This season we will be covering home games (and hopefully a few road games) with Morning Skate coverage in a series we like to call “Battle Plan.”
There was nothing particularly unusual as the Blue Jackets took to the ice in Nationwide Arena this morning for their first morning skate of the 2015-16 NHL season – and perhaps that is exactly how it should be. By now, the narrative is well known in hockey circles – the Columbus squad suffered through a litany of injuries that decimated their line up and resulted in 27 different forwards and 11 defensemen seeing ice time during the season and only two players – Ryan Johansen and David Savard – being able to make it through all 82 games without missing a single one.
But that was last year.
The Jackets are, for the most part, healthy and forwards Brandon Saad and Gregory Campbell are the only two new faces in the locker room leading up to tonight’s tilt. Every player on the Columbus roster has seen NHL playing time before.
That comfort this team has with one another and the game could be an important asset heading into tonight’s emotion-packed match against what head coach Todd Richards called “probably the best team (in the league) in the last two years.”
Center Alexander Wennberg is playing in the second Blue Jackets season opener of his career. He’s reteamed with forward Scott Hartnell with whom he found success after being put together on a line in the last third of the season – nine of Wennberg’s 20 points came in the last 11 games.
“This year the confidence level is totally different,” Wennberg said. “Last year I was excited to start but it was so new. Now I’m settled in with the boys around here so I feel like for me coming in to this game is so much calmer and that will help me out in the game tonight.”
Cam Atkinson joins Wennberg and Hartnell as the forward on the right side and while he’s seen more NHL season opening games than Wennberg, he believes the excitement never leaves the experience of it all.
“Opening night is a long process – going through announcing everyone, there’s a lot of waiting around,” Atkinson said. “Once that’s over you just have to switch your mind into game mode and go from there. There will be a lot of energy and emotion and butterflies the first period but if we keep it simple, we’ll be fine.”
That’s a strategy Richards echoed when he met with the media. Richard’s calls New York a “great measuring stick” of a team that will challenge the Jackets on multiple levels – emotions, and all facets of the game.
Richards knows opening night packs a wallop of emotion and he wants the energy to be high tonight, in fact, he’s counting on it from the team and fans alike, but he’s also counting on the team to channel that energy in the right way.
“You have to use the emotion that is what it’s all about,” Richards said. “If your emotions are too high you get out of control and start doing undisciplined things – bad penalties, being out of position, having breakdowns in opportunities.”
But overall, the Jackets are appreciating the fact that they are healthy and getting the season underway.
“Everyone’s excited,” Atkinson said. “I think everyone’s excited in the community as well and we’re just looking to get the first one out of the way and hopefully get a W against New York.”
Quickly…
- Richards said F David Clarkson is considered day-to-day and he was unsure if the 31-year-old would travel with the team (they face the Rangers again tomorrow night and Buffalo Monday). Richards does not consider Clarkson’s injury to be long-term
- Atkinson, who hails from Riverside, CT says he has a lot of family members attending tonight’s game and also tomorrow’s game at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers were Atkinson’s favorite team growing up.
- A great quote from Richards when he was asked about expectations today “I’m not in this job to finish second, I’m not in this job to finish tenth. I want to finish first and that’s the expectations I have coming into this game.”
- Richards would not comment on his goaltending decisions past tonight’s game
LINEUP
Saad – Johansen – Foligno
Jenner – Dubinsky – Bourque
Hartnell – Wennberg – Atkinson
Calvert – Campbell – Boll
Murray – Savard
Tyutin – Johnson
Connauton – Prout
Bobrovsky
Scratches: Clarkson, Karlsson, Goloubef
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