Blue Jackets need to quickly move forward, get past Babcock

"I am very disappointed."

That's how Columbus Blue Jackets president of hockey operations John Davidson started one of the most humbling press conferences Monday to describe what he called one of the toughest times he's had as an NHL executive.

On Sunday, Mike Babcock resigned as Blue Jackets coach after the NHL Players' Association investigated allegations of get-to-know-you interviews that made some players "very uncomfortable," according to Davidson.

Davidson said he learned of the findings of the investigation Friday via a phone call from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and by Sunday Babcock was out, having never coached a game for Columbus.

Associate coach Pascal Vincent was named Babcock’s replacement.

"Sometimes you just flat-out make a mistake," Davidson said. "We made a mistake. I'm free to sit up here and tell you that. I think as a group we owe [our fans] the explanation and apology, but we're also very comfortable going forward with Pascal once we get through this."

They need to get through it right away.

Training camp opens with medicals and testing Wednesday. The Blue Jackets players, like the rest in the NHL, will be on the ice for their first official practice Thursday. There is no more time to talk about Mike Babcock.

"As a group we're just looking forward to camp coming up and blocking out the noise," captain Boone Jenner said. "There's been a lot of noise."

It had to be addressed.

Davidson did that, offering the mea culpa for hiring Babcock despite knowing the coach's turbulent past with players, and that it could backfire.

General manager Jarmo Kekalainen did it, too, admitting it was a mistake to hire Babcock and taking full responsibility for it.

The ownership group, led by majority owner and governor John P. McConnell, released a statement saying they are "deeply frustrated and disappointed," but that Davidson's and Kekalainen's jobs are safe "at this time."

All important. Blue Jackets fans deserved to hear from the leaders of the organization. They deserved to hear from ownership.

But then they heard from Vincent, and that might have been most important of all, because he got things moving forward after Davidson and Kekalainen spoke, which is exactly what needed to happen.

"We've been facing some adversity and as a team, as a person, as a coach, what do you do?" Vincent said in his opening remarks. "You face it, and you move on. And that's what we intend to do. We're going to move on. I know our players have been working extremely hard this summer. I know what we did as coaches and our focus right now is we're looking ahead. What can we do today to get ready for tomorrow? We're going to be ready for Thursday. We're going to be on the ice Thursday and we're going to get going.

"Our plan is to be a highly competitive team that will be working extremely hard, but also we want to make sure our fans are proud to be Columbus Blue Jackets fans. And that's it."

Vincent said he spoke briefly with the Blue Jackets players Monday morning after Kekalainen addressed them and came away from the meeting with "no doubt" the players accept him as their new coach.

"It's been a crazy week to say the least for us, but we're ready to move on, starting right now, today with 'Pazi' as our coach," Jenner said. "Knowing Pazi, he definitely deserves this. He's a really hard working, intelligent coach that cares about everyone in that room. I'm super excited and I know the other guys are as well."

Said forward Patrik Laine, "I haven't been this excited in a long time."

If sincere, that's step No. 1.

Step No. 2 is Vincent getting the players to buy in to how he wants them to play, understanding that he's now the boss after serving as Columbus associate coach the past two seasons.

Remember, Vincent has never been a head coach in the NHL, although he was for five seasons in the American Hockey League and for 12 in the QMJHL. Brad Larsen, their coach the past two seasons, had also never been an NHL head coach before getting the Columbus job.

The Blue Jackets missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs each season under Larsen, finishing second-to-last in the overall NHL standings last season with 59 points, one better than the Anaheim Ducks.

"I've been working 30 years to be a coach in the National Hockey League," Vincent said. "It's been a long process, but what I'm good at is I'm a team player and I care about people."

Vincent said it helps that he and Babcock share the same vision on how the game should be played, so most of the plans that were being implemented through the offseason after Babcock got the job on July 1 will remain.

"The transition is going to be seamless," Vincent said.

Step 3 is putting it all together and making the Blue Jackets a competitive team.

Larsen was fired April 15 with Kekalainen calling it "absolutely a necessary change that we needed to make."

Babcock was hired July 1 with Kekalainen saying he was "the right person, the right man for the job."

That backfired. It doesn't matter anymore, not with opening night 24 days from now, Oct. 12 at home against the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Blue Jackets need to be over the short-lived Babcock era by the time they get on the ice Thursday.

"It's been a hard few days and then it settles in," Vincent said. "My focus is, OK, what do we do? We focus on tomorrow. We make sure that we're ready. The players, I know them, they deserve for the coaches to be ready for training camp, and we will be."

NHL.com independent correspondent Craig Merz contributed to this report