We’re gonna try something new starting this season. Welcome to Columbus Blue Jackets Coach Speak. Every so often, we will breakdown what head coach Pascal Vincent had to say on a variety of topics. But then we’ll add our take to it.
Our hope with this piece is two-fold. First, we want you to get a sense of how the team views different topics. Second, you’ll get a chance to see how we view it based on their answer. Ultimately, you decide how you want to think of it.
In our debut edition of Coach Speak, we asked head coach Pascal Vincent some questions about Patrik Laine at center, Zach Werenski’s injury and if retribution should have taken place as well as the impact of the defense with so many right-handed shots on the roster. We’ll also quick hit other items of note.
How is Laine’s Performance at Center Measured?
Laine at center is no longer an experiment. After a preseason test run, Vincent elected to play Laine at center for the opener. It wasn’t his best game.
We asked Vincent how the team measures his performance there given that he’s new to the position and trying to learn the nuances against the world’s best players. What is the line between allowing him to stay there versus putting him back on the wing? Here’s what coach had to say.
“So it’s not measurable with numbers,” Vincent said. We can do some numbers with the advanced stats. But the big stats, the goals and assists and all of that, we don’t measure it that way. It’s more of his positioning. If you ask (Laine) about his game, he didn’t like it. I don’t necessarily agree with him. I think the intentions were right. His puck management was not what he’d like to do. But other than that, his positioning was pretty good. So that’s how we’re gonna measure it. We have some more advanced stats that I don’t want to get too technical, but overall other than this puck management, it was pretty good.”
Mark’s take: Laine scored a late goal on Thursday night but overall didn’t have the kind of night he wanted. At Friday’s practice, he skated at center with Adam Fantilli and Alex Texier on his wings. There will come a point where the team will have to decide if this can be a sustainable situation. One game certainly isn’t going to decide how this is going to go. But center ice and who gets deployed there will be watched closely. Assuming no changes to practice, Fantilli will go on the wing. This does allow two centers on a line. More time is deserved to see a bigger sample. But even if Laine isn’t getting points, that’s not what the team is using to determine if he’ll stay there longer term.
Retribution for Hathaway’s Hit?
Garnet Hathaway of the Philadelphia Flyers was fined by NHL Player Safety $5,000 for kneeing Werenski. It was deemed a two-minute minor after review.
However what seems to have Blue Jackets fans in a rage was that no one went after Hathaway after one of their best players went down and hobbled to the locker room. We asked Vincent if there should have been retribution at some point.
“So that part I don’t manage. I never told anyone to fight. I’ll never do it. I think the best response, most of the time, it’s to score some goals to be honest with you and win the game. But yeah, we don’t want to be a easy targets, obviously. I didn’t like the hit, the puck was in the corner. So the response has to be, I believe, an eye for an eye though. I believe a hit for a hit. But I would never tell any of our players to go out there and try to injure opponents. So it’s a mindset and we’re gonna get there. That’s part of the compete and the pace and all of that culture we’re gonna establish.”
Mark’s take: Vincent has this right. Instigating and being an aggressor doesn’t accomplish anything. Scoring enough goals to win the game is the ultimate goal. He knows that is part of what they’re trying to build with the Blue Jackets. He said he believes in eye for an eye, hit for a hit. Could there have been more of a response to the hit at some point? Yes. But in a 2-1 game and already down one defenseman in Werenski, you have to be careful. There are legal ways of policing that. We’ll see if that part of it continues to grow for this team.
So Many Righties
We wondered if there would be a call-up in the wake of Werenski’s injury. The Blue Jackets announced on Friday that he would miss 1-2 weeks. They called up David Jiricek.
Werenski is a lefty. Jiricek is a righty and now joins a group of righties with Gudbranson, Adam Boqvist, Andrew Peeke and Damon Severson in the fold on the blue line. Who can play the left side? How will Vincent decide this?
“Well, best case scenario is righty-lefty. But sometimes it just doesn’t work that way. And like back in the days, if you were a right hand shot, people told you go play defense. There was no righties. Now we have too many righties. But no, we’re gonna try to use our best players.”
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Vincent later admitted that some players, Boqvist, Gudbranson and Severson could play the left side and would be comfortable with it.
Mark’s take: Missing Werenski changes the dynamic of the team. It’s very fortunate he’s only out a week or two. In the meantime, it will be interesting to see which defensemen play and where they’re lined up. They had Boqvist there but still opted to call Jiricek up. Makes you wonder if someone else, like Andrew Peeke, gets scratched. We’ll see come Saturday. I would do something like this if it were up to me.
- Provorov-Jiricek
- Severson-Boqvist
- Bean-Gudbranson
- Peeke
Side Dishes
- Vincent confirmed that Kent Johnson will return to the lineup on Saturday to face the Rangers. Johnson responded well to the healthy scratch and has turned in some good practices. He skated with Cole Sillinger and Justin Danforth on Friday.
- How close was Jiricek to making the Blue Jackets out of camp? “Yes, he was close.” Vincent went on to say that they have to make sure they protect those guys.
- Mathieu Olivier could return Saturday, but that will hinge on the medical staff clearing him. He skated Thursday at the morning skate and was a full participant at Friday’s practice. Liam Foudy is also in line to get in the lineup Saturday with Jack Roslovic, Eric Robinson and Emil Bemstrom all wearing green jerseys Friday.
- The Blue Jackets are not holding a morning skate Saturday. Here’s how the lines looked for drills Friday.
Gaudreau-Jenner-Marchenko
Fantilli-Laine-Texier
Johnson-Sillinger-Danforth
Foudy-Kuraly-Olivier
Robinson-Roslovic-Bemstrom