CBJ Today: Getting to know you

Each weekday this season, BlueJackets.com will post CBJ Today, a look at news, notes, analysis and fun stuff from around the Blue Jackets world. It's everything you need to know if you're a fan going into the day.

On the New Guys

One of fun parts of this job -- and as a fan -- is getting to know players during their time in Columbus. Guys like Nick Foligno, Cam Atkinson and Seth Jones have become well-known players and personalities in the capital city through their time in Columbus.
Each year, you get some new players to become familiar with as well, and this year's crop is particularly interesting. Such names as Max Domi, Michael Del Zotto, Jack Roslovic and Patrik Laine are big names in the game, all former first-round picks, who have come to the team with a lot of name recognition in the sport.
I'll have bigger pieces on Domi and Del Zotto this week, but I wanted to talk a little bit as well about the former Jets in that group.
We've written a ton about Laine and Roslovic since they've arrived, but you can learn a lot more about the guys as they spend time here and meet with the media. You can also talk to teammates to see how guys are fitting in, and it's clear Roslovic -- a central Ohio native who has skated with members of the team over the past few summers and basically grew up with some of them -- is becoming a favorite of his teammates.
"I don't think he's stopped talking since he's been here," Del Zotto said of Roslovic. "He loves to talk. Like I put on the one post on the team's Instagram page last night, he's like the little brother I never had. We joke back and forth and we tease each other, and he's been great. He provides energy in the room at all times. Sometimes I have to tell him to stop talking. I'm trying to eat my food and this guy is in my ear all day."
Meanwhile, Laine has been interesting to get to know a little more. He comes to Columbus with a reputation for being himself, and it seems like he doesn't fit into any box you might ascribe to a hockey player -- or a Finn, for that matter. Both of those subsets of people are known for deflecting praise and being uncomfortable in the spotlight, but that's not Laine.
He's good and he knows it, and he's not afraid to admit it. He's a bit flashy, as evidenced by his yellow Lamborghini that made headlines in the Finnish media. And listen to his answer when asked by Fox Sports Ohio about his first-period snipe that gave that gave Columbus the early lead Saturday.

"Textbook top cheese," Laine told Dave Maetzold. "It doesn't get any better than that."

He's not wrong. Frankly, I love the swagger. It's honest. It's real. But most importantly, it's earned.
I think he's going to be a fun guy to follow for years to come.

Down on the Farm

I'll still be doing Prospects Report as the season goes on, but not quite every week, as I did a year ago. That was where I updated the week that was for the Cleveland Monsters, but hopefully this year I can make that a more feature-based piece when I do post them rather than just simple recaps about the CBJ farm team.
But I do want to keep fans abreast of what is going on down at the AHL level, so I'll probably post a few updates here in CBJ Today as the games go by. Starting now, as I'll take a quick look back to the opening weekend for the Monsters, who played a pair of games in Cleveland to kick off the AHL's truncated 28-game slate.
Unfortunately for the Monsters, both games were losses, as the team dropped a 7-3 opener to Rochester on Friday night before dropping a 3-1 final Saturday against Grand Rapids.
Nathan Gerbe scored on a breakaway set up by Ryan MacInnis in the opening minutes of the opener, then Zac Dalpe followed with a power-play goal off a nice feed from Trey Fix-Wolansky to make it 2-0 after a period. But Rochester replied with three goals in the second, a streak interrupted by a goal by Monsters veteran defenseman Dillon Simpson, but the Americans tallied the last four goals to set the final margin.
In game two, Fix-Wolansky scored on a power-play rush off assists from Dalpe and Gerbe in the second period, but the Griffins tied things up later in the period, then got the winner and an empty-netter in the third.

Veteran Brad Thiessen started both games in net.
Cleveland next plays Saturday with a game at Grand Rapids.

And in College...

A quick shout out to Peter Thome, a goaltender at the University of North Dakota, who got a big win in net for the second-ranked Fighting Hawks on Saturday vs. Denver.
A sixth-round pick of the Jackets in 2016, Thome was red-hot to end last season for UND before the season shut down because of the pandemic. This year, he didn't win the starting job and played just three games before Saturday night, when he was pressed into duty because of an injury to starter Adam Scheel.
Thome came through for North Dakota, making 18 saves in a 5-2 win over Denver that cemented his team atop the National Collegiate Hockey Conference standings. The senior at UND, whom we caught up with
last summer for this podcast
, has always found playing time hard to come by at one of the nation's best programs but has always stepped up when it has.
For more,
read about Thome's night in the Grand Forks Herald
.

And in High Schools...

One last quick shout out to Upper Arlington High School, back-to-back Blue Jackets Cup champs as victors in the Capital Hockey Conference tournament.
Second-seeded UA took down top-seeded St. Charles in the title game in a rematch of last year's final, capturing this year's championship game Sunday at the Ice Haus by a 3-2 score, with Max Robins scoring the tying goal late in the second period and the winner early in the third.
I'll try to catch up with UA this week to write about the game and preview the upcoming state tournament, but congrats to the Golden Bears!