Jackets refuse to engage in talk of tanking
But chances of picking Bedard go up in defeat
They're going to screw it up again. If you're a Blue Jackets fan who feels that way, it might be time to cover your eyes, because this team's goal is winning in the final two months, which could lessen the Blue Jackets' odds to win the “Connor Bedward Sweepstakes,” via the draft lottery.
It wouldn't be the first time a late heater damages Columbus' lottery odds with a “generational talent” available — imagine Nathan Mackinnon, Connor Mcdavid or Auston Matthews in ‘Union Blue' — but that's of little concern to the Blue Jackets. They weren't thinking about lottery odds going into a game Thursday against the Minnesota Wild ranked 31st out of 32 teams.
“It doesn't say that in my contract, that I've got to worry about that stuff,” forward Patrik Laine said. “I'll just worry about playing. We're here to try to win hockey games, and I think that should be the bare minimum for every game.” Laine is no stranger to draft hype. He was picked second overall in 2016 by the Winnipeg Jets, one slot after the Toronto Maple Leafs took Matthews and one before Columbus selected Pierre-luc Dubois, so he knows what it's like for Bedard, a center who's tearing up the junior-level Western Hockey League for the Regina Pats.
It's just not his prerogative to care. “I've only got one perspective, and it's as a player,” Laine, 24, said. “It's just not right for your own fans to want you to lose just to get a player who's … it's not like it's guaranteed he's going to be ‘sick,' even though he probably has all the tools to become a really good player in this league. It's just wrong.”
Bedard is seen as the NHL'S first “sure thing” since Mcdavid went first to the Edmonton Oilers in 2015. He's not as fast as Mcdavid, a nearly impossible standard to match, but he's not slow and his other skills are elite.
Nobody knows that better than Blue Jackets rookie Kent Johnson, who was picked fifth overall in 2021. Johnson and Bedard are friends after helping Canada win a gold medal at the 2022 world junior championships and skating together in summer workouts near Vancouver. Johnson, while driven to help the Blue Jackets start winning, isn't blind to Bedard's potential.
“I see it with fans (wanting to lose) and I get it,” he said. “He's going to be an unbelievable player for a long time, so I think every team would want to have him. We're just competitive as players, so we want to climb up the standings and win games. We're not thinking about that.”
Brad Larsen, the Blue Jackets' head coach, said that he wouldn't know how to “tank,” if he tried. Associate coach Pascal Vincent, who ran practice Wednesday, said it's just not in a coach's DNA to accept losing, even if the NHL team with the fewest points has a 25.5% chance to win the spring lottery draw.
“We're not wired that way,” he said. “I've seen those young players at the world juniors. All of them that are supposed to be in the top five or six (picks) are supposed to be really good, but as far as I am concerned … the life of a coach (is) we're here today. Tomorrow? We don't know. So, we're in this now." bhedger@dispatch.com @Brianhedger