Hannikainen stays positive, waits for break

“You’ve got to believe, keep going and keep grinding.”

It took Markus Hannikainen three weeks to make his season debut, but you won’t hear him complaining.

It’s just not how the 25-year-old forward is wired.

“I think it’s part of me,” said Hannikainen, who’s played in the Blue Jackets’ past two games. “It’s just who I am. I try to be (positive). It’s not always easy. I have bad days, too, but that’s kind of what you need to do to get better.”

It’s an approach he’s taken since signing with Columbus as a free agent April 20, 2015.

After making his NHL debut in 2015-16, Hannikainen has only played 49 NHL games during parts of four seasons. Last year was his longest NHL stint, Jackets forward Markus Hannikainen, on confidence of becoming an NHL regular

playing 33 games and spending most of his time in Columbus. That also meant watching a lot as a healthy scratch.

He played in only six of the final 36 games and was scratched for all six games of the Jackets’ first-round playoff loss to the Washington Capitals. He was scratched the first eight games of this season, too, after putting in a summer of hard work in Helsinki, Finland.

Rather than sulking, Hannikainen wore a big smile as he waited to play.

“It’s the only thing you can do, really,” Hannikainen said. “You can do the opposite, Blue Jackets left wing Markus Hannikainen believes he can be an NHL regular at some point. “You’ve got to believe that. If you don’t, you don’t belong here,” he said. get down and be all negative and spray it around, but that’s not what you do to be a good teammate.”

Like he said, it’s not always easy.

In fact, this past

offseason was a good test of Hannikainen’s fortitude. The competition for ice time got even tougher when the Jackets added forwards Riley Nash and Anthony Duclair in free agency, but he took the news in stride.

He remains confident that he can become an NHL regular at some point.

“You’ve got to believe that,” Hannikainen said. “If you don’t, you don’t belong here. You’ve got to believe, keep going and keep grinding. That’s what I tell myself every day I’m not in the lineup.”

His actions tell the coaching staff the same thing.

“The word ‘quit’ is not in his vocabulary,” said assistant Kenny McCudden, who works with Hannikainen quite a bit in his role as the Jackets’ skills coach. “He wants to work an awful lot, and that effort describes his play.”

He just hasn’t gotten a chance to show it too often. The Blue Jackets hope he’ll earn more ice time, though, to contribute the kind of offensive punch he gave the Monsters in the AHL when he helped them win the 2016 Calder Cup.

“Sometimes it takes a guy a little bit longer to make that happen in the National Hockey League, and when you’re not playing as much regularly, it’s hard to do that,” coach John Tortorella said. “I don’t apologize for that. That’s the world he’s in right now and when he gets his opportunity, no matter how many minutes he gets ... he has to try to do the best he can and maybe build off that. That’s how it works.” Hannikainen agrees. “The situation doesn’t change if you pout and whine,” he said. “It doesn’t change a thing. So, I’d rather stay focused and just do what I have to do.”