Excitement abounds as Blue Jackets begin camp, but there's work to do

The Blue Jackets brain trust made no bones about it -- they're excited for the upcoming season.
And why wouldn't president of hockey operations John Davidson, general manager Jarmo Kekalainen and head coach Brad Larsen be? The Blue Jackets reeled in the top prize on the free agent market, Johnny Gaudreau, in July and feel that addition combined with other pickups and a maturing young core can deliver a fun season in Columbus.

But speaking at the team's media day Monday before the
start of training camp tomorrow
, all three made clear that while the offseason felt like a win, the work is just beginning.
The Blue Jackets are coming off a 37-38-7 record and a 10th-place finish in the Eastern Conference that surprised many analysts, but now with expectations rising and the new additions in place, nothing will be handed to Columbus in an ever-competitive league.

"I don't think expectations have changed a lot internally," Larsen said ahead of his second season in charge. "We all have expectations of the playoffs. That's what we wanted last year, too. We knew we were a young group. Obviously you get a free agent like Johnny, (defenseman Erik) Gudbranson, it changes, and you want expectations. The biggest thing for me is our standard; it has to raise."
As the Blue Jackets enter the season coming off two straight years without postseason hockey, there are plenty of questions that must be answered in camp. It starts on the defensive side, where the Blue Jackets gave up the most goals in franchise history and placed 28th in the league in goals against.
On top of that, the team will have to see how Gaudreau, who is coming off a 115-point season that finished tied for second in the NHL, will fit into the equation and which center he best meshes with. Then there's what might be the biggest question of all -- how will the team's young players, many of whom who are expected to fill key roles, continue to develop?
But the Blue Jackets also feel there's probably some good answers to those questions. Gaudreau might be one of the easiest players in the league to assimilate into a team because of his skill and puck possession abilities, and one figures he could form a pretty good partnership with Patrik Laine, who has a new contract himself after a point-per-game season.
Defensively, the Blue Jackets added Gudbranson from Calgary to bring size and depth, and they figure such young blueliners as Andrew Peeke, Adam Boqvist, Jake Bean and Nick Blankenburg will continue to develop after showing promise a season ago.
There also figures to be a breakout or two among the highly touted youngsters, a list that includes such talented forwards as Kent Johnson, Kirill Marchenko, Cole Sillinger and Yegor Chinakhov as well as first-round picks on defense David Jiricek and Denton Mateychuk.
For Davidson, who returned to Columbus last summer to assist with the rebuild of the franchise's roster after four straight playoff appearances from 2017-20, the additions to the roster have helped move the team's efforts to return to the postseason. Now, a big key to this season will be mixing everyone in while bringing the youngsters along.
"The key is to stay with your process and your plan; however, do what you can along the way to expedite it," he said. "There's decisions with that plan that are still ahead of us that we're going to have to deal with. We're certainly not there, but we have excitement here for sure. It's nice to see some of the young players that are going to be stepping on the ice training camp and we get to have the opportunity to assess it.
"I like where we are. I like the excitement, the excitement in the city, but the excitement with our group has to be not tempered, but be very thoughtful and trying to analyze and think where we are and make strong decisions going forward."

Another thing working for the Blue Jackets is the amount of familiarity in roles built a year ago during Larsen's first season in charge. Going into last year's camp, Columbus had a new head coach, two new assistant coaches, a new captain and three new alternate captains; this season, all of those but alternate captain Oliver Bjorkstrand return, and 12 of the top 14 scorers from the most prolific offensive team in franchise history are back.
"There was a lot going on last year with the coaching change, the staff, the leadership, the youth of our team," Larsen said. "A lot of that stuff is in place. Now you have a little bit of familiarity. They know me. I know them. That helps us I think going forward here. They know expectations, and those expectations are going to rise and they're going to find that out right away."
Time will tell if the Blue Jackets will be able to make up the 19 points in the standings needed to return to postseason play, but that's the goal of Kekalainen, who had an interesting response when asked about the excitement around the team.
"Yes, but I want the excitement at the end of the year," the general manager said. "It's been an interesting summer and an exciting summer and too long of a summer. Now, we're finally here and getting started. … I think it will be a real competitive camp, and I think what's exciting for us, too, is that there's going to be some tough decisions. But that's a great problem to have."

Media Day Notes

• How tough will the competition be? There are 68 players in training camp (40 forwards, 21 defensemen and seven goalies) and 33 of them (20 forwards, 10 defensemen and three goalies) played NHL hockey a season ago. The roster must be cut down to 23 players by opening night.
• Two players who will make the roster -- barring injury, knock on wood -- are Laine and Gaudreau, who one would think to have the potential to be one of the top-scoring duos in the NHL after combining for a 66-105-171 line a year ago in 138 games. Larsen confirmed the two will begin training camp on the same line. "I want to see if there's chemistry between the two," the head coach said.
• As for a center on that line, Larsen said captain Boone Jenner would likely get the first look "out of the gate" because of his veteran nature and ability to battle for pucks, but added Jack Roslovic and Cole Sillinger also could see time there because they all bring something different to the table.
• Laine earned praise from Zach Werenski at the NHL's media tour in Las Vegas last week, with the CBJ defenseman noting that the Finnish forward looks "dominant" in summer skates after posting a 26-30-56 line in 56 games in 2021-22. Davidson echoed that praise, with the POHOP saying, "I'm hugely impressed. I think he's fired up."
• The CBJ camp roster includes three NHL veterans on tryout offers in 35-year-old forward James Neal (2-2-4 in 19 games with St. Louis last year), 29-year-old forward Victor Rask (9-12-21 in 47 games combined with Minnesota and Seattle) and 27-year-old defenseman Ben Harpur (0-1-1 in 19 games with Nashville). "It'll be interesting to see how they do," said Kekalainen, who noted the trio will help the Jackets reach the minimum veteran requirement for preseason games.
• Larsen noted that goaltenders Joonas Korpisalo and Daniil Tarasov, who both underwent hip surgery in the second half of last season, appeared to be healthy but would have their workloads monitored if need be during camp.
• The head coach had a quip ready about the training camp cliché that players seem to say about being in the best shape of their life going when they come back each season. "I think they always say they're working harder than they did last year," Larsen said. "Then I ask, 'Well, why didn't you do it last year?' (They say) 'This is the best shape I've ever been in.' (I say) 'Then why weren't you in that shape last year?' It's funny how they talk."
• Blue Jackets vice president of communications Todd Sharrock noted that, spurred on by the excitement around Gaudreau, the team's season-ticket holder base has returned to its pre-pandemic numbers. "It's been a good summer," Davidson noted.