Well, it is the All-Star break, which means we get a bit of a break in the action and can really look around to assess how things are going in the 2023-24 season. In a phrase, “not great.” While I could sum it up with that, I should probably add a few more words to this piece.
On paper, the Columbus Blue Jackets All-Star was Boone Jenner, and he did well representing the team in the festivities. However, this season, he has not been the runaway for the team’s most valuable player award. Honestly, no one has really stood out as the team’s undisputed best player. Their real All-Star has been the Blue Jackets’ fanbase, as their support has mostly stayed strong during another tough season.
Blue Jackets Fans Still Support in Another Lackluster Season
A word I’d use to describe this Blue Jackets’ season is lackluster. If it were a color, it would be grey. As mentioned above, there isn’t anyone on the team that’s really stood out as their best player. At this time last year, it was definitely Johnny Gaudreau, but he’s struggled mightily this season. Any time the Blue Jackets have secured a win, it’s either been by committee or on the back of a different player each night.
There was a lot of talk last season about how their injury situation hurt their overall performance. However, this season, without the same severity of injuries, they’ve still been held to a bottom-five position in the standings. Despite the record, Blue Jackets’ fans have turned out at an impressive rate. Right now, their average attendance is 16,702, their third-best number since the 2006-07 season. Fan support has been their most consistent piece.
Those attendance numbers are even more impressive when you factor in the fact that the fifth line has been put through the wringer in their first quarter century of existence. It’s got to be tough to see the success of new franchises in Vegas and Seattle, whose teams made the playoffs in their first and second seasons, respectively. The Blue Jackets have had to scrape to earn every little victory on the path to their ultimate goal. It will make the view even more majestic once the team completes their climb to the top of the mountain.
Another Transitional Year For the Blue Jackets
Transitional is another word I’d use to describe this campaign. There were a lot of moves made this summer to make the team better. That includes the hiring of a new head coach, adding a couple of top-four defenders, and the addition of a number three overall pick spurred predictions of grandeur. Things have not turned out as positive as many thought. Clearly, a lot of the seeds planted this year will take at least a couple of seasons to bear fruit.
Related: Blue Jackets’ Woes Won’t Be Solved By Firing Kekalainen
That starts with systems. More often than not, it takes a season or two for a new head coach to really make an impact on his new team. Examples are endless, but that includes Jared Bednar, who won a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2022. His team finished last in the NHL with only 22 wins in his first season in Denver. If Pascal Vincent is the guy to lead Columbus, it could take a few seasons to ingrain his systems in the minds of his players.
It continues with player development. What do Adam Fantilli, Kirill Marchenko, Yegor Chinakhov, Dmitri Voronkov, Cole Sillinger, and Kent Johnson all have in common? They’re top-six forwards for the Blue Jackets, all 23 years old or younger. There simply aren’t teams that win in today’s league with that amount of youth in key roles. Patience is going to be a mantra for the squad moving forward.
There has been a lot happening in team news over the last 365 days, both good and bad. Despite the bad, the fifth line keeps turning out as they continue to look to the future for their franchise’s brightest days. Now the All-Star festivities are over; the Blue Jackets have another week off since they started their bye-week a little later than other teams. Their next game will be at home against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Feb. 10. With the way that the season has gone, in terms of fan support, I wouldn’t be surprised to see another near-sellout crowd as the boys in union blue take on one of the best teams in the NHL.
