The idea that the Columbus Blue Jackets would be in a wild-card race in the last days of January wouldn’t have been given much thought by most observers when the 2024-25 regular season got underway.
Here the Blue Jackets are, though, keeping themselves in the Eastern Conference playoffs conversation with the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament around the corner.
The Jackets have the lowest cap hit in the National Hockey League, and the tragedy involving the deaths of Jackets star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew, of course, never is far from the minds of the players.
“With Johnny’s passing, it brought our team closer together,” Blue Jackets forward Adam Fantilli said on Wednesday, before the Maple Leafs and Jackets faced off later in the evening at Scotiabank Arena.
“We always had the confidence in our locker room. A lot of people had us finishing as a lottery pick. In our room, we always had the belief that we could be a playoff team. Some people have laughed at that, but we’re not. We’re serious about it.”
Veteran James van Riemsdyk signed with the Jackets in mid-September, a couple of weeks after the Gaudreau brothers died when they were cycling and were hit by an alleged drunk driver in New Jersey.
He was not an NHL teammate of Gaudreau, but van Riemsdyk and Gaudreau played together on the United States’ world championship team in 2019 and had connections through their similar New Jersey roots.
“I think a lot of guys are still stunned at what happened and it still doesn’t seem real,” van Riemsdyk said. “We talked about the joy that Johnny had. We really wanted to make sure we embraced that and honoured that, making sure we are in the moment.
“Having that sense of gratitude and appreciation for what we get to do and how fun it is, we’re really leaning into that.
“From the players to the coaching staff to management, we tried to have that cohesive togetherness about really being a group and having that strong bond with each other.”
Down the hall on Wednesday morning, Leafs forward Steven Lorentz spoke of the high regard that opposing players hold for the Blue Jackets.
“For them to be able to play for (Gaudreau) and rally around that, it’s special to see,” Lorentz said. “It doesn’t matter what team you’re on, you have that respect for that organization.
“There are guys in every locker room who knew Johnny and his brother, and it’s just such an awful thing.
“You’re definitely happy to see that they’ve held their own and been competitive. You have a deeper respect.”
In 1999, Leafs coach Craig Berube was playing for the Philadelphia Flyers when teammate Dmitri Tertyshny died in a boating accident in British Columbia.
“They have gone through a lot, but they are playing really good hockey and playing for each other,” Berube said of the Blue Jackets.
The Jackets have shrugged off injuries to captain Boone Jenner, who hasn’t played in a game this season after having shoulder surgery in October, veteran defenceman Erik Gudbranson, forward Yegor Chinakov and now forward Sean Monahan, who has a wrist injury.
The leader for Columbus has been defenceman Zach Werenski. The 27-year-old is having a Norris Trophy-type season, and before NHL games on Wednesday, he was leading the league in ice time, averaging 26 minutes 49 seconds a game.
“You see the minutes, you see the stats, you watch some of the goals, those are all fantastic factors in helping us win hockey games,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said. “What he has done as a leader, as a calm presence, as a mature person within the locker room, has really helped us.
“As you all guys all know, we have had a lot of adversity, but the guys have pulled together and I think that has allowed us to play hard for each other each and every night.”
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