Werenski in new spot on defense
WASHINGTON — It’s a situation entirely new to Zach Werenski, who likely will start the Blue Jackets’ game Friday night at the Washington Capitals on the third defensive pairing.
Since making his NHL debut in 2016-17 with 11 goals and 47 points, the 21-year old has played almost exclusively on the top pairing with Seth Jones. There was instant chemistry between the two and both scored 16 goals last season to set a Jackets record for goals by a defenseman in one season.
Fifteen games into this season, though, coach John Tortorella has noticed confidence issues with Werenski in the defensive zone, especially trying to exit.
“You could tell he didn’t really want the puck,” Tortorella said of splitting Werenski and Jones in a 4-1 win Tuesday against Dallas. “He’s just a terrific defenseman in this league, but it’s funny when you just don’t feel good about yourself sometimes, what happens to your game.”
Tortorella didn’t confirm any defense pairs, but they were similar in practice to the game against Dallas. Jones worked with Ryan Murray, Markus Nutivaara and David Savard stayed together, and Werenski worked with Scott Harrington instead of Dean Kukan.
“He’s going to be productive,” Tortorella said, referring to Werenski’s 10 points on three goals and seven assists. “It’s just on the other side of the red line in our end zone. The thing that I just kind of looked at was just getting us out of our end zone. It looked like he didn’t want to use his legs a little bit.”
Werenski agrees there is work to be done, which he is focused on doing. He also said the message sent by the shakeup was received.
“During the game it (felt) like, almost, a demotion a little bit,” he said. “But today when I came to the rink, I had a pretty good attitude about it. I just wanted to work hard and I continued to do that.”
Tortorella typically blasts the use of analytics, but there is at least one he is paying close attention to this season. Having a lot of left-handed shooters at center, the Jackets’ coaches are monitoring their best options for draws usually taken by right-handers.
Riley Nash, a righthander, has struggled (40.9 percent), so they’re looking elsewhere for options.
“More importantly, our special teams face-offs,” Tortorella said. “We’ve really tried to concentrate on that. You really can’t replicate it in practice but the analytics have helped me to maybe take a little bit of pressure off of (Nash).”
A good portion of practice Thursday was spent working on transitions through the neutral zone, which Tortorella said was about adding more discipline to the Jackets’ effort running a 1-2-2 defensive setup in the neutral zone.