Duclair must impress quickly

Fifteen minutes and 13 seconds isn’t even a lot of time to get taped and dressed for a hockey game, but that’s how long Anthony Duclair had to show his stuff to Blue Jackets coaches Sunday afternoon in a preseason game.

Duclair is the fleet left wing attempting to prove to a third franchise in three seasons that his 20 goals and 24 assists as a rookie with Arizona in 2015-16 were not an aberration.

With three preseason games remaining, the 23-year-old knows that he is on the clock. On Sunday, he took one shot, blocked a shot and was called for a twominute slashing penalty in a 5-1 loss to St. Louis at Nationwide Arena.

“I come here every day and give it my all, whether it’s preseason or practice,” Duclair said. “I try to build chemistry with whoever I’m playing with that day. It’s still too early to tell (whether I make the team). I can only control what I can control, and that’s to work hard, and the coaching staff will figure it out.”

There’s no questioning Duclair’s speed. It is top-shelf. But he had five goals and 10 assists in 58 games for the Coyotes two years ago, and 11 goals and 12 assists in 56 games for Arizona and Chicago last season.

The difficult part for Duclair is that he must get acquainted with teammates and show that he is good enough for a roster spot.

“We’re trying to build some chemistry with one another, especially for me because I haven’t played with guys at all,” he said. “After every shift, you try to communicate and see where their heads are at and figure out tendencies. I’m figuring out what they like to do and what they don’t like to do. Everybody plays differently, and you try to communicate as much as possible.”

Coach John Tortorella refused to give a progress report on Duclair.

“He’s just a terrific skater, not only fast but quick getting out of short areas of the ice,” he said. “I think he has worked through camp with the conditioning, and you can see his skill level. We’re going to play him some more in exhibition games here and continue to evaluate him. We still have a ton of camp left, (so) evaluate and see where it all fits.”

Wing Artemi Panarin played in his first game after sitting out the first days of camp with a stiff neck and getting up to speed in practice. He played 17 minutes, 48 seconds and got off two shots. He had one giveaway.

“He has a ways to go, but the few scoring chances we did generate, he was involved in,” Tortorella said. “He’ll be ready to play.”