COLUMBUS, Ohio — A choppy start to the season was mostly predictable for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Adapting to new coach Pascal Vincent’s system wouldn’t happen overnight, nor necessarily would be a quick transition for so many players new to the organization.
That has all proven true. But there have also been developments that nobody could have seen coming.
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Johnny Gaudreau, who two years ago was a Hart Trophy finalist with the Calgary Flames and last season had 20 more points than any other Blue Jackets player, is off to the worst start of his 10-year career.
It’s more than just the point production. When Gaudreau is playing well, he always has the puck and is relentlessly dangerous offensively, a player who can put on a show and be worth the price of admission even if he doesn’t score.
But this season, Gaudreau has gone entire games in which he’s barely noticeable and makes a negligible impact on the Blue Jackets’ results.
The Jackets are 4-8-4 heading into Thursday’s game vs. Arizona in Nationwide Arena, off to a worse start than last season, which was supposed to be a distant memory by now.
Gaudreau has just one goal (an empty-netter), five assists and 36 shots on goal in 16 games. He’s 10th on the club in scoring, trailing three defensemen, including stay-at-home behemoth Erik Gudbranson. He has only two shots on goal in his last four games.
“It’s heightened because it’s the start of the season and because of the amount of games we’ve lost,” Gaudreau said. “You bring a guy like me in (as a free agent two summers ago) to help in these situations, and I need to do that.
“It’ll come. I just have to stick with it now. I’ve been through these stretches before where the points just aren’t there, and you stick with it and it’ll eventually come around.”
But Gaudreau has never been through something quite like this.
Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent has taken the typical steps to nudge a player’s performance higher. In a game this month against Washington, Gaudreau was benched for most of the third period. In the last two games, including Tuesday’s 5-3 loss to Pittsburgh, Gaudreau skated on the Jackets’ third line.
Asked if he was feeling the weight of expectations, Gaudreau nodded and smiled.
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“It’s expected of me (to play better),” he said. “I got a good contract (seven years, $68.25 million) to do this type of thing. I need to make sure I’m better in these situations, and I will be. It’s a little bit of a grind trying to get through the uphill battle, but we’ll get there.
“When you’ve played as long as I’ve played … it still gets frustrating, at times, but the more frustrated you get, the harder it is to get out of it.”
Vincent has continued to support Gaudreau publicly. In explaining Gaudreau’s demotion to the third line, Vincent said it was an attempt to spread the Blue Jackets’ offensive talents across the forward lines, not make them so easy to check with Patrik Laine and Gaudreau on one line.
But he’s trying to dial back the pressure on Gaudreau as much as anything.
“This is a talented guy,” Vincent said. “It didn’t go away overnight. We want to make sure he stays confident, because if he loses confidence … we already know he’s feeling the pressure.
“It’s a bad start for him. I don’t want to say it’s a bad start, but it’s not the start we were hoping for or he was hoping for. But I’m confident he’s going to fall in place.”
What makes this so strange is that Gaudreau has been a strong starter throughout his career. In fact, this is the only season in his career in which he hasn’t had double-digit points after 16 games, roughly one-fifth of the way through the season.
At this point last season, he had 6-5-11 and 48 shots on goal through 16 games. Lately, he’s played with center Cole Sillinger and right winger Emil Bemstrom, two other forwards who have struggled to produce in recent games.
Sillinger hasn’t scored yet this season. Bemstrom got off to a hot start, but quickly returned to form and was placed on waivers on Wednesday. He’ll be sent to AHL Cleveland if he clears Thursday afternoon.
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In one sense, you could argue that a spot on the Blue Jackets’ third line is no way to awaken Gaudreau’s game. This is a guy who might play on the third line for Team USA at the Olympics, and when he’s going well, he elevates anyone who is around him.
But Vincent doesn’t dare shake up the Blue Jackets’ line centered by rookie Adam Fantilli, who has been the club’s best forward. Fantilli has been flanked in recent games by rookie Dmitri Voronkov and second-year NHLer Kirill Marchenko.
In the past two games, Vincent has favored Yegor Chinakhov on the top line with Boone Jenner and Laine, but that could change tonight vs. the Coyotes.
But Vincent is watching Gaudreau as much off the ice as on it these days. This is one of the most difficult stretches of his career, but it can also be a learning lesson — for Gaudreau and a bunch of young players around him.
“There’s a life in that (dressing) room,” Vincent said. “They look at each other and they see how the other guys behave, especially guys like this. So, keep working hard, keep doing the right things, saying the right things … Johnny doesn’t speak a lot, but when he does, people listen.
“We communicate with him, but we also trust him. He’s keeping that group setting positive. At some point, his game is going to take off. We know this.”
(Photo of Johnny Gaudrea: Ben Jackson / NHLI via Getty Images)
