Blue Jackets Sunday Gathering: Embrace of coach Dean Evason's system pays dividends

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A collection of notes, insights, ruminations and did-you-knows gathered throughout the week that was for the Columbus Blue Jackets:

Item No. 1: Quicker, sharper

The Blue Jackets aren’t exactly tearing up the NHL so far this season. After an overtime loss in Nashville on Saturday, they’re 3-3-1. But when you compare this year’s version of the Blue Jackets to what we’ve witnessed the last two seasons, the differences are startling.

And, overwhelmingly, positive.

The Jackets look faster. They look more skilled. They’re more structured. And the energy with which they play, with the exception of one game, has been dramatically better than the past two seasons, even though many of the same players are still in the lineup.

So, why?

Like all NHL clubs, the Blue Jackets aren’t big fans of fully explaining their systems. (Yes, other NHL coaches can watch 10 minutes of a game and figure out their approach in all three zones, but that’s beside the point.) So we asked three questions from the outside into the system, not the other way around.

Here’s what we learned:

1. Why do you look so much faster?

No question, some of the Blue Jackets’ young forwards are noticeably quicker. Before Kent Johnson injured his shoulder, he looked significantly quicker. Yegor Chinakhov has always been able to fly, but he looks even more powerful this season.

But this observation isn’t so much about individual speed as collective quickness. The Jackets are doing everything quicker this season, it seems.

Coach Dean Evason’s system, which came with him from Minnesota and was tweaked slightly to better fit the Blue Jackets, is a big reason. It is simple, it is aggressive and it allows for some measured risk-taking to create offense, and it requires players to be on their toes, leaning forward.

It starts with a two-man forecheck, which, ideally, pressures the puck while opponents are just starting to make their way out of the zone. The Jackets have forced several turnovers this way.

“Two guys go hard with one guy over top,” center Justin Danforth said. “It’s hard for D to play against that because we try and take away their routes. If our third guy is above the middle (option), they can’t give him the puck. If the D rims the pucks, our D are quick and they’re closing in.

“The reads in this system are so much faster, so we’re not overthinking. It’s very simple and it’s very aggressive, which players love. Last year was a bit … yeah, it was different. We were thinking more, trying to overcomplicate the game.”

The Blue Jackets don’t retreat when defending; they’re skating at the puck carrier and using heavy sticks to challenge the play. It’s all over the ice. They’ll take slight risks in getting caught with odd-man rushes against — and we’ve seen a few of those early on — but they make opponents work to get the puck up ice.

Nobody wanted to dump on former Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent, so they were measured with their words when comparing this system to the one they tried to play last season. But…

“It’s a clear read (now), and that’s so much easier to play like that, without a gray area,” Blue Jackets center Cole Sillinger said. “I don’t want to talk on last year too much, but it was not as black and white.”

Evason has made it clear that he’s willing to live with mistakes, as long as they’re based in aggression, not passivity and second-guessing.

“Who wants to sit back and defend?” Evason said. “It’s an easy sell to the players. We’ll correct stuff, but it’s a lot easier to pull back the reins than to have to push them forward.

“Guys have set that standard of how we want to play as the Columbus Blue Jackets. They have fun with it. It’s a lot of work, but it’s fun.”

Item No. 2. Why is the defense so much more involved?

This may be oversimplifying things, but when the Blue Jackets have the puck, the position each player plays is irrelevant.

It’s not that defensemen are allowed to join the play. It’s not that they’re encouraged to. No, it’s a demand now by Evason and staff. That’s the biggest tweak they made for the Columbus roster, a nod to the mobility on the Blue Jackets’ blue line.

“To score in the NHL, you need at least four, but probably all five guys involved in the offense,” Evason said. “The goalies are too good, the systems are too good, the players are too good.

“That doesn’t mean we play riverboat gambler hockey. We want all of our defensemen to jump into the play. It doesn’t matter who you are, if you’re perceived as an offensive guy or a defensive guy or whatever. To score in the NHL, you need defensemen to get involved.”

This system seems tailor-made for Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski, who has 3-4-7 and 27 shots on goal in seven games. He’s top 10 in the league in scoring among blueliners and top five in shots on goal.

Damon Severson, Ivan Provorov and Jake Christiansen, a surprise member of the Blue Jackets’ top four so far this season, have joined the rush and led the rush already several times this season.

“We have a lot of guys who can hang onto pucks and find guys late,” Werenski said. “That’s a big one, that’s an area where we’ve taken a big step this year. That fits in with our system, but it’s also just our team having more confidence this year.

“We know we can make plays, and it’s making us hard to defend.”

3. Why are you quicker out of the defensive zone?

So many times last season, especially when they were protecting a lead, the Blue Jackets would get stuck in their own zone long enough to pitch a tent.

That still happens on occasion, even to good teams. That’s hockey. But the Blue Jackets have been far more structured in moving the puck quickly out of harm’s way and up the ice so far this season.

Again, the Blue Jackets’ system is getting much of the credit. They are not as passive in the defensive zone under Evason, instead confronting the puck-carrier and taking away time and space. That sounds obvious enough, right? But it’s new.

“In years past, we were kind of packing it in around the net and allowing teams to have zone time,” Werenski said. “Guys are too good. They’re going to get scoring chances that way. They’re going to score.

“This system has us pressuring guys and forcing them to make a play, and I think that’s the right way to play.”

The Blue Jackets seemed confused in their own zone last season, like they struggled to pick up the hybrid system they were instructed to play. They’d play man-to-man low in the zone and a zone defense when the puck went out high again, and they often seemed flustered.

They’re still doing a form of that now, but the transition has been more seamless. There haven’t been nearly as many blown assignments. Remember the game last season against Pittsburgh when Sidney Crosby (of all players) was allowed to stand wide open at net-front?

Now, it seems, when a Blue Jackets player gathers the puck in the defensive zone, he has options. A quick read, a quick pass, and the puck is on its way out, often with speed.

“It’s our structure. It’s guys knowing what their job is,” Danforth said. “If you’re the first guy back as a forward, you know where guys are going to be, and hopefully as the season gets going, we’ll just get better and better with it.”

Item No. 2: Tarasov takes charge

Evason works closely with goaltending coach Niklas Backstrom, but said the two have not put together even a tentative schedule for goaltenders Elvis Merzlkins and Daniel Tarasov.

Merzlikins and Tarasov are both going to play, obviously, but Evason plans to ride the hot hand, which means an open competition for playing time throughout the season. Right now, Tarasov has grabbed the nets, starting the last four games.

“I don’t change my philosophy for the goaltenders,” Evason said. “It’s the same for the forwards and the defense. It’s game by game, and it’s earned. There’s no long-term plan.

“We’ll evaluate after every game how a player has played — and, again, that’s goalie, defensemen or forward — and we’ll make a decision, hopefully the right one, with everybody’s input. It’s not just Nicky and I deciding, it’s our whole entire staff having input.”

Tarasov’s recent run of play is tied for his longest string of consecutive starts in his career. If he starts on Monday vs. Edmonton, he’ll match the five straight starts he made as a rookie from Dec. 15-23, 2002.

So far this season, he’s 3-1-1 with an .886 save percentage and 3.42 goals-against average, but he’s made some crucial stops on breakaways and odd-man rushes.

Merzlikins started the season-opener on Oct. 10 in Minnesota and the home opener on Oct. 15 against Florida, suggesting that he had the first crack at holding down the No. 1 job as the season’s start. He did not play particularly well on vs. the Panthers, and it was learned the following day that he had an upper-body injury.

For the past two games, Merzlikins has backed up Tarasov. The Blue Jackets were off on Sunday, so the starter vs. the Oilers won’t be known until Monday’s morning skate.

Item No. 3: Snacks

• Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell confirmed to The Athletic late last week that winger Kent Johnson, out with a left shoulder injury the past three games, will not require surgery. Johnson, who was off to a dynamic start in his third NHL season, is still expected to miss considerable time, but it’s good news that the shoulder he had surgically repaired last season won’t need further work. Johnson is already well into rehabbing the injury.

• Before the season opener in Minnesota, Waddell told reporters that injured winger Dmitri Voronkov would likely return from his shoulder injury by the end of November, but it looks like the big fella is ahead of schedule. Voronkov skated with the Blue Jackets on Friday before the team left for Nashville, and he took several line rushes with fourth-liners Sean Kuraly and James van Riemsdyk. Voronkov did not take part in contact drills, so that may be the next hurdle for him to clear. But he’s past several tests already and is on the horizon to return.

• Here’s Evason on Voronkov: “Yeah, it’s a positive that he’s in practice and he’s able to get up and down the ice with the guys. I’m sure that felt good. He’s probably ahead of schedule.”

• Late last month, it was announced that Blue Jackets broadcaster Jody Shelley had been chosen to serve as an analyst for the NHL’s new media partner, Amazon Prime, which will stream an NHL game each Monday through the end of the season. It’s another big stride forward for Shelley, who has been doing NHL national broadcasts for several seasons. The Jackets only have six Monday games all season, so while Shelley’s schedule will be intense — twice already this season he’s had to race back to Columbus across the Canadian border to be in place for a Tuesday broadcast — there shouldn’t be too many scheduling conflicts.

• One of those scheduling conflicts occurs this week, however, when the Blue Jackets will play host to the Edmonton Oilers and Shelley will be in Winnipeg to handle the call between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Jets. Who will take Shelley’s spot next to Steve Mears in the FanDuel Sports Network booth? Blue Jackets senior adviser John Davidson, who, of course, was a Hall of Fame broadcaster for many seasons with the New York Rangers on Madison Square Garden Network and on national platforms before moving into an executive role with the St. Louis Blues in 2006. This will be the first of at least a couple of games he fills in for Shelley this season.

• Blue Jackets Sunday Gathering trivia question: Defenseman Zach Werenski is playing a team-high 25:34 per game this season, including a whopping 27:46 on Saturday in Nashville. It’s the second-highest ice time-per-game of his career — he drew 25:40 in 2021-22 — and it’s on pace to be the fifth-highest in franchise history. Name the player who has the two highest time-on-ice season averages for the Blue Jackets.

• The Blue Jackets have had a very friendly schedule so far this season. They haven’t yet had to play a back-to-back, but that’s only half of it. Four of their first seven opponents — Florida on Oct. 15, Buffalo on Oct. 17, Toronto last Tuesday, and Nashville on Saturday — were playing the second half of back-to-backs when they faced the Jackets. That’s true, too, for the Blue Jackets’ next two opponents. Edmonton plays at Detroit on Sunday before facing Columbus in Nationwide Arena on Tuesday, and the New York Islanders host Anaheim on Tuesday before playing the Jackets in Nationwide on Wednesday. The schedule gets much tougher next month, with 29 games scheduled for November (13) and December (16), including six back-to-backs.

• We’re all still waiting on Mikael Pyyhtiä’s first NHL goal — he’s played 25 games dating to 2022-23 — but a more hard-to-believe stat was taking root until Saturday’s game. Through six games this season, during which he’s played a regular shift on a top-three line, Pyyhtiä had yet to register a shot on goal. In fact, he’d had only six shot attempts — three that were blocked and three that missed the net. The dam finally broke on Saturday. With 44 seconds remaining in the first period vs. Nashville, Pyyhtiä took his first shot on goal of the season after having played 96 minutes, 37 seconds on the season. He finished with three shots on goal in the game.

• The only current Blue Jackets players who were in the lineup when Columbus last won in Nashville — March 30, 2019 — are Zach Werenski and Boone Jenner. They won 5-2 that night, thanks to two goals from Cam Atkinson and four assists from Artemi Panarin. After Saturday’s loss, the Jackets are 0-7-2 since then in Music City.

• AHL Cleveland overcame deficits of 1-0, 2-1 and 4-3 before losing in a shootout to Rochester in Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on Saturday. Luca Del Bel Belluz, who is off to a strong start this season, scored the third-period goal that forced overtime, then had the only successful shootout attempt for Cleveland. Del Bel Belluz, one of the last cuts of training camp, has 4-4-8 a plus-2 rating and two power-play goals in six games this season.

• Goaltender Jet Greaves struggled in his first two AHL starts of the season, allowing 11 goals on 66 shots in losses to Hershey and Rochester. He was pulled in the first meeting with Rochester last Wednesday, but looked much sharper on Saturday, stopping 40 of 44 shots.

• Trivia answer: It’s Jack Johnson. In 2011-12, after he was traded from the Los Angeles Kings to the Blue Jackets, Johnson averaged 27:25 in the final 21 games of the season. The following season, he averaged 25:58 in 44 games.

(Photo of Dean Evason: Jason Mowry / Getty Images)



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