SvoNotes: Canada trip a homecoming for some Blue Jackets

O Canada, our home and native land…
It's the opening line of the Canadian national anthem, and for a handful of Blue Jackets, it also rings true.
There are four members of the current CBJ roster who were born in Canada -- Boone Jenner, Kent Johnson, Erik Gudbranson and Liam Foudy -- plus head coach Brad Larsen and assistants Steve McCarthy and Pascal Vincent. Cole Sillinger and Mathieu Olivier were born in the United States to hockey-playing fathers, but they also spent the majority of their childhoods growing up north of the border.

All things considered, since hockey is the national game of Canada and the country still produces more NHLers than any other place, it's not a lot. But for those players, a trip across the border still is quite meaningful, and the Blue Jackets' current swing through Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver before capping this long road trip with a game in Seattle is a welcome chance to return to their home and native land.
"I'm biased, but I love coming to Canada," Jenner said. "It feels like home. Even though it's far away from my home (in Ontario), it's Canada, my home country. You see a lot of the same stuff. You're driving to the game, it's the same restaurants you grew up on. It definitely makes it feel like home. It's a little colder, a little more snow. It's great."
When I took this job working for the Blue Jackets and traveling with the team, I could count on two fingers how many times I had crossed the border -- a trip to Niagara Falls with family when I was a teenager, plus about a five-hour visit to Windsor in 2004 to see an OHL game.
Since then, I've made plenty of ventures into our northern neighbor, and let's be honest -- it's not a tremendous departure from what we're used to in Columbus. The people are nice, the weather is up and down, and unless you're in Montreal, everyone speaks the same English.
But there are also some subtle differences you get used to when you head to Canada. I'd never been to the Cactus Club, Moxies or The Keg before I started traveling with the team, but you get pretty used to those staples of upscale Canadian dining being in the NHL cities you head to.
There's also Harvey's and Swiss Chalet, to name a few fast-food options you don't see down south. One thing I've also noticed is that even the American fast-food staples have some slight alternations to their menus in Canada, a point that was driven home Sunday night in Calgary when I saw Wendy's advertising a bacon portobella mushroom melt I haven't seen at my local drive thru on Olentangy River Road.
(Speaking of TV, I must admit it can be pretty frustrating trying to find American sporting events up north, and it's even worse if you're looking for a cable channel. Most of our Canadian hotels do pick up channels like ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, in addition to CTV and the CBC, but I was quite bewildered when our hotel in Winnipeg was showing the World Cup and then cut to a local commercial for a Rochester, N.Y.-based lacrosse team.)
Sticking to the food differences, it feels like everyone swears that Tim Horton's is better in Canada, including Olivier.
"Up here, it's the real deal," he said.
It's also quite amusing to head across the border and field requests from those you know who currently live in the States and are looking for access to the comfort foods they miss from their home country. Former CBJ player and current broadcaster Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre never explicitly asks for a delivery of ketchup chips, but he's always excited to get one, while another friend has a standing order of Oh Henry! candy bars and Sour Cherry Blasters. (Dear customs and immigration -- please don't read that paragraph.)
Olivier said he hasn't had any specific asks, but that might change if any of his friends read this.
"I haven't gotten any requests, but that's actually a good idea," Olivier said. "I'm gonna have to look into that."
I'm also amazed by the variety of candy options available in Canada that you just don't see at home. There's Mars bars and Aero chocolate, Coffee Crisp and Smarties, and most places have a variety of chocolates that would put any American bodega to shame.
Then there's the great potato chip debate. We're not exactly hurting for chip varieties in the United States, but there are three flavors that are much more prevalent in Canada than at home - dill, ketchup and all dressed.
For Olivier, his wife prefers all-dressed, while he's a ketchup guy. As previously noted, the way to Grand-Pierre's good side is to deliver a bag of ketchup chips, while I can honestly eat an entire bag of all dressed chips and not even notice that it's gone.
Jenner didn't seem to have a preference, but I got the sense the CBJ captain is a chip guy.
"There are no all dressed in the States," Jenner said. "I might have to get some in Canada here. It's a staple. Ketchup and all-dressed -- if you're a fan, get them here."
But it doesn't matter your chip preference when it comes to being a hockey fan in Canada. It's the national sport for a reason, and while the country is seeing major growth in producing high-level athletes in basketball, soccer and tennis, Canada is still hockey country.
A British Columbia native, Larsen said he notices a different buzz in the building each time the Blue Jackets cross the border. Johnson can't help but agree.
"I can, which I never would have thought," Johnson said. "We have really good fans in any building, especially in Columbus, but yeah. Even like morning skate in Winnipeg and Ottawa, there's little kids watching, more cameras, media, so it's cool. I think it definitely adds a special feeling in Canada."

Johnny Be Boo'd

We all knew it would be an interesting Monday in Calgary when Johnny Gaudreau made his return to the city he called home for his first nine NHL seasons.
Not even Gaudreau could have expected quite how things unfolded, though. Specifically, we mean the fact that his teammates had the idea to boo him the first few times he touched the puck during the team's morning skate at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
It clearly caught Gaudreau off-guard a bit, as evidenced by the mile-wide smile he had as he skated in and shot the puck each time.
"That was funny," Gaudreau said. "Just lighten the mood a little bit. It was fun. I could barely stickhandle I was laughing so hard coming up the ice. Lars said to get it out of the way now, and I guess they just ran with it."
It was a memorable start to the day, as the Blue Jackets expected Gaudreau to hear it from the jilted fans in Calgary. And those fans did not disappoint, as while Johnny Hockey still has his supporters in the Stampede City, the boos were loud and spirited each time he touched the puck during the Jackets' OT loss Monday night.
Hey, we've been there, right? Blue Jackets fans know what it's like to see players leave town via free agency or trade, and we know the list of players who have heard it from the Nationwide Arena faithful over the years.
I think we all logically agree people should be able to do their jobs in a city that makes them happiest, but sports also is not a normal workplace. For his part, Gaudreau gave everything he had to Calgary over the years and produced more than a point per game there, and he recognized it was a special place to play.
"Just a lot of memories," Gaudreau said. "It was a special place to play for me. I played here for a long time, so it was weird coming in through the other doors. Almost caught myself walking through the tunnel toward their locker room for a second. But a lot of great memories."
But when push came to shove, he had to make a decision this past summer, and he chose Columbus. Ohioans were rightly thrilled, while Calgarians had a different feeling. It's all part of the deal.
In the end, it made for some great theater Monday. His first period welcome back on the video board included a standing ovation from the Flames faithful for his successes in Calgary, followed immediately by boos again. But that was nothing compared to when Gaudreau earned a penalty shot as he split the Flames defense and was hooked on the way to the goal, only to send the ensuing shot wide; the boos as he skated in followed by the cheers when he missed were at an ear-splitting volume.
But hey, that's sports, right? And when Gaudreau was interviewed postgame, he understood that was all part of how things go when a high-profile athlete returns to a city.
"It was fun," he said. "I had a blast. I was really happy with our guys. They pushed real hard and tried to get a win for me and (Erik Gudbranson)."

He Shoots, He Scores

Larsen first became a full-time NHL player in the 2001-02 season, skating 50 games with a Colorado team that had won Stanley Cup the year before.
That season, the leading scorer in the NHL was Jarome Iginla, the Calgary standout who scored 52 goals and added 44 assists for 96 points. It was the second time in three seasons that no player in the NHL reached triple digits in points.
It was a weird time in the NHL, as goalies consistently got better, players got bigger and defensive systems got more refined than the freewheeling days of the 1980s and early 1990s. Meanwhile, we all remember the phrase "clutching and grabbing," which meant defenders were allowed to take a hands-on approach to stopping the opposition, shall we say. Add it all up and scoring just kept trickling downward.
Now, though, we're in a renaissance of scoring. Save percentages have declined precipitously in the league, goals are up consistently year over year, and some truly ridiculous numbers are being posted again.
Alexander Ovechkin is within sight of Wayne Gretzky's all-time goal record, while the top offensive players are putting up what used to be considered video game numbers. Edmonton's Connor McDavid is at the top of the list, as he has an NHL-best 40 goals and 89 points through 49 games (he's on pace for a 67-82-149 season), but Leon Draisaitl (73 points in 47 games), David Pastrnak (69 points in 47 games) and others aren't far behind.
As we were discussing McDavid with Larsen on Wednesday morning, I realized he'd have a pretty unique perspective on how scoring has gone up in the league. I asked him if he ever thought he'd see the kinds of numbers we see these days, and he did have an interesting answer.
"I'll never say never anymore," Larsen said. "I didn't think Gretzky's record could be challenged for goals, and here we are. Ovi is challenging that if he stays healthy. I grew up, that was my team, the Oilers. I was born in BC, but the Oilers were my team. Easy team to love. My favorite player was Mark Messier, but what Gretzky did, he was putting up 212 points some seasons. Crazy number, right?
"Everyone says the goalies weren't as good and the game was more wide open, but there was a lot more hooking and holding. It was a nasty game, and the goalies were the best in the world, so he was doing it against the best.
"So now, coming to this point, the speed of the game, I think they've opened the game up. They've taken out the red line; that changed the dynamic. They've taken away the hooking and holding. The guys like McDavid and the fast guys, you used to hook on the hip, you used to be able to use the can opener -- all the tricks you had in the bag for the slow guys to try to help yourself out, those are gone.
"It's not surprising. Then you look at the power plays and they're running at elite levels. These guys are at 30-plus percent, which is crazy what they're doing. I guess I'm not surprised."
As for McDavid, Larsen also had a thought I considered telling. There have been plenty of brilliant players throughout all eras, but my gut feeling is that McDavid is the best we've seen, simply because he's dominating the league at a time when the game is faster than ever, players are training harder than ever, and skill is at an all-time premium.
McDavid's greatest skill is his ability to perform while staying at top speed -- and let's be clear, it's a speed no one has ever quite reached -- and Larsen seemed to agree.
"I'm not sure the NHL has seen a player play at his pace," Larsen said. "I played with some fast players, but what he does at that speed, how he processes it, it's elite."
It truly is. So kudos to the Blue Jackets for keeping McDavid to one assist, three shots on goal, zero shots in overtime, and a loss on Wednesday night.