Jackets’ Werenski, Murray played despite being hurt

Two of the Blue Jackets’ top young defensemen dealt with injuries this season.

Zach Werenski is believed to have suffered a shoulder injury in the first half of the season.

“Obviously I want to play,” Werenski said Tuesday after a 6-3 loss to the Washington Capitals ended the season on Monday. “I missed a little time at Christmas there. That’s all I needed to feel good enough to play, but it definitely sucked for sure.

“I’d like to think every night I go out there I’m 100 percent. The truth is I wasn’t. I had to accept that as a hockey player and a competitor. We’re going to work to fix it and figure it out with management and the training staff what to do to be 100 percent next year.”

Ryan Murray also was hurt early, getting jammed up against the boards against Montreal on Nov. 27 and hurting his back. He returned Feb. 20 after missing 35 games and declared himself 100 percent healthy.

Despite the injuries, both players ended up having good seasons — although there were some growing pains for the two former high first-round draft picks. Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski had a shoulder injury that he said hampered his shot, which he had worked to improve in the offseason. The second-year player still managed to score 16 goals in the regular season.

Both should be better from their experiences moving forward.

“I thought I had a pretty good year,” said Murray, who was scratched for two games before getting back in the lineup on March 17 and staying there throughout the playoff series against the Capitals. He ended the regular season with one goal and 11 assists in 44 games, and had one assist in six games against Washington.

“I thought I played pretty good out there and things went well. I had one little hiccup in the middle of the year, but I finished strong so that was good.”

Werenski, who replaced defensive partner Seth Jones to participate in his first All-Star weekend, said

he knows there is room for improvement.

“I think it makes you a better hockey player,” Werenski said. “It makes you mentally stronger. Last year, it was pretty smooth sailing for me. I don’t think I learned as much as this year. This year will make me a better hockey player than last year did. Moving forward, I know what I need to work on this summer and I will come back better next year.”

Said fellow defenseman Ian Cole: “In my mind, he was still a top-flight defenseman. There are things he was battling through. It’s great to see. As a teammate, you want to see your teammates battle through things. You want to see, especially your highskill guys, sacrifice and battle.

“It certainly leads to good camaraderie, team chemistry, all those things that are huge. You seem him try to come back after the puck to the face last year, and you know he’s a tough kid. What he could do with being limited was great.”

Werenski, a second-year player out of Michigan, played through his injury and ended up sharing the franchise record for goals by a defenseman in a season with Jones; both scored 16.

Werenski went through a dry spell of 25 games in which he didn’t score. Once he got over that hump on March 2 at Anaheim, he scored five goals in his final 17 games.

Werenski said in training camp that he had spent his summer working on one-timers and his slap shot, but once he got hurt, the injury kept him from doing much of that.

“Tough to get them off,” he said. “It’s something I worked on a lot over the summer and didn’t show too much this year. Like I said, we’ll try to fix that injury and show (my shooting) more next year.”