Werenski’s legend just beginning to take shape

The kids, they don’t know anything — which is beautiful. Case in point:

Remember the Blue Jackets’ incredible run of victories in March and April of 2015? Remember how they beat all those great teams and closed the season with a 15-1-1 streak? Remember how those games ultimately meant nothing because the Jackets had been eliminated from playoff contention and all those great teams were merely biding time?

Zach Werenski doesn’t know that.

You have to squint a little, but you can see a similar scene playing out now. The difference is the Jackets are one of those great teams biding time and many of their opponents — such as Thursday night’s opponent, the Florida Panthers — are running out the regular- season string.

Zach Werenski doesn’t know that.

We’ve seen some of

these at Nationwide Arena. New Jersey for one, Vancouver for another.

On Thursday, it was the Panthers, who were coming off a 7- 2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Panthers jumped the Jackets.

The Panthers pushed their forecheck so hard and so deep, it was almost as if they were daring the home team to do something about it. They fairly dictated the first half of the game. They left the crowd of 14,921 wondering where their Blue Jackets had gone.

Zach Werenski probably knew that much. He watched goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stand on his head. He figured it was about time somebody lent a hand.

“You know, basically, that’s it,” said Matt Calvert, who went directly to the front of the net when he saw the puck reach Werenski, on the left wall late in the second period. Werenski had time and space, if not a great angle. Werenski looked up — when does he look down? — and sensed a coin slot just under the crossbar, near side, and deposited a wrist shot.

He said he was half aiming and half not. I think he was 100 percent aiming.

Oh, that shot. It’s like an Iverson crossover.

It was not the winner, but it was the fulcrum. Werenski’s ridiculous shot tied the score at 1 with fewer than six minutes remaining in the second period. It woke up the Jackets, who went on to grind out a 2- 1 victory over the Panthers.

On this day a year ago, Werenski was on a bus pulling into St. Paul, Minnesota, to play in the Big Ten tournament. He was a couple of months away from declaring a major. He remembers St. Patrick’s Day weekend 2016, with cheer.

“It was some of the best hockey I’ve played individually,” he said, “and it was some of the best hockey we ( Michigan) played all season.”

The Wolverines beat Penn State and Minnesota to win the Big Ten title. Werenski had four points and the winning goal in the final round.

A year later, he pulled 19 minutes playing alongside Seth Jones, and against Jaromir Jagr. And he swung the game.

Werenski is 19 years old. He has 11 goals and 33 assists in 69 games. Not only is he breaking season rookie records, he is closing in on becoming the highest- scoring defenseman in club history.

He is seven points shy of the 51 points posted by James Wisniewski in 2013- 14.

The beauty of it is he is doing it quietly, in the shadow of Toronto’s Auston Matthews and Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine.

Oh, that shot. Do not blink.

“I have learned that when ( Werenski) has the puck, just go to the front of the net,” Calvert said. “We knew about the offense, but what is really impressive is how he is playing top- line defense — which is difficult to do for a 22- or 23- year old — and he’s only 19.”

There is beauty in that, and it smiled Thursday night.