games. It’s in the fact that, spurred on by a new system under head coach Dean Evason that preaches getting defensemen into the mix offensively, Werenski is free to go anywhere on the ice to make a play.
So far, he’s taken full advantage of the opportunity.
“It feels really good,” Werenski said. “I think our system allows that obviously. He wants us to be aggressive. I think we’ve been really good defensively as a team. Myself, we’ve done well in our end, so it allows us to play offense. We’ve closed down plays quickly, we’ve broken the puck out really clean. That just allows you to jump and play offense. I think starting in the D-zone to the neutral zone to the offensive zone, it’s going well right now, so it’s easy for me.”
That was on full display in Tuesday night’s victory against Toronto in which Werenski had a pair of assists, both by pushing the play. On Justin Danforth’s goal in the first period, he intercepted a pass at his own blue line, immediately hit the jets and got into the offensive zone and then threaded a pass between three Maple Leafs defenders to set up the tally from the right circle.