Bjorkstrand is secret weapon for Jackets
Team’s leading scorer ‘fine being undercover’
It's happening again.
Oliver Bjorkstrand is leading the Blue Jackets in scoring for the second straight season — third by points-pergame — and he's doing it in relative obscurity.
His name is barely mentioned outside Columbus, let alone featured by the NHL'S television partners in the U.S. and Canada, so Bjorkstrand is essentially lying in the weeds once more, acting as the Jackets' silent assassin.
Also, he's fine with it.
“I don't mind,” said Bjorkstrand, 26, who led the Blue Jackets in scoring with six goals, 12 assists and 18 points prior to a game Wednesday against the Winnipeg Jets. “I think it comes a little bit with being in Columbus. Obviously, TSN, all the big(media) markets, they don't really watch us play. So, I feel like I'm a player who maybe doesn't always stick out. But I'm fine being undercover. It's all good. The organization and fans know the player I am, so that's all I
It marks only the third time the Jackets have had double-digit victories through 16 games. It marks only the seventh time they've had a winning record through 16 games. They needed 10 years to do it the first time.
Their best record through 20 games was 14-6-0 (on Thanksgiving Day) in 2010. They finished that season with a 34-35-13 record, darkness descended and coach Ken Hitchcock's days were numbered.
They were among the biggest losers of the decade, in any sport. This was largely the legacy of their first general manager, Doug Maclean, whose inability to build — short-term or long — beat an entire generation of fans out of the building.
Over the ensuing decade, Jackets fans got a taste of something better. They got the 50-24-8, 108-point season of 2016-17. They got the first playoff series victory, a mega-upset sweep of the Tampa Bay Lightning, in 2019. Once again, damnation, through faint praise.
Through 20 years, the team has never come close to contending for the Stanley Cup.
Now, there is a distant hope. Out of their blue, they seem to be rising. Oh, it's not meteoric. Yet, given the plan that has been so clearly set, it's encouraging. They had three first-round picks last year. Depending on the Chicago Blackhawks meeting certain conditions laid out in the Seth Jones trade, they've also got two next year, or the year after. And Cole Sillinger is no Alexandre Picard, if you catch my drift.
Suddenly, they're 10-6, and they're a blast to watch. If you're one to overuse exclamation points, feel free to throw four or five !s in there.
Some of the hardcore fans are watching every game hoping for a 6-5 overtime loss; they want to see the young talent unleashed while they root for a better draft position. Their coldly realistic countenances are warmed, for good and ill, when the Jackets score in bunches and claw out a victory (like the one in Buffalo Monday night).
There is also a group of fans who are saying things like, “This is what happens when you get rid of Torts and let the team play.” There is a kernel of truth in this, but, really, it's beside the point. Tortorella was the greatest coach in franchise history, and the team would not have made the playoffs four years in a row without him.
Recently, Tortorella got a lot of criticism for saying Connor Mcdavid has to “change his game a bit” to win in the playoffs. While it's ridiculous to suggest the best player in the game needs to retool, if the NHL does not change the way it referees playoff games, Tortorella may be right. Ask Barry Trotz about that. Or,
Jon Cooper.
Tortorella's successor, Brad Larsen, as well appears to be the right coach at the right time. With the highest blessing of low expectations, a defense that is light on jam and a group that is merely dotted with veterans and extremely heavy with youth, he has let out the reins to suit his personnel.
They're undefeated (5-0) in extratime games. Even their power play is working. Patrik Laine (oblique) is on the shelf. He has been a point-per-game player, and they don't even seem to miss him.
Youth is being embraced. Lines, and defensive pairings, are being maintained from shift to shift and period to period. Mistakes do not necessarily lead directly to the doghouse. This is especially impactful if you are a young defenseman, such as Adam Boqvist, Jake Bean or Andrew Peeke. You will be whelmed, or even overwhelmed, at times — but you are still looking to make the quickest pass for the quickest exit, even if it's a 30-foot diagonal.
These Jackets go, go, go. They skate. They fly, even. The old guys — Boone Jenner, suddenly an offensive threat, Jake Voracek, playing alongside Yegor Chinakhov and Sillinger, and Gus Nyqvist, to name a few — seem to be having a ball.
Is that Jack Roslovic out there? There he is. Is that Max Domi? By gum, it is. They're playing with joy. marace@dispatch.com