Time heals Jackets, and the games have begun
The Blue Jackets’ last regular-season game was Sunday, March 8, a 2-1 victory over the Canucks in Vancouver. Here in Columbus, it was a mostly sunny day and the temperature soared to 63 degrees. Spring was beckoning. Remember? I asked one of my lads. “I remember Stefan Matteau was playing top-six minutes,” he said. Ah, the lads.
The Jackets were scheduled to play the Pittsburgh Penguins in Nationwide Arena on March 12. Then the world shut down.
At the time, the Blue Jackets had lost 12 of their previous 15 games. They were treading water above the playoff line with inflatable arm floaties. They were savaged by injuries.
Josh Anderson, Cam Atkinson, Seth Jones, Dean Kukan and Alexandre Texier were out long term. Joonas Korpisalo, Ryan Murray and Alexander Wennberg were just making their way back into the lineup. The team was the league leader with 418 mangames lost to injury.
Stefan Matteau was playing top-six minutes.
Then the world shut down, nearly five months ago. Lions don’t take that long to gestate. You could look it up.
On Sunday night, the Jackets played their first official game in 147 days, or since the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything. They beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-0 in the qualifying round of what will become the Stanley Cup playoffs of 2020.
In one corner of Scotiabank Arena, Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen watched with assistant GM Bill Zito, vice president for communications Todd Sharrock and director of team services Julie Gamble.
They were among the very few people allowed in the building.
The Jackets entered the Toronto bubble the previous Sunday. It’s a double bubble, really, with one sphere around a downtown hotel and the arena, and another sphere around BMO Field, home of Toronto FC, where there’s another hotel.
“Friday was the first day we got to the other area of the bubble, out by BMO Field,” Sharrock said. “The field is available, and there were teams out there kicking soccer balls, throwing baseballs around, playing wiffle ball, cornhole, Frisbee. There’s a lakeside patio area with food and drinks. Shuttles run every 30 minutes.”
Credentials are worn everywhere. Everyone is tested for the virus at least once a day. Most meals are served at a few designated restaurants within the bubble, or are delivered. If your special phone app doesn’t have a green light, you’ll be quarantined. Masks are to be worn at all times, with few exceptions.
There are 12 teams in the Toronto bubble in the East and 12 in the Edmonton bubble in the West. Each team has a traveling party of 52 people. Eight teams will be eliminated in the qualifying round, during which the series are best-of-five. The tournament proper is all best-of-seven. It will run into October before a Stanley Cup champion is crowned.
Kekalainen spent the past four-plus months Zooming plans for next season, Zooming scouting reports, Zooming draft plans, Zooming his players, coaches and staff, Zooming with a sports psychologist. Then he got to Toronto.
“We had a week to think about it here,” Kekalainen said. “The days were going slow. The Boston (exhibition game Thursday) was good, but playing a real game, that was fun. The butterflies in the stomach were different.
“When the puck dropped Sunday night, I didn’t even realize there were no fans in the building. I was just as focused on my job as the players were on theirs. Everyone knows we need the fans ... but this was it, some real action. Hockey. It was awesome.”
He also said, “I think we can play better.”
The Jackets’ 2-0 victory is being portrayed as a shocking result by Maple Leafs fans who’ve never heard of Dean Kukan or had no idea of Ryan Murray’s quality. The Jackets imposed their will upon the Leafs, not unlike they did on the Tampa Bay Lightning in a firstround sweep last year.
The Jackets took away space and sucked the life out of their opponent. One bad goal allowed by Frederik Andersen felt like a mortal blow — which, on this night, it turned out to be. Although Auston Matthews was the best player on the ice, the one time he got a puck past Korpisalo, it grazed the top of the crossbar.
The Leafs generated one shot on net over the last seven minutes of the game.
“Everyone realizes this is a much shorter series and Game 1 is of huge importance,” Kekalainen said. “That’s how we approached it. Now, Game 2 is just as big. I like our team’s chances. We’re a good team, we play hard, we compete and believe in each other.”
The Jackets are healthy now. Game 2 is at 4 p.m. Tuesday. marace@dispatch.com @Michaelarace1