NEW SHADE OF BLUE
John Davidson lets out a long sigh, because it’s hard to put a finger on just how it has looked from his seat as the franchise president to watch his Blue Jackets tie the second-longest winning streak in NHL history, ended at 16 straight with Thursday’s 5-0 loss at Washington.
“Oh, boy,” Davidson told The Post over the phone on Friday, “it’s a good question.”
Preparing to play host to the Rangers on Saturday night, Davidson is only allowing himself the smallest moment of reflection on the first half of this season that has seen them go from being a team most expected very little from to being No. 1-overall in the standings. The former Rangers goalie and broadcaster took over running Columbus in 2012, and is finally seeing the fruits of his labor.
“Probably the best answer is it’s nice to see our group showing growth in a lot of different ways,” Davidson said. “From on the ice and how they play to in the locker room and how they approach things.”
Of course, there is another familiar face, as John Tortorella stands behind the bench just as he did for the Rangers from 2008-13. He rebuilt the Blueshirts in his own often-gruff image and got them as far as the 2012 conference final. But after he left New York, Tortorella had an explosively bad year coaching the Canucks in 2013-14 before being hired by Davidson to replace Todd Richards just seven games into this past season.
Tortorella did not pull any punches with the underachieving group, and that continues to be the case as he rides the second-youngest team in the league and watches them respond.
“This group is one that would go through a wall for the coaching staff,” Davidson said. “They needed him, and he needed them.”
Tortorella had a tumultuous time behind the bench for his U.S. team at the World Cup of Hockey in September, but apparently was unfazed in coming back to take over the Blue Jackets. In the middle of this streak, he became the first American- born coach to win 500 games.
“John has a pedigree of winning,” Davidson said. “He’s bullish on a lot of things, but he works with people well. The players needed that.
“The pushing by Torts is good because they needed it, in a respectful way. The players are also allowed to not only play the game hard, play the game in the way it should be played, but also have fun doing it. And Torts has done all that stuff.”
To find the source of their success, Davidson went back to this past season when his AHL affiliate in Cleveland won the Calder Cup. Three players from that team are now contributors at the NHL level, and they have joined a rejuvenated core group of veterans led by former Ranger Brandon Dubinsky.
“I think it’s what Torts is saying, but also the players understanding that when you have a NHL professional athletic career, there is an end to everything, you just don’t know when the end is,” said Davidson, whose team finished second-to-last in the conference this past season. “I think the players here, after what happened last year, knew that essentially that was a waste. That was a tough year. They wanted to have a shot to get to the playoffs, to go from there and who knows. They worked for it, they’ve been pushed to work for it, they’ve responded.”
It is a little deflating that the Blue Jackets lost and couldn’t go for the record against the Rangers. Tortorella’s successor, Alain Vigneault, even acknowledged the game would have been different had the Blue Jackets been going for the all-time record. Yet the challenge of the hottest team in the league is still in front of the Rangers.
“They’ve been the best team in the NHL, they’re No. 1 right now,” Vigneault said after Friday’s practice in Tarrytown. “They’re playing extremely well.”
And now the Rangers get to see it firsthand.