Columbus Blue Jackets News Clips April 11, 2018
Columbus Blue Jackets PAGE 02: Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets | Key veterans return to form, boost playoff push PAGE 04: Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets | Slumping penalty kill gets work in practice PAGE 06: Columbus Dispatch: NHL playoffs: Here’s how the Blue Jackets played against the Capitals this season PAGE 11: Columbus Dispatch: Michael Arace | Cam Atkinson could help Jackets carve new path PAGE 13: The Athletic: Blue Jackets defenseman Markus Nutivaara ready to find 'another gear' in playoffs PAGE 16: The Athletic: Having each other's back: Dynamic pairing Seth Jones and Zach Werenski are there for one another and the Blue Jackets PAGE 22: The Athletic: An incredible journey: Artemi Panarin's path from poverty to NHL stardom PAGE 30: ESPN: Capitals-Blue Jackets preview, pick: Ovi too much for Columbus
Cleveland Monsters/Prospects
NHL/Websites PAGE 32: Sportsnet.ca: Humboldt survivor Straschnitzki just ‘happy to be alive’ PAGE 35: Sportsnet.ca: Golden Knights aim to keep proving doubters wrong in first playoff run PAGE 37: USA Today: NHL playoffs 2018: Four bold predictions PAGE 38: USA Today: What will Vegas be like for Golden Knights' playoff encore after regular- season 'pool party'? PAGE 24: USA Today: Power ranking all 16 teams
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Blue Jackets | Key veterans return to form, boost playoff push By George Richards – April 11, 2018
Coach John Tortorella may not have the reputation as the most patient man in the world, but he definitely showed tolerance earlier this season when a lot of things weren’t going right.
The struggles of some of the top players on the Blue Jackets were well-documented throughout the season.
Tortorella, for one, publicly stood behind the likes of Cam Atkinson, Nick Foligno, Boone Jenner, Brandon Dubinsky and Alexander Wennberg, hoping they would turn things around.
He didn’t have much choice.
Although Tortorella showed them tough love at times, he never turned on them in such a way that they gave up on their season.
“We don’t have a sniff of playing or even talking today; we would be breaking up today if those guys didn’t come through,” Tortorella said on Tuesday.
As a result, the Jackets have put off locker clean-out day for at least a few more days thanks to core players starting to produce like they had in the past.
Some — Atkinson has 18 goals and 33 points in his past 33 games — have fared better than others.
Yet the Blue Jackets likely would not have gotten to this point — they open the Stanley Cup playoffs on Thursday night at the Washington Capitals — without all of them contributing something.
“You’ve just got to find a way to hang your hat on something or get a result somehow,” said Foligno, the team captain who was benched by Tortorella during a game against San Jose on Feb. 2 and has six goals and 12 points since despite missing 10 games with injury.
“I think we’re really starting to shift our mindset to winning hockey games and that’s all we care about. That’s what great teams do. They don’t care how you get it done. You’ve just got to get it done. It’s so important to playoff hockey.”
Said Tortorella: “That’s where I feel good about the team. I think we’re playing some of our best hockey, as a group and certainly the individuals that I spent months talking about early in the year, of hoping they get going, they found their way. And I think with them and the additions at the deadline, I think our group feels good about itself.”
Tortorella spoke earlier in the season of his core players — those whom the Blue Jackets had identified as players to build around and signed long term — trying to recognize that, at some point in the season, having a strong statistical season was probably over with.
“The numbers,” he said in February, “are going to be ugly.”
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Yet, if they could put that behind them and move forward and help the team reach its goal of the postseason, all would be well.
Many of those players, Atkinson included, ended the regular season with their lowest point totals in years.
They did, however, play well enough when it counted to help their team win 13 of 16 — which included a 10-game winning streak — to help them get into the playoffs.
“We definitely feel there’s a confidence in that offensive ability that maybe we didn’t have at the start of the year,” Foligno said. “It has help us win hockey games and needs to help us win hockey games moving forward.”
The Blue Jackets seemed to need every goal, too, as they clinched a playoff spot in the second-to-last game of the season.
“We all need to step up even more,” said Jenner, who scored seven of his 13 goals in the final 17 games. “We found a way to get into the playoffs and that was the main thing. Now we have a chance to play. We want to keep contributing any way we can.”
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Blue Jackets | Slumping penalty kill gets work in practice By Steve Gorten – April 11, 2018
The Blue Jackets’ penalty kill was third-best in the NHL (85.7 percent) through the first 30 games, but the worst (70.8) the rest of the regular season, a sobering statistic underscored in the final three games.
The Blue Jackets were only 5 of 11 (45.5 percent) on kills against Detroit, Pittsburgh and Nashville. Things won’t get any easier when the playoffs start on Thursday. The Washington Capitals’ power play ranks seventh in the league (22.5 percent) and has scored at least once in each of the teams’ four matchups (4 of 10) this season. Predictably, the Jackets devoted a chunk of Tuesday’s practice to penalty-killing.
“That’s going to be a huge point in this series, how we conduct it,” coach John Tortorella said. “It has been inconsistent this year. I’m not going to hide from that. You just try to wipe the slate clean and get about your business here. ... Hopefully, we’re smart enough that we keep control of ourselves, our emotions, we’re a disciplined team, and not sitting in that box a whole bunch in this series.”
Tortorella and left wing Boone Jenner said the Blue Jackets have focused on the Capitals’ tendencies. That includes Alex Ovechkin firing away from the left faceoff circle, where Artemi Panarin ripped shots during Tuesday’s practice.
“Everyone in the world knows where his spot is, where he likes to shoot from,” Jackets defenseman Ryan Murray said of Ovechkin, whose 229 career power-play goals rank 10th in NHL history and are 96 more than the players with the next most — Thomas Vanek and Evgeni Malkin — since Ovechkin entered the league in 2005.
Ovechkin has 17 power-play goals this season. T.J. Oshie ranks second on the team with nine. Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom have seven apiece.
“It’s tough,” defenseman Ian Cole said. “You go stand somebody over on Ovechkin and they go 4-on-3 on the other half of the ice, and they’ve got four other world-class players out there. You’ve got to find a happy medium where you certainly shade Ovechkin, but certainly are aware of everybody else.”
Grubauer in goal
Philipp Grubauer will start in goal in Game 1, Capitals coach Barry Trotz told reporters on Tuesday.
Braden Holtby was an All-Star this season but has struggled since. He has a 2.99 goals-against average and .907 save percentage in 54 games.
Grubauer, who began sharing starts in mid-February, has a 2.35 goals-against average and .923 save percentage in 35 games.
“Grubi deserves the opportunity,” Trotz said, citing Grubauer’s “body of work” as his reason. “Trust me, it wasn’t an easy decision.”
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Tortorella said, “It doesn’t change how we go about our business.”
Wennberg and Washington
Center Alexander Wennberg was a greater factor offensively the final two months but enters the playoffs without a point in his past four games. He has two points the past seven.
Wennberg, who has one goal in 16 career games against the Capitals, had one point (an assist) in five games against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the playoffs last year.
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NHL playoffs: Here’s how the Blue Jackets played against the Capitals this season By Staff – April 11, 2018
As the Columbus Blue Jackets get ready to take on the Washington Capitals in the NHL playoffs, we look back at their four games this season against each other. Washington won three of the four games. The teams play in a first-round NHL playoffs series beginning Thursday in Washington.
Dec. 2
Capitals 4, Blue Jackets 3
Capital One Arena
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The dozy start hurt. So did the back-to-back penalties late in the second period. And the bad line change in the third.
Those errors contributed to a 4-3 loss for the Blue Jackets at Capital One Arena on this Saturday night. The Capitals seized on the advantages, so good on them, and good on their goaltender Braden Holtby.
It was an entertaining game, right down to the goal that wasn’t a goal — Pierre-Luc Dubois’ bid with 1:46 remaining in regulation, a wrist shot that got through Holtby and somehow died in front of the goal line.
“I thought it was in,” Dubois said. “I saw Bread (Artemi Panarin) celebrate. It just died. Game of inches. I thought it was in the net.”
On Friday night, the Blue Jackets beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-2 at Nationwide Arena. The Capitals were rested and waiting. These back-to-backs, they can be nasty little things.
“Other than the (mistakes), I thought we showed some resiliency,” Jackets coach John Tortorella said.
To the surprise of no one save the Jackets, the Capitals pounced early.
They scored on their second and third shots of the game, ostensibly because goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was left unprotected. On the first goal, Jackets defensemen Jack Johnson and David Savard got caught high and left the slot wide open for the Caps’ third-line left wing, Brett Connolly.
“Once we got heavy with them down low, it gave them fits,” Jackets captain Nick Foligno said.
The Jackets did not quit. They outshot the Caps 17-3 in the third period.
“One thing about our team is we’re in shape,” Foligno said. “You can’t go through a training camp like we do and not be. It was just a little too little, too late.”
— Michael Arace
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Feb. 6
Capitals 3, Blue Jackets 2
Nationwide Arena
There have been nights this season when the Blue Jackets have played horribly, yet somehow skated off with a two-goal win.
Tuesday against the Capitals, the Jackets played well enough to win, just like they did Saturday against the Islanders, coach John Tortorella noted.
“We just find ways to lose,” he said.
The Jackets lost their fourth consecutive game, and fifth in the past six, on Tuesday and in a fashion that felt like “a kick in the stomach.”
Nicklas Backstrom scored with 42.9 seconds left to lift the Caps to a 3-2 win at Nationwide Arena, stripping the Jackets of the point in the standings they had appeared to secure with Brandon Dubinsky’s tying goal with 6:05 left.
“We’ve got s--- for luck right now. But that can’t get us down,” Tortorella said. “We’ve got to stay together here, keep our patience and composure and keep on working at our game.”
Tortorella said he was encouraged by the way the Jackets have played their past two games, and that he judges the team based on performance and not always the result. “Our game is coming,” he said.
But that didn’t make Tuesday’s setback any easier to stomach.
“That one hurts,” Tortorella said. “Forget the coaches. How about the guys with the uniforms on? That’s a tough one for them.”
— Steve Gorten
Feb. 9
Capitals 4, Blue Jackets 2
Capital One Arena
WASHINGTON, D.C. — When Columbus began a run of playing 10 of its next games against divisional opponents last weekend, the Blue Jackets knew they had better get back to winning.
Not only has Columbus lost its first three of this crucial set of games without collecting a point, but the Jackets dropped out of a playoff spot following a 4-2 loss to the Washington Capitals on Friday night.
Columbus has lost its past five games heading into Saturday against New Jersey at Nationwide Arena and 12 of 17.
“We know we have it in us to be a playoff team and a lot more,” Nick Foligno said. “We just have to find our game again. We’re a little fragile right now.”
The best news to come out of Friday was the relative health of defenseman Zach Werenski.
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Werenski left the game late in the second period after he was inadvertently kicked hard in the groin by the skate boot of T.J. Oshie as he went down to the ice when the two were tangled up.
After being helped off the ice and into the locker room by two worried teammates, Werenski returned for the start of the third.
“He’s a tough kid,” said defensive partner Seth Jones.
“Poor guy,” Foligno added.
Werenski said he didn’t want to be too descriptive about the injury, but was in a joking mood as were some of his teammates due to the nature of the incident.
Everyone was just glad their young All-Star was relatively OK.
“I feel OK and I’m sure most of you guys can understand the kind of pain I was in there,” Werenski said.
“I feel pretty good right now. It wasn’t fun by any means. I won’t go into details, but I’m fine. I avoided hopping the boards a little bit.”
What the Jackets weren’t smiling about was their record of late.
Columbus again failed to solve Washington goalie Braden Holtby as the Caps improved to 3-0 against the Jackets this season.
“I thought we played a pretty good game,” Jones said. “We didn’t give them much, but they capitalized.”
Washington took a pair of leads in the first period only to watch Columbus come right back and tie things up.
Down 1-0, Pierre-Luc Dubois hammered a loose puck and beat Holtby at 6:28 of the first.
Washington took a 2-1 lead at the first break after Evgeny Kuznetsov charged out of the penalty box and scored with 1.4 seconds left after chasing down a loose puck to the left of Sergei Bobrovsky.
Columbus made it a 2-2 game early in the second when Jones whipped a shot and Artemi Panarin redirected it past Holtby.
Washington scored the next two goals to take a 4-2 lead as Columbus kept firing at Holtby.
“There’s no sense in getting frustrated, we just have to work through it,” coach John Tortorella said. “We just have to finish.”
— George Richards
Feb. 26
Blue Jackets 5, Capitals 1
Nationwide Arena
The Blue Jackets came out Monday with speed and determination, looking like a different team than has been seen the past few months.
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Being a buyer at the trade deadline with management showing they believe in you sometimes has that affect.
With two of the three newcomers in the lineup — not counting a recalled Sonny Milano — Columbus scored four goals in the first to beat division rival Washington 5-1 at Nationwide Arena.
Although defenseman Ian Cole didn’t factor into the scoring, both Mark Letestu and Milano did as they scored in a fast-paced opening period .
Cam Atkinson finished off a three-point night with a late empty net goal.
“There was a heightened sense of urgency. They’re in a fight,” said Letestu, who left Columbus as a free agent in 2015 and was re-acquired from Edmonton on Sunday.
“Everyone in here is ready for this fight. Right from the first puck drop, we knew what was on the line and it showed in the play.”
Washington had won 10 of its past 13 against the Jackets yet Columbus never trailed Monday and took a three-goal lead into the second with its second four-goal period of the season.
“The bench was more alive, guys seemed relaxed after the deadline,” coach John Tortorella said. “We got contributions from everyone, the new guys as well as the team who has been here.”
Artemi Panarin got the party going with his sixth power play goal of the year off a terrific feed from Seth Jones. Panarin obliterated the puck with a hard one-time shot.
After Alex Ovechkin tied the score with a power play blast of his own, Milano shoveled a backhander from the slot and beat Braden Holtby.
“We were buzzing. It was awesome,” said Sergei Bobrovsky, who had 25 saves. “We have new faces who will help us. We’re excited about this. It’s time.”
Letestu scored his first goal for the Jackets since March 18, 2015 when he pounced on a pass from Matt Calvert from behind the net.
Jones, who assisted on two of the first three goals, got a power play goal of his own with 1:43 left when he fired a shot that Alexander Wennberg avoided by hopping out of the way.
“There was a little jump. It was a good win and we kind of owed this team,” Jones said. “I thought everyone had it. We had all four lines going, Bob was great. There were some new faces and it’s nice knowing this is the group we’re going to ride it out with.”
The second period opened with Calvert in the locker room after being ejected with a match penalty for popping Ovechkin.
After Tortorella and Ovechkin traded heated words before the second started, Columbus killed off the extended power play and continued on its way.
“That’s my fault. I thought he dove and I signaled to him,” Tortorella said of Ovechkin.
“He took exception. I have no business making any gesture or saying anything to a player. That’s not on him; that’s just stupidity on my part.”
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— George Richards
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Michael Arace | Cam Atkinson could help Jackets carve new path By Michael Arace – April 11, 2018
It took a week for Henry Thoreau to wear a path from his cabin through the woods to Walden Pond. Five or six years later, Thoreau marveled at how the path was still there.
One hundred and seventy three years later, researchers say Walden Pond is being “killed” by human waste and climate change ... but that is a different story. The point here has to do with a path, a frozen pond, the passage of time and, quite possibly, an overwrought metaphor.
John Tortorella is from Concord, Massachusetts, by the way. Just saying.
Tortorella coaches the Columbus Blue Jackets, who, after 18 years, have trod two paths — one of which leads to the draft lottery, the other to a quick playoff exit. Their fans have long wondered when their team might take a more transcendental turn, if only for a round.
April 9, 2018
Is this the year? The Jackets, who finished in fourth place in the Metropolitan Division, on Thursday open a first-round series against the Washington Capitals, who finished first in the Metro. Historically speaking, the Jackets have done nothing, and the Capitals have done little more than disappoint. Who knows what the next week holds? I don’t.
There are a lot of good things going for both teams. On the Jackets’ side, there is the impact of the three guys who came over at the trade deadline, the presence (finally) of an elite scorer in Artemi Panarin, and the hossification of defenseman Seth Jones, among other things.
Yet, as I was watching Monday’s practice at the Ice Haus, my eyes were drawn to Cam Atkinson. He has always been a cocky little cuss, but of late, all of his body language screams, “Give me the damn puck.” He is a human stick-tap.
“I think he’s at a higher level now than even he was at last year,” Tortorella said. “And it’s at a perfect time.”
Last year, Atkinson had a career year with 35 goals and 62 points.
In October, just three weeks into a new season, Atkinson missed four games with a lower-body injury. A month later, he signed a seven-year, $41.1 million contract extension. And a month after that, he suffered a foot fracture that shelved him for four weeks. At that point, he had six goals and nine points in 22 games, and fans were talking about him as trade bait.
“People can talk about the first half of the season, but I’ve already forgotten about it,” Atkinson said.
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Then, he remembered it, in the context of playing with Panarin: “I think it was tough early on just for the fact that I was playing so ... ” (here he uses a word that translates to “anthropogenic nutrients,” which, by the way, are the reason authorities want to close Walden Pond to swimmers.)
Atkinson returned Jan. 25 and was soon put on a line with rookie Pierre-Luc Dubois in the middle and Panarin on the left. In the last 33 games of the season, Atkinson had 18 goals and 33 points. A point per game. That is some serious anthropogenic nutrients.
Among current Jackets, only Matt Calvert has been with the team longer than Atkinson, who has seven seasons behind him and seven to go. He is already among the most prolific Blue Jackets of all time. Only Rick Nash has more goals. Only Rick Nash and David Vyborny have more points. It sneaks up on you, eh?
“I’ve been a part of some times where it was not so much fun to come to the rink,” Atkinson said. “But this is the deepest we’ve ever been heading into the playoffs. I know we have a huge opportunity to make a serious run, if not bring the Stanley Cup to Columbus.”
For two generations of fans, that would be a new and marvelous path.
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Blue Jackets defenseman Markus Nutivaara ready to find 'another gear' in playoffs By Tom Reed – April 11, 2018
Two seminal moments in the career of Markus Nutivaara required injuries to teammates for him to make his mark.
The first came three years ago when he played so well in replacing a star defenseman during the Finnish league playoffs that the Blue Jackets ended up drafting him.
His second big opportunity was last spring when a facial fracture suffered by Zach Werenski enabled Nutivaara to enter the opening-round series against the Penguins in Game 4. He contributed a goal and an assist in the Jackets’ only win.
“It did feel good to get in those last two games, but you hate to see one of your teammates getting hurt,” Nutivaara said.
He won’t need anyone’s misfortune to participate in the Blue Jackets’ series opener against the Capitals. In a sign of his continued development, Nutivaara will be in the lineup Thursday night at Capital One Arena.
The coaching staff has opted to play the 23-year-old defenseman ahead of veteran Jack Johnson. Nobody would have forecast such a scenario in October when Nutivaara, returning from offseason hip surgery, started the season in the minors.
But the youngster’s ability to make crisp outlet passes, contribute offensively and improve his one-on- one coverage has kept him in the lineup when healthy. It isn’t a case of Johnson’s play eroding to the point where coaches thought they needed to make a change. It’s a matter of Nutivaara’s game evolving to the point where even the addition of Ian Cole at the trade deadline couldn't squeeze him out of the top-three pairings.
“He’s always been a guy who can skate and move the puck,” assistant coach Brad Shaw said. “What he has now is a little more confidence, a little more body strength, a little more ability to play against the higher-level players in the game and have success. He’s a guy we feel real comfortable putting on the ice.”
Several weeks ago, the club illustrated its growing trust in Nutivaara, signing him to a four-year contract extension worth $10.8 million. (He’s earning $817,500 this season, per spotrac.com.) Not a bad pay hike for someone who didn’t get drafted until his third and final year of eligibility.
“It feels good, and I’m ready to take that next step,” said Nutivaara, who posted career highs in goals (seven), assists (16) and points (23).
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Jarmo Kekalainen has signed and drafted more impactful players than the 6-foot-1, 191-pound defenseman, but Nutivaara represents the front office’s best find at No. 189 overall in the 2015 draft.
His vision and nerve fit seamlessly with John Tortorella’s mantra of “Safe is death.”
Nutivaara’s stretch passes are among the best on the Jackets’ blue line. So are some of his advanced statistics. He leads the team’s defensemen in points per 60 (1.24), primary points per 60 (.92) and expected goals-for percentage (53.46) at five-on-five play, according to Corsica.hockey.
“He (has shown he) belongs, he can dictate play,” captain Nick Foligno said. “You saw that this year where he was a pretty steady player for us throughout the whole season.”
Nutivaara had a decent rookie season compromised by a lingering hip problem. It was his two-game performance in the playoffs, however, that set the tone for this campaign. He was assertive with the puck and confident in his reads.
“I don’t want to call it a coming-out party, but I think he realized ‘I can do this on one of the biggest stages,’ ’’ Foligno recalled. “I just started to see a little more confidence in him.”
Nutivaara’s biggest drawback has been an assortment of injuries that have cost him 12 games this season. He sat out the final three regular-season matches with an upper-body injury, leading some to wonder whether John Tortorella would stick with Johnson to open the playoffs.
Instead, the coach opted to go right back to Nutivaara.
“I enjoy every second of playoff time,” Nutivaara said. “I think I get more relaxed. You don’t have to think that much. You have to just go out there and do your best. I think it’s a time of year when you find another gear.”
Notebook
• The biggest news of the day came out of Washington, where the Capitals named Philipp Grubauer their starter for Game 1. Grubauer and Braden Holtby have been splitting starts since mid-February. Holtby started all four regular-season games against the Blue Jackets, going 3-1-0 with a .913 save percentage and 3.32 goals-against average.
Grubauer started 10 of the past 17 games, recording a 7-3-0 record with a .925 save percentage and 2.31 goals-against average.
“It doesn't change how we go about our business,” Tortorella said. “ … (We work) on odds and ends a little more than the regular season as far as tendency of the (opponent) because it is a two-week series, but when it comes to goalies and all that, no.”
• There were no lineup changes from Monday's practice. Sonny Milano and Jack Johnson, among the regulars, remain the odd-men out. Tortorella cautioned Monday the lineup can be fluid from game to game.
• The Blue Jackets worked on their struggling penalty kill Tuesday with some of their top offensive players simulating the Capitals' power play. As the session began, Artemi Panarin hammered several shots from the left circle a la Alexander Ovechkin.
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“You know he's a pretty good guy in that circle, too,” Tortorella said.
• The club flew to Washington on Tuesday night and will practice at the Capital One Arena.
• Make sure to read Aaron Portzline's incredible profile of Panarin that will appear on The Athletic on Wednesday. Porty spent months reporting and pursuing this story. The payoff was worth it.
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Having each other's back: Dynamic pairing Seth Jones and Zach Werenski are there for one another and the Blue Jackets By Tom Reed – April 11, 2018
Seth Jones and Zach Werenski have played more even-strength minutes together than any NHL defensive pairing in the past two regular seasons in part because of how well they read off each other.
As John Tortorella discovered, their telepathy doesn’t end when the games are over.
A month ago, Jones sensed his partner struggling with the volume of information coming from Blue Jackets coaches and the tone in which it sometimes was being delivered. It had been a tough stretch for the gifted Werenski, 20, who’s played the majority of the season with an undisclosed upper-body injury.
Jones, 23, asked to meet with Tortorella in his office. It was the first time the defenseman had made such a request since arriving here in a Jan. 6, 2016, blockbuster trade with the Predators.
The Norris Trophy candidate was brief and direct.
“Jonesy sat down and said, 'I have him. He doesn't need a lot more information. He’s my partner and I want to help him.’ ” Tortorella told The Athletic. “It was such a great thing for me because I know the kid is going to be in good hands. As coaches, we over-coach them and give them too much information. Sometimes, we probably hurt the guys.”
Tortorella was impressed with the leadership Jones had exhibited in the five-minute meeting — yet another sign of his growing influence within the organization.
The coach acknowledged he had “leaned too much” on Werenski at a time the second-year player was altering his game to compensate for the injury and he admitted to getting “caught in between” in how to coach last year’s Calder Trophy finalist.
“So when I have a guy like Jonesy come in and say, 'I have my partner's back,' that's good enough for me,” Tortorella recalled. “I said, ‘I’m out.’ ”
As the Blue Jackets began preparation Monday for their opening-round playoff series against the Capitals, Werenski spoke about that pivotal moment in his season.
Not many can relate to the pressure he has experienced as a former first-round draft pick asked to play significant minutes during his first two seasons. Jones, however, went through the same scenario in Nashville.
The mobile defensemen with similar skill sets not only are dynamic partners — ones driving the Blue Jackets’ offense from the back end — they’re also close friends who look out for each other on and off the ice.
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“I count on him,” Werenski said of Jones. “When I’m not playing well, he knows what needs to be said and how to get me out of it, and that’s been huge for me. It’s been a great formula.
“EVERYONE SAYS PLAYING IN THE NHL IS GREAT, BUT I DON’T THINK IT WOULD BE AS MUCH FUN IF I HADN’T BEEN PLAYING WITH SETH. HE MAKES ME A BETTER PLAYER. I LEARN A LOT FROM WATCHING HIM. EVERY DAY, IT’S FUN COMING TO THE RINK KNOWING I’M ON THE LEFT SIDE OF HIM.”
On a team not blessed with an arsenal of game-breaking forwards, Jones and Werenski have supplied ample offense, embodying Tortorella’s vision of the defense serving as the team’s “engine.”
Each scored 16 goals this season, tying a franchise record for blueliners and finishing only one behind league leaders Victor Hedman, Dougie Hamilton and Ivan Provorov. While some teams consider themselves fortunate to have one high-scoring defenseman, the Blue Jackets boast two.
Jones and Werenski became the first two defenders from the same club to score at least 16 goals in a season since Mathieu Schneider (21) and Nicklas Lidstrom (16) did it for the Red Wings in 2005-06.
“What I see is two players who are feeding off each other and the freedom their coaches have given them,” former two-time Norris Trophy winner Brian Leetch told The Athletic. “The Blue Jackets have something really special with those two guys.”
It was coach John Tortorella's idea to pair Seth Jones and Zach Werenski during the 2016 training camp. “I just wanted to see if they could play together.” (USA Today)
The genesis
Tortorella loves to dispel coaching myths. One of his favorites is that staffs spend hours trying to create the perfect forward lines and defense pairings.
In today’s NHL, partnerships dissolve quicker than Kardashian marriages. There are hockey websites devoted to the ever-changing Rubik’s Cube of combinations.
“I just wanted to put Z and Jonesy together in training camp last season,” Tortorella said. “I am not going to pretend there was another thought in my head. I just wanted to see if they could play together. I did not know if it would work or not.”
Since the start of last season, Jones and Werenski have been paired together at even strength for 2,296 minutes, according to Corsica.hockey. Among the 38 defensive tandems playing at least 1,000 minutes, none have logged more ice time than the Blue Jackets’ All-American tandem. They are becoming the new Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook.
The only time Werenski and Jones are apart is when one or the other is out of the lineup.
“That’s a pretty cool pairing, a tempo pairing, one that paces our team,” Tortorella said. “You could see right away as they started getting comfortable that they paced us, they made us play quicker.”
The duo has been efficient at both ends. They rank seventh in Corsi For (54.27) among partners with at least 1,000 minutes in the past two seasons and 10th in limiting shots against per 60 (52.37).
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Jones and Werenski possess a Sedin Twins-like understanding of where each other is on the ice. When Werenski sees a puck coming from low to high in the offensive zone he knows his partner is probably going to one-time it, he said.
Tortorella has given both defensemen license to jump into rushes and rove all over the offensive zone. They instinctively know when their partner is going deep or pinching at the blue line.
“Keeping those two together is a huge luxury,” Leetch said. “As long as the Blue Jackets are happy with their other pairings, you could see why they would want to keep those guys together.”
The youngsters met four years ago when Werenski was playing on the national development team with Jones’ brother, Caleb. They also are represented by the same agency.
It wasn’t until the 2016 training camp, however, that a friendship began to blossom. Jones was coming off a chaotic season in which he had been traded to the Blue Jackets and endured some criticism from Tortorella for his slow starts to games.
Traded for center Ryan Johansen, Jones was viewed by the Jackets as the first major piece in rebuilding the defensive corps after he had spent two-plus seasons in Nashville.
“You could see he had all the tools, his mobility and the fundamentals were in place,” said Sabres coach Phil Housley, who had served as a Predators assistant during Jones' time with the team. “It was more or less getting experience. He was put in a tough position his first year when (Roman) Josi went down and he had to play with Shea Weber, facing difficult matchups.
“The reads and reactions off those reads — playing defense and knowing your opponent in the league game in and game out — makes it tough to have consistency. He had to learn all those things and he really developed in Nashville.”
Jones absorbed all the knowledge Weber was willing to dispense and paid close attention to how the Predators’ captain led the team. There’s little question Werenski has become the biggest beneficiary of Jones’ time with the Predators.
“He can relate to me on a personal level,” Werenski said. “Coaches are on us every day, and they are looking out for our best interests, wanting us to be the best players, people and team we can be. But sometimes in the translation it can get lost what we’re going through out there. You have to experience it and be a part of it. I think Seth has been really understanding of that, especially with me.”
While Jones signed a six-year, $32.4 million contract extension prior to his first full season in Columbus, it was Werenski who generated many of the headlines for his outstanding rookie campaign. Observers were wowed with the teenager’s poise with the puck and ability to thread wrist shots through traffic.
Some players in Jones’ position might have been jealous of the attention Werenski received. Jones couldn’t have been happier for his defense partner. The same has held true this season only with Werenski talking up his partner's chances for the Norris Trophy.
“Z makes me a better player,” Jones said. “We’re blessed with the opportunity we are given and we’re just trying to run with it. We’re still growing and we’re trying to be difference makers. That’s what we always say: ‘Be difference makers tonight.’ Whether that’s offensively, defensively, great blocked shot,
18 stick on pucks that lead to offense for somebody else. Every shift we have together it’s full-attack mode offensively or defensively.”
Jones earned his first All-Star nod last season and followed it up with a breakout campaign this season, registering 57 points. In his final 13 games, which pushed the Blue Jackets into the postseason, he tallied six goals and 10 assists, while playing with a rib injury suffered March 8 against the Avalanche.
His combination of size (6-foot-4, 208), skating, defensive positioning and hockey acumen are rare. Jones, the son of former NBA player Popeye Jones, is a tremendous athlete. He patrols the offensive blue line like a Gold Glove shortstop, getting to pucks that seem destined to be cleared from the zone.
“I expect to see what he’s doing right now for the next six, seven, eight years as he goes through the prime of his career,” said Leetch, a nine-time All-Star and Hockey Hall of Famer. “I definitely think his (Norris Trophy consideration) is warranted. He’s played such a pivotal role. Anyone who’s up for the Norris is out there in every situation and is relied upon by his team.
“He’s certainly going to get votes and whether he’s in the top three I don’t know, but he deserves to be in the conversation.”
Red, white and Blue Jackets
Leetch spent a morning last week pondering a question that left him stumped.
The United States has produced some terrific NHL defensemen, including Leetch, Housley, Gary Suter, Schneider, Ken Morrow, Al Iafrate, Brian Rafalski and Chris Chelios.
But in the history of the league can you name a great American defensive pairing?
“I was thinking about this at the gym, and I couldn’t come up with one,” Leetch said. “The Chelios-Suter pairing came to mind, but then I realized they only played together for us on international teams.”
Jones and Werenski have the potential to be that epic tandem.
Leetch said someday soon the pair will trade the red, white and blue of the Jackets for the red, white and blue of Team USA at World Cups and Olympics — assuming the NHL resumes sending players to the competition.
“It would be awesome,” Werenski said. “Maybe in the future it will happen. In four years, if we are still playing together, that’s when we are going to be at our peak.”
Zach Werenski replaced his partner Seth Jones at this year's All-Star Game when Jones became ill. (USA Today)
Pleasure and pain
Seated on a large couch in a Nationwide Arena lounge, Jones and Werenski revealed a few of their off- ice interests last week.
Jones has an affinity for nice cars and basketball, he said. Hearing this statement, his partner could not resist a dig.
“He finished last in the NCAA Tournament pool,” Werenski said.
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Jones shot him a sideways glance.
“I don’t like college basketball, I like the NBA, so let me clarify that,” Jones said.
The two defensemen are close, but not inseparable. Jones tends to hang out with Boone Jenner and Josh Anderson. Werenski spends time away from the rink with Markus Nutivaara, Lukas Sedlak and Oliver Bjorkstrand.
Video games also are a big part of Werenski’s downtime. He hops on Xbox and plays online with his NHL pals Auston Matthews, Dylan Larkin and Charlie McAvoy as well as friends and family from back home in suburban Detroit.
But hockey is what drives and consumes Werenski and Jones.
The tenor of the recent conversation turned serious as they discussed the facial fracture Werenski suffered last spring in Game 3 of the playoff series against the Penguins. It wasn’t the gruesome details of the mishap that changed the nature of the discussion. It was what the Blue Jackets lost with Werenski out of the lineup.
“I thought we were in full attack mode offensively, especially,” he said. “We weren’t scoring much, but I thought we were driving our team if I’m going to be really honest.
“If I’m out there in the third period or overtime, maybe it’s a different outcome. I don’t know.”
Added Jones: “I don’t think we fully recovered from that injury (in the five-game series setback). We had some chances to win that game. It was such a turning point in the series.”
Werenski’s point total and consistently level are down slightly this season. At least part of the issue is attributed to the pain he continues to endure. Tortorella believes Werenski will mentally benefit long term from having played through the injury.
Jones is proud of his partner’s resilience. Werenski was voted the Blue Jackets’ nominee for the Masterson Trophy, annually presented to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.
“It’s important to play because it shows teammates you want to be out there,” Jones said. “I know certain injuries do prevent you from playing at some point. But every night he’s doing the same thing, playing the same way even though he is a little banged up. That’s so important given the big role he plays for us.”
The partners are excited about the prospects for the playoffs and the future. It’s their strong desire to remain paired as long as the coaching staff allows it.
The Blue Jackets finished second to Nashville in goals scored from defensemen this season with 51. Jones believes the tandem’s best seasons lie ahead.
“I think we are only going to get better, Jones said. “Not to speak for myself, but Zach is only going to get better. We’ve accomplished some things together playing almost two years straight now. You don’t see that too much anymore, where guys stay together that long. I really hope it lasts.”
20
Jones and Werenski are there for each other — a message their coach received loud and clear last month.
21 https://theathletic.com/308056/2018/04/11/an-incredible-journey-artemi-panarins-path-from-poverty- to-nhl-stardom/
An incredible journey: Artemi Panarin's path from poverty to NHL stardom By Aaron Portzline – April 11, 2018
The 8-year-old boy stood shaking and scared in the middle of a bus station in Chelyabinsk, Russia, tears gathering in his eyes and dripping off his cheeks. His panicked hands rifled through the same pockets over and over for the bus ticket he could not afford to lose.
At the previous stop, he’d reached into a secret pocket on the inside of his pants — to the left of the zipper, just behind the waist — to buy a snack for the 25-mile trip from Korkino to Chelyabinsk. The ticket must have been left at the counter when he reached for his money.
His grandmother didn’t just put the rubles in that pocket, she sewed that pocket into his jeans, too, hoping robbers wouldn’t find it when they patted him down. This was more than 900 miles east of Moscow and just eight years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Poverty was a permanent cloud in the Chelyabinsk region, and crime was rampant. Even kids weren’t safe.
The boy stood trembling at the world’s mercy. Most mistook him for a 5- or 6-year-old, a golden mop of hair on top of a frail 65-pounder, all ribs and elbows and knees.
Two men emerged from the swirl of legs and luggage. “Where are your parents? Why are you crying? Are you lost?”
They looked around the station for an adult accomplice, fearing a ruse. One gave the boy the money in exchange for a promise that he’d spend it on a bus ticket. Even kids couldn’t be trusted.
The tears dried. A natural smile returned. Deep breaths.
Artemi Panarin remembers this as one of the scariest days of his young life. He bought a new ticket and boarded a bus back home to Korkino, but his remarkable journey from isolation and poverty to NHL stardom and immense wealth was just getting started.
Blue Jackets fans have been treated to numerous Panarin highlights this season — the puck dangling, the passing, the scoring. But few in North America know what Panarin has survived to make it this far, how he emerged from an almost hopeless part of the world to become one of the best hockey players of his generation.
The Blue Jackets took a bit of a gamble when they acquired Panarin from the Chicago Blackhawks last June. They'd grown frustrated by Brandon Saad's lack of urgency, so trading him wasn't difficult.
But they weren't sure how Panarin would adapt to a new city, a new coach and a new roster, one without Patrick Kane.
22
It's turned out to be one of the best moves general manager Jarmo Kekalainen has ever made. Panarin set a franchise record for points (82) and assists (55), climbing over the names of Blue Jackets luminaries Rick Nash and Ray Whitney, respectively.
But it's not the production alone that has blown away the Blue Jackets.
“To me, it's one of the most tremendous drives to be the best you can be that I have ever seen,” Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella says, “and it's coupled with him enjoying every minute of it. He loves playing. He just loves being on the ice. It's infectious.
“He's a goal-scorer, but he's so much more, and the stuff that's so much more is more important than the goal-scoring. I think back to when we got him last summer, and I had no idea what we were getting with this guy. No idea.”
The Blue Jackets felt they needed a game-breaker when they limped away from a first-round playoff series loss to Pittsburgh last spring, and Panarin has quickly shown a propensity to score big goals. They're counting on him big in this year's first-round series against Washington, beginning Thursday.
Panarin has gradually become more comfortable in the Blue Jackets' dressing room, too.
The ever-present smile helps, of course, and he's gone from conversing through spotty English with a couple of players — fellow Russian Sergei Bobrovsky and linemate Cam Atkinson were the first to click with him — to now speaking more freely in front of the group, players said.
And in recent weeks, as the Blue Jackets have begun to form a bond at the end of a long regular season and the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Panarin has started to open up more with his teammates about his past, his path to the NHL.
They had no idea.
Panarin has never shared his story with media in North America, but he agreed to a sit-down with The Athletic, and an independent interpreter, in mid-March.
When Panarin, an only child, was only 3 months old, his parents divorced and he was adopted by his grandparents, Vladimir and Nina Levin. They lived in Korkino, a mining town of about 40,000. The quarry on the edge of town — it's 1,500 meters in diameter and 500 meters deep — looks like it could swallow the village.
“It is my home,” Panarin told The Athletic. “But there is not much opportunity there outside of the mine.”
Vladimir was a celebrated hockey player in his day, but could never play his way out of Korkino as a pro. He'd mined a bit, worked in the factories and bought a cow to sell its milk, all to get by. Nina made money as a seamstress and sold baked goods.
They were barely scraping by when baby Artemi arrived in their tiny apartment in early 1992.
The hockey career that escaped Vladimir became his obsession all over again, but this time for Artemi.
23
By the time he was 5 years old, Artemi was up on skates that Vladimir would pull out of the discard pile at the local rink. The first pair was for a figure skater; the second were hockey skates, but they were so big that Artemi wore a pair of shoes inside them.
The gloves he salvaged were completely worn out in the palms. Vladimir patched the palms with leather from a worn-out pair of leather boots, and Panarin had his gloves.
This is how the rest of his gear came together, too. Vladimir would find something salvageable at the rink, Nina would retrofit it to Artemi's small frame, and the skating lessons could move forward.
His skates didn't even have laces.
“My grandpa found this rope that would fit,” Panarin says.
Nina would try to find the material to replicate the sweater the rest of the boys on the team were wearing, but she could only get so close.
Most days, Vladimir would drive Panarin to the rink in his World War II-era utility vehicle — a YA3-469 — that had more rust than steel. It broke down frequently, making Panarin late to practice or Vladimir and Artemi late arriving back to Korkino.
The boys his age took notice of the scrawny kid in ill-fitting equipment. Bullying knows no borders.
“The (other kids), they were laughing at me when I got to the rink,” Panarin says with a smile. “They laughed at my grandpa's car. They laughed at what I wore. They just laughed at me.
“It was not really comfortable to skate in my equipment. The other kids, they had the stuff. I used things that were left by the older guys. Some of the things, my grandma was making herself.”
The practices were relentless. Panarin didn't really enjoy it, didn't see the point in all of this. His grandfather would entice him with chocolate candies to keep him motivated.
“Even when I was first starting, my grandfather was very strict about my skating,” Panarin said. “It wasn't enough to just stay up on my skates and learn to stop. It was always 'Bend your knees!' And he was right.”
When he was 8, Panarin started traveling to Chelyabinsk six days a week for practice and games. The only day off was Sunday.
On days when Vladimir couldn't drive — or the old car wouldn't start, or they didn't have money for gas — Panarin would take a bus to Chelyabinsk, with enough money for a snack stuffed into his secret pocket. He played with Matchbox cars to pass the time.
“It was hard for him,” Georgi Belousov, a childhood friend of Panarin's, wrote in an email to The Athletic. “There were kids who had everything handed to them, while Artemi had to borrow things or just have his grandfather ask for help around town. You can't describe it. There are no words in Russian or English to describe how sad and humiliating it was for Artemi.
“But he was such a strong kid that he somehow always managed to deal with everything with the help of his grandparents. Others helped, too, but it was mostly him and his family. It was hard to look (at) sometimes.”
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The worst day, Panarin says, was the day when he was 8 years old and lost his ticket in Chelyabinsk.
“I didn't have a phone; I had no money,” he says. “I lost my ticket and I was all by myself. I just started crying for somebody to come to me and help. That was a bad day.”
But Panarin makes a careful distinction between poverty and being poor. He didn't have much, but his grandparents gave him everything they could, and it was everything he needed.
He winces at some memories but smiles at many others.
In the living room of their tiny apartment, Vladimir would move around the furniture, set up a makeshift net and play a game with Artemi, drawing the ire of Nina when a shot went astray.
“What are you both doing, breaking everything in here!” Nina told a Russian TV documentary on Panarin. “That's what I was saying to them!”
Panarin was a fast skater, but nothing special as a hockey player in his early teen years, when the separation of talent typically begins. Most of his teammates still towered above him.
When he was 13, he endured a crushing blow. He was cut by Chelyabinsk's top junior club and relegated to the second tier, a team called Signal. Vladimir was irate; Panarin was devastated, and nearly quit.
“I didn't have big hopes at this point,” Panarin says.
Belousov's father went to work trying to find a place for them to play, one that would have a future. He found a boarding school in Moscow that was connected to a club in Russia's top league, the KHL, but Panarin would have to try out.
Suddenly, the bus rides to Chelyabinsk were child's play. Panarin took a two-day train ride to Moscow and said goodbye to Vladimir and Nina for the entire school year, including the holidays.
Boarding schools in Russia are not as we think of them in America. They aren't college prep schools for the ultra-wealthy. The conditions were meager, Panarin says.
But Panarin's outlook started to change when he arrived at the Podolsk boarding school. For the first time, Panarin was fitted for new hockey gear: skates that fit, new gloves, a composite stick, etc.
About those new gloves …
“I didn't know I wasn't really feeling the puck before,” Panarin says. “The old gloves, with the boot leather, were really thick. I couldn't feel the stick in my hands, really.
“When I went to try out in Podolsk, I was shocked by the feel of the puck on my hands. I could feel the stick in my hands, the puck on my stick, those things. It was exciting.”
Coaches in Podolsk could see what coaches in Chelyabinsk were missing, perhaps because Panarin was wearing proper equipment.
“I remember this day (he arrived) very well,” said coach Sergey Levashov, speaking to the Russian TV documentary. “He was like the Ugly Duckling, you know? But you could see a swan growing in him anyway. We just had to look closely.”
25
Panarin says he didn't quite realize then how much pressure he was under in Podolsk. If his tryout hadn't gone well — if he'd not been accepted by the boarding school — he would have been sent back to live with his grandparents in Korkino.
What then? His hockey career likely would have been finished, and Panarin would be living in Korkino … a coal miner, a factory worker or such.
Panarin spent four years at Podolsk, taking the two-day train ride to Moscow each fall and back to Korkino each summer. Vladimir kept close tabs on him, and the dream of a career in the KHL was starting to seem possible.
When he was 16 years old, Panarin says, the shame and embarrassment he was made to feel as a child started to boil up in him. He was already a better hockey player than the kids who used to laugh at him, but now he was determined to set his sights higher.
“It was a strong feeling,” Panarin says. “It made my desire very strong. Those were the years … that was the motivation, what made me want to go really high with my career.”
Panarin made his KHL debut as a 17-year-old in 2008-09, but he spent the next two seasons bouncing from the KHL's Chekhov Vityaz to a second-tier team.
It was in 2011 that the rest of the world learned his name.
Panarin was one of the least-heralded players on Russia's roster at the 2011 World Junior Championships in Buffalo, but he moved up in the lineup because of an injury after two periods of the gold medal game between Russia and Canada.
With Russia trailing 3-0 in front of a heavily pro-Canada crowd, Panarin scored at 2:33 of the third period to make it 3-1, sparking a Russian rally. Only 13 seconds later it was 3-2, and at 7:29 of the third it was 3- 3.
Panarin scored the game-winning goal with 4:38 remaining. As he celebrated, he pulled on his sweater and yelled “Korkino!!!”
“That is something, a memory, that I will always think about,” Panarin says. “It is a proud moment for Russia, right?
“This was a highlight for me, yes, but there's always another game, always a bigger goal to achieve.”
Four years later, after establishing himself in the KHL and winning the KHL's Gagarin Cup with SKA St. Petersburg, Panarin began to be hounded by NHL teams.
He signed a two-year entry-level deal with the Chicago Blackhawks on April 29, 2015, turning down several other NHL teams. (The Blue Jackets were not in on the bidding.)
“This was not the goal that my grandfather put before me,” Panarin says. “Even when I had a chance to come to the NHL before, he was saying, 'Don't do this.' He was afraid. He was afraid that in the NHL I would be broken.”
The 35-minute bus ride that became a 12-hour train ride was now an 18-hour flight to the other side of the world.
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Panarin became an instant star in Chicago, skating on a line with Kane and riding high in one of the NHL's great cities in which to play.
The trade to Columbus after only two seasons was an adjustment, sure. But not in a bad way.
“We talked about this on the day he was traded, that he was fortunate he ended up in Columbus,” says Daniel Milstein, Panarin's agent. “He was in the role of No. 2 guy in Chicago. Now he's No. 1 in Columbus.
“To me, that's his team in Columbus. It was time for him to step up and be the guy.”
If Panarin hadn't learned to face the world alone at such a young age, maybe he doesn't have the guts to leave Russia for the NHL in a new world. He spoke almost zero English and still isn't comfortable speaking to reporters without a translator.
All of Panarin’s hardships, though difficult to endure, might have led directly to the wondrous skills he possesses today.
Tortorella always marvels at how strong he is on the puck despite weighing “a buck seventy!” Maybe those outsize skates, and the challenges they provided at an early age, helped make him such a strong skater.
His teammates rave about his ability to handle pucks in heavy traffic. Maybe the boot-leather gloves he used until he was 13 years old sharpened his ability to focus and control pucks.
Maybe the poverty and struggles of his youth have created an unquenchable desire for success.
“It's unbelievable,” says Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno, who spoke with Panarin recently about his backstory. “You just don't think that in this day and age a 26-year-old would have a story like that.
“Now you know why he is so humble and so kind. And so hungry. This guy just works for everything, and he wants to be the best player. It's made him who he is.”
Tortorella almost choked up when he heard about Panarin's background for the first time.
“Bread is one of the strongest guys on the ice,” Tortorella says. “It's a mental toughness that transforms into physical skill.
“What he's had to do to get here … we talk about adversity? We're worried about getting into the playoffs. We're talking about losing streaks. Compared with what this guy had to do?”
Panarin and his girlfriend, Alisa, have grown close with Bobrovsky and his wife, Olga. But how much longer they'll play together in Columbus remains a mystery.
The Blue Jackets would like to sign both players to contract extensions this summer, but both might be in line for salaries of $10 million or more per season.
Both Panarin and Milstein, his agent, say they are willing to talk with the Blue Jackets about an extension this summer, but it's unclear how much the Jackets will be willing to spend — and able to spend, given the constraints of the NHL's salary cap.
Panarin and Bobrovsky can be unrestricted free agents after the 2018-19 season.
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Panarin seems comfortable in Columbus, says he's fond of Tortorella and his teammates and says he has nothing to complain about.
“For me, it's not all about the money,” Panarin says. “I want the things that money can't buy.”
Then he flashes an ornery grin.
“But don't tell the general manager this, right?”
The scene plays out every time Panarin is packing his hockey bag, either in Nationwide Arena for a road trip or in the visitors' dressing room on the road before they come home.
Panarin has a travel-sized icon set of Christ and the Virgin Mary on the top shelf of his locker. He kisses both sides of the picture, folds it closed, makes the sign of the cross twice from his forehead to his chest and both shoulders, and places it in his travel bag.
Before every game in Nationwide Arena, Panarin leaves his LeVeque Tower apartment with enough time to stop at a nearby Russian Orthodox church before heading to the rink.
“Some days it's open and I go inside, just to be alone and think,” Panarin says. “Some days it's not open, so I sit outside, just to be around it.”
Panarin says he's not deeply religious — “I don't agree with everything that is written in the Bible,” he says — but he believes in a God and enjoys being alone with his thoughts.
It's also an attachment to something from his days in Mother Russia, something he can hang on to, even if he's not sure how much he believes.
Panarin has stayed in contact with his mother, Elena, and says he holds no ill will. “She was trying to make progress with her career,” Panarin says. “It's really hard for you to give birth to a kid at 20 years of age.”
As for his father, Sergey, they speak about twice a year. “He's my father,” Artemi says. “Still my father.”
But there's a part of Panarin that isn't whole.
“I don't have these feelings like regular kids do, the kids who are around their parents all the time,” he says.
“I still feel something towards my family. But I don't have a big heart towards my family.”
His grandparents are another story.
Panarin bought them an SUV with his first paycheck from the Blackhawks. When he and Alisa travel home in the offseason, they stay on a sofa bed in the cramped living room, not in a hotel.
“Artemi is like his grandfather,” says Belousov, his childhood friend. “He has great jokes, he can toy around, but at the same time, when it's needed, he's all business.
“His grandfather is strict but so kind. That's Artemi, too. He's one of those people his friends can always reach out to. I recall once calling him early in the morning while it was (late at) night in North America,
28 just to talk. He didn't flip the phone on me, either. He picked it up and we talked a couple of hours even though he had a game the next day.”
From their Korkino apartment, Vladimir and Nina are able to watch almost all of Artemi's games with the Blue Jackets via the internet. When Artemi played in Chicago, he and Vladimir would talk after every game.
They still speak a couple of times a week, but not after every game. They've had a few spats on the phone, one that lasted in a three-week standoff they laugh about now. Normal stuff. Family stuff.
“I score two goals and he says, 'You should do this better or that better,'” Panarin says with a laugh. “I say, 'Papa, I'm gonna take a break from you, OK.' We don't ever go too long without a talk, though.
“I was pretty young at the time. I was a child. So I didn't understand all of this, all of what they did for me. Now I understand how difficult it was, and, of course, I owe them so much. Everything.”
29 http://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/23081393/2018-stanley-cup-playoffs-washington-capitals-vs- columbus-blue-jackets-preview-pick-series
Capitals-Blue Jackets preview, pick: Ovi too much for Columbus By Tim Kavanagh – April 11, 2018
Another edition of the Stanley Cup playoffs, another edition of the Washington Capitals entering the playoffs looking strong as ever -- and maybe, just maybe, this'll be the year when they break through and win the sport's ultimate prize. But before we plan the parade route through the Illuminati-
The Capitals closed out the season on an 8-2-0 run to finish at 49-26-7, with a goal differential of plus- 20. Ovechkin added another Rocket Richard trophy to his collection, though he was one goal shy of notching 50 for the eighth time in his career.
Kirk Herbstreit's favorite team certainly looks like the early winner in the Artemi Panarin-for-Brandon Saad trade from last summer, as the Bread Man led the Blue Jackets in points with a career-high 82. Panarin adds a dynamic scoring element to a franchise that has been renowned for grit, toughness and other intangibles that sometimes serve as a polite way to say "lack of elite scorers."
First line. Pierre-Luc Dubois, the No. 3 overall pick of the 2016 draft, will not soon be confused for the two players taken before him (Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine). After an up-and-down 2016-17 campaign, however, Dubois came into his own this season, anchoring the Blue Jackets' top line along with Panarin and either Josh Anderson or Cam Atkinson. The trio including Anderson was particularly effective, with a 5-on-5 Corsi for percentage of 59.0, and a 5-on-5 goals for percentage of 59.3. The Caps' top unit of Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom (sometimes Evgeny Kuznetsov) and Tom Wilson posted similar rates, but there's something about having a 49-goal scorer on the ice that tilts things a bit. Advantage: Capitals.
Depth. The trade-deadline addition of winger Thomas Vanek was a game-changer for the Blue Jackets, as he scored 15 points in 19 games, 14 of which came at even strength, finding quick chemistry with Boone Jenner (32 points) and Alexander Wennberg (35). Capitals coach Barry Trotz can counter with a second line that includes Kuznetsov (or Backstrom) with T.J. Oshie (47 points), Andre Burakovsky (25) or Jakub Vrana (27). Advantage: Capitals.
Defense. When considering the critical components to building a championship contender, three parts are essential: a No. 1 center, a No. 1 defenseman and a workhorse goaltender. Well, the Blue Jackets happen to have two No. 1 defensemen, in Seth Jones (57 points, 24:36 in ice time per game) and Zach Werenski (37, 22:35). Not to be outdone, Washington's John Carlson led all defensemen in scoring this season, with 68 points, and skated 24:47 per game. We'll go with the team that has two No. 1s, thank you very much. Advantage: Blue Jackets.
Goaltending. The 2017-18 season will go down as one to forget for Capitals backstop Braden Holtby, as his .907 save percentage was the worst mark of his career, and that came after the worst postseason of his career, as he finished the 2017 playoff run at .909. Backup Philipp Grubauer had better numbers this
30 season, but has just 78:34 of playoff experience; the team has announced he'll be the Game 1 starter. At the other end, Sergei Bobrovsky had another solid campaign, including a .921 save percentage and five shutouts, though he has tended to fall apart in the postseason, with.908 and .882 save percentages the past two times the Jackets made the playoffs. We'll give the slight edge to Bob here. Advantage: Blue Jackets.
Special teams. For years, Ovechkin has set up camp at a spot in the faceoff circle to the opposing goaltender's right -- and proceeded to score an obscene number of goals thanks to his rapid release. Every opponent knows it. Every fan watching knows it. Heck, even the cotton candy vendor knows it. No one has been able to stop it, however, and that release is particularly dangerous on the Caps' seventh- ranked power play (22.5 percent). The Blue Jackets lack bite with the man advantage themselves (17.2 percent, No. 25), and at 76.2 percent, finished No. 26 on the penalty kill. This could be trouble. Advantage: Capitals.
Coaching. Capitals coach Barry Trotz has assembled one of the NHL's most accomplished regular-season coaching staffs, including goalie whisperer Mitch Korn. John Tortorella's staff in Columbus is a bit less renowned, though Torts himself does have his name on the Stanley Cup. Then again, that was back in 2004, and neither coach has been great in the postseason recently. Advantage: Even.
Health. Compared with some other playoff-bound teams around the league -- we're looking at you, Minnesota Wild -- the Blue Jackets and Capitals enter this series relatively healthy. Columbus captain Nick Foligno has been out since March 26 with a lower-body injury, and his availability is in question, along with defenseman Markus Nutivaara's and center Lukas Sedlak's. Capitals energy forward Jay Beagle has missed the past three games with an upper-body injury, and remains day-to-day. Advantage: Capitals.
Series pick: Capitals in six.
31 https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/humboldt-survivor-straschnitzki-just-happy-alive/
Humboldt survivor Straschnitzki just ‘happy to be alive’ By Eric Francis – April 11, 2018
Ryan Straschnitzki was sitting at the front of the bus, texting his girlfriend when the scream of bus driver Glen Doerksen braced him for a collision that has echoed around the world.
"All of a sudden the bus driver screamed ‘whoa’ and I looked up and the semi driver was crossing our path," said the Humboldt Broncos defenceman.
Then, as he remembers it, there was silence.
Upon impact, he blacked out.
When the 18-year-old Airdrie, Alta. native came to, he was looking up at the mangled remnants of the bus carrying 29 of the closest people in his life.
There were screams of panic, moans of pain and mass confusion as horrified locals who came upon the scene tried helping any way they could.
True to the tight-knit nature of the Broncos bunch he was so proud to play for, Straschnitzki’s immediate thoughts turned to helping out.
"I kept calling out guys’ names and asking if there was anything I could do," said Straschnitzki from his bed at Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital Tuesday.
"All I wanted to do was just help my teammates, but I just couldn’t move my legs.
"I had a couple teammates lying in front of me. I was in shock and didn’t know what to think.
"Nick Shumlanski had blood on his face and he was moaning in pain. Logan Boulet was next to him. Then I saw Bryce Fiske – his head was up and he had blood on his face but I wasn’t sure what was going on. I later found out in the hospital what had happened to him."
Fiske and Shumlanski, unlike 15 others in the crash outside tiny Tisdale, Sask., that horrific Friday afternoon, were alive.
Boulet was fatally wounded in the crash but was kept on life support long enough to have his organs donated to six patients in need, as per his instructions on the organ donor card he signed after his recent 21st birthday.
It was a scene no one should see, especially from the vantage point of a bloodied, immobile young man whose long list of injuries included a spinal injury that still has him unable to feel anything below his chest.
"We had people who had pulled over their cars who didn’t want to lift me because they didn’t know what was wrong – I said I couldn’t feel my legs so they didn’t move my neck and they waited for the ambulance," he said.
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"I laid on the ground for at least 10 minutes, then they picked me up and rushed me to the Nipawin hospital and that’s all I remember."
Through it all, he insists he’s shed no tears of sorrow following the devastation.
"I want to show them how tough we are and how solid a team we were – if I cry maybe it shows a sign of weakness," he said.
"I want to show we’re still in this together."
He admits a tear borne out of unimaginable pain rolled down his cheek Monday when therapists helped him sit up for the very first time.
"That’s the only time I’ve shed a tear, or when they roll me over to change me and touch my back," he said.
"I’ve always been told to be a strong Canadian kid and things are going to get better if you just push through it and work hard.
"Pain doesn’t last forever."
He knows memories of the crash will, although he happily reports he has yet to suffer from any nightmares.
He thanks the pain medication for that.
Easing his pain have been visits from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Don Cherry, Sheldon Kennedy, Todd McLellan, Glen Gulutzan, his parents – Tom and Michelle – and, most importantly, his teammates.
"Such great people to do that for us," said Straschnitzki, whose sister and two brothers made the trip from Calgary to see him for the first time Tuesday.
"A couple of teammates have come to visit and seem to be doing okay. Reagan Poncelet, Matt Gomercic, Blake Berschiminsky and Nick Shumlanski have all come by. It’s just good to see them."
The last time he’d seen them before the crash the lads were gearing up for Game 5 of a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoff series in nearby Nipawin that was supposed to be played mere hours later.
"It was more mellow," he said of the mood on the bus.
"We were down 3-1 in the series and we had one practice that morning and we knew what we needed to do. Everyone was getting amped up in their own way."
Within seconds many were fighting for their lives.
It’s a fight that has gripped the nation, raising more than $7.6 million through a GoFundMe.com page and sparking a #SticksOutforHumboldt Twitter campaign that has seen countless Canadians leaving hockey sticks in front of their house for the departed Broncos to use.
"I think that’s absolutely awesome," he said.
"It touches my heart. It’s pretty extraordinary what’s going on. When you think about it, what kid growing up in Canada didn’t play road hockey?
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"We love the game and they’re showing if they’re still out there, pick up a stick and start a game."
Straschnitzki knows he’s a long shot to join that game anytime soon.
A broken left clavicle, broken ribs, internal bleeding in the head all contribute to his daily pain, but it’s a spinal fracture that has doctors telling him the prognosis of him walking again is not good.
"I don’t take it to heart – I look at it almost as a challenge – get through it and plan ahead," said the incredibly resilient young man.
"I’m just happy to be alive, to be honest."
34 https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/vegas-golden-knights-aim-keep-proving-doubters-wrong/
Golden Knights aim to keep proving doubters wrong in first playoff run By Iain MacIntyre – April 11, 2018
LAS VEGAS – If you took an anonymous poll, which is the only poll that would work because no one inside the National Hockey League says these things on the record, the Vegas Golden Knights would be nearly everyone’s upset special in the Western Conference’s opening playoff round.
Nashville Predators? Best team in the NHL. Winnipeg Jets? Robust and formidable. Golden Knights? Aren’t they the expansion team that overachieved with all those expendable players who had career years? Nice story, but it’s way past midnight for Cinderella.
And this was before the Los Angeles Kings, Stanley Cup winners in 2014 and 2012, managed to slip down to fourth place in the Pacific Division on Saturday night to draw Vegas in the first round of the playoff tournament.
The Knights have been dismissed so often this season, without the great collapse ever actually occurring for the record-breaking team that won 51 games, that their underestimation by others just amuses them. Why should the playoffs be any different?
“There are people that say that we are trash from the start,” Vegas winger Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, taken from the Philadelphia Flyers in the expansion draft three years after making the NHL at age 29, said during the Knights’ three-game road trip to Western Canada last week. “There’s people that said we won’t get any points. Now, people will say: ‘They’re going to get kicked out (of the playoffs) right away. They won’t win a game.’ People have opinions, right? But it doesn’t mean we have to listen to them.
“At the end of the day, the performance on the ice and in the room is what most matters. Whatever you read off the media, it’s not in the room right now. That can’t affect any of us. That’s the way I think.”
The Knights’ best-of-seven series against the Kings opens Wednesday at T-Mobile Arena, which may have been the funnest place to watch a hockey game this season.
A rallying point for Nevadans after the Oct. 1 mass murder of 58 Las Vegas concert-goers nine days before their home-opener, the Knights have a relationship with their fans that would be the envy of many established NHL franchises.
As Vegas general manager George McPhee told Sportsnet last month: “After Oct. 1, the team was suddenly on a much higher platform. There was an obligation to help the city heal and move on. And that really made the bond between the team and the community that much stronger. It accelerated everything in terms of bringing the team and city together and unifying them in a way nothing else could do.”
Carried by emotion, the Knights stunned opponents in October, bolting to an 8-1 start and winning all six home games. But when they went 1-4-1 on their next road trip, the Knights’ market correction was supposed to be underway.
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Then the team won six of its next seven. When they lost three in a row at the end of November, the Knights responded by going 12-0-1 in their next 13 games. Near the start of that surge, they went into Nashville and Dallas on consecutive nights and swept both games.
“I thought we outplayed both of those teams,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. “That’s when I really said to myself: ‘We’ve got a helluva team here that’s going to compete.’ I think we earned a lot of respect on that trip, but I think our guys really believed in themselves.”
“I think we were always confident after the start we had,” Colin Miller, the ex-Boston Bruin, said. “We were pretty happy, but I think we did a good job of not getting overconfident. We knew there was a lot of work left to do. I think a lot of guys came in this year with a bit of a chip on their shoulder. It’s not an easy feeling when you get let go by an organization. I think a lot of guys knew this was an opportunity (to prove yourself) and they wanted to take advantage of it.”
Miller emerged this season as an offensive defenceman, collecting 10 goals and 41 points. Former Washington Capitals blueliner Nate Schmidt was right behind him with 36 points.
Former Florida Panthers forwards Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith combined for 135 points, which would have been even more impressive had their linemate, ex-Columbus Blue Jackets checker William Karlsson, not blown everyone away with 43 goals and 78 points.
With forwards James Neal and David Perron, Alex Tuch and Tomas Tatar, Cody Eakin and Ryan Reaves, and defencemen Brayden McNabb and Deryk Engelland playing behind Miller and Schmidt, the Knights have a blend of speed and power.
They are not complicated. They play directly, using speed and puck movement and a jail-break transition game to put opponents under pressure.
“From the start, we kind of played a really quick, kind of playoff game,” Bellemare said. “Every mistake, guys were accountable for. The coach was telling us from the start if we play this way, we’re going to win more games than we lose. That was the main goal.”
The Knights went 51-24-7. They had more points this season, 109, than the Toronto Maple Leafs have had in any season in their 100-year existence. You can bet on almost anything in Las Vegas, but be careful about wagering against the Knights.
“It’s not only me, there’s a lot of other guys, too, with a chip on their shoulder and want to prove something,” Karlsson said. “People have doubted us even when we were winning. So I can’t see why we can’t prove people wrong once again.”
36 https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2018/04/10/nhl-playoffs-stanley-cup-bold- predictions/500085002/
NHL playoffs 2018: Four bold predictions By Staff – April 11, 2018
The four best teams in the NHL -- the Nashville Predators, Winnipeg Jets, Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins -- are split between two divisions. With the league's elite set to potentially meet before the Stanley Cup final, the 2018 playoffs will be ripe for surprises.
Here are the bold predictions from USA TODAY Sports' NHL staff for the playoffs:
Kevin Allen: Auston Matthews will register 10-12 points in the first round. Matthews, 20, enters the playoffs riding a 10-game points streak. The Arizona native seems poised to have a monstrous postseason. With his blend of size, drive, skating ability and skill, Matthews is built to fight through the tighter playoff checking.
Jimmy Hascup: The Los Angeles Kings will upset the Vegas Golden Knights in Round 1. The NHL has seen nothing like a Vegas party in the playoffs, but the Golden Knights have never faced playoff pressure. How will this group react to the momentum swings in games and within a series? The Kings are experienced and battle-tested. Their stingy defensive style is conducive to the playoffs. Plus, they possess two of the series best players in Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty.
Mike Brehm: Bruins forward Brad Marchand will be suspended at some point during the postseason. He has been pushing the limits and it will catch up to him. But because it's the playoffs, he'll miss only one game.
Jace Evans: The Toronto Maple Leafs will win a playoff series for the first time since 2004. The Maple Leafs’ 2013 playoff collapse against the Bruins might as well be ancient history given the amount of turnover each team has experienced in the past five seasons. That devastating Game 7 loss after leading 4-1 will not be a factor for a Maple Leafs team that quietly posted the best regular-season in its history with 105 points. Goalie Frederik Andersen also set a franchise record for 38 wins, and star Auston Matthews is now back from injury and ready to make a huge difference.
37 https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2018/04/10/nhl-playoffs-vegas-golden-knights- encore/500437002/
What will Vegas be like for Golden Knights' playoff encore after regular-season 'pool party'? By Kevin Allen – April 11, 2018
In Las Vegas, where big-name celebrities perform on a nightly basis, the NHL was often the best show in town this winter.
The Vegas Golden Knights were the hot ticket. Everyone wanted a glimpse of the best expansion team in league history and to soak in one of the most festive atmospheres in all of sports.
T-Mobile Arena, nicknamed The Fortress, was a happening place on game nights. Washington Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin compared it to stepping into a nightclub or attending a “pool party.”
Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil have performed at intermissions. A castle is stationed above section 101. This isn’t your typical NHL game backdrop.
“They try and make the game be more than just a game,” said fan Jay Petrick. “Celebrities nightly. Reminds me of L.A.'s (Wayne Gretzky era) heyday in the early 1990s.”
Now everyone wants to see what the Golden Knights (51-24-7) do for an encore when the playoffs start Wednesday. The Pacific Division champions take on the Los Angeles Kings (10 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network).
The Golden Knights are the winningest expansion team in NHL history and the first NHL franchise to clinch a playoff berth in its inaugural season since the Hartford Whalers and Edmonton Oilers in 1979- 80.
“The expectation is that (our playoff games) will be like nothing we’ve ever seen or experienced,” Vegas general manager George McPhee said.
The Golden Knights were 29-10-2 at home this season. According to ESPN, Vegas home games averaged 18,042 fans, 103.9% of capacity, which ranked fourth in the NHL.
“It has gone so far beyond everyone’s expectations,” McPhee said. “We thought we could be a good team and put on a good show. You have to do that because it’s Vegas. It’s the entertainment capital of the world.”
This Vegas playoff presentation may be similar to what we witnessed last season when the Nashville fan base and environment was as impressive as the team’s performance en route to the Stanley Cup final.
“A lot of commentary during the regular season from league officials, media and the players was about how our atmosphere felt and sounded like a playoff game,” Golden Knights president Kerry Bubolz said. “We were excited by that because we know we have another level on and off the ice.”
Predators president Sean Henry has seen the Golden Knights’ game experience first-hand.
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“I love it,” Henry said. “I compare it to us, and I think they do, too. The reason I do is not because of things that are yelled or done. It’s about how the fans feel about the team. It’s like the fans own the team.”
Most opponents say the Golden Knights are one of the league’s hardest-working teams, and employees behind the scenes try to match that work ethic.
“You never know what to expect at our games,” McPhee said. “It’s a positive, uplifting experience from the minute you arrive, even when you are not in the building yet. It’s a party. It’s an event. It’s a festival. And it’s uniquely Las Vegas.”
Fans are smitten with the team and the players. “Fans have lined up at three o’clock in the morning at our pro shop to get the chance buy a poster at 10,” McPhee said. “And the line is 1,000 deep.”
Los Angeles is only a 271-mile drive from Las Vegas, but Kings fans know they won’t easily be heard if they travel to Las Vegas to see a game.
“I’ve been to 11 different NHL arenas for Kings road games and these Vegas fans may be the loudest out there,” said Kevin Attanasio, an engineer and Kings fan from Whittier, Calif. “I expected Kings fans to take over the (Vegas) stadium like we do in Anaheim, but every time we started ‘Go Kings, Go’ chants, Vegas fans quickly started their chants and made sure to drown ours out.”
Vegas officials must feel as if they are playing with house money because no one, not even those closest to the team, anticipated the overwhelming reception the team has received.
“I never imagined the team being this strong,” said season-ticket holder Emily Merz. “I never imagined my team being this dominant. Fans have taken over the city. Knight fever in Vegas is strong.”
Expansion teams traditionally finish near the bottom of the standings, but thanks to generous expansion draft rules and McPhee's shrewdness, the Golden Knights finished with the NHL’s fifth-best record.
Fans and the team also bonded through the players’ efforts to help the community after 59 people were killed in a mass shooting in Las Vegas on Oct. 1.
Capitals-turned-Golden Knights season-ticket holder Don Soifer, 50, said as soon as defenseman Deryk Engelland stood in the middle of the ice at the Oct. 10 home opener and talked about the tragedy with a “Vegas Strong” theme, the Golden Knights’ arena became a “magical place.”
“When we’re on our game, buzzing and flying down the ice like the classic Western powerhouses, the whole Fortress is electric and loud in a way that only Vegas can be,” Soifer said.
Bubolz said music in the building is intentionally cranked up for the pre-game warmups.
“I tell them to turn it up as loud as they can stand it because I want the energy of the warmup to match the energy of the game because we are getting ready,” Bubolz said. “Our warmups are like a rock concert. I love the intensity of our warmup. It’s hard to talk to the person next to you, but you are getting ready just like the guys are getting ready to battle.”
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