It's a fresh start in the 2018-2019 season for the Columbus Blue Jackets, and for their special teams units, it's definitely needed.
When you get down to it, the Blue Jackets were probably fortunate to make the Stanley Cup playoffs given how poor they were on both the power play and penalty kill.
Yes, if you didn't notice, the Jackets' penalty kill also struggled, though the power play woes certainly grabbed the spotlight. For reference, the Columbus power play (17.2%) and penalty kill (76.2%) ended the 2017-18 season respectively ranked 25th and 26th in the league.
Every team except for two (the Blue Jackets being one of them) that made the playoffs last spring ranked top-half of the NHL in special teams efficiency. If you're still surprised that the Capitals won four straight in the opening round, you no longer need to be.
Okay, enough of the doom and gloom: let's focus on that fresh start and what we need to know about these units going into opening night:
What's New:
For the penalty kill: enter Riley Nash. Dare I say this is Matt Calvert 2.0 (without being castrated)? As much as Calvert was loved and respected, he was a guy who could be replaced in a lot of facets of his game, especially in the regular season. Nash brings something a little different, and needed.
Nash seems to be a player who is equal if not better in all areas of hockey than Calvert (41 points last season in Boston), and he can move up and down the lineup. Long story short: Nash will be an excellent addition to the penalty kill and fourth line, with the ability to move around.
For the power play: Anthony Duclair was shown to be practicing with the second unit this week, but who knows what that group will look like once the real deal begins (and Seth Jones is back in the fold, as well). Regardless, Duclair has a high ceiling and could provide a lot of speed to a Jackets power play that seemed to struggle with getting the puck in the zone and maintaining pressure.
What's Great:
The Blue Jackets are a talented team! Granted, this could have been said last offseason and look how the special teams turned out then, but now they have been humbled a bit, which may have been needed.
According to The Athletic's Aaron Portzline, the Blue Jackets have had their top power play unit consisting of Pierre-Luc Dubois, Artemi Panarin, Nick Foligno, Zach Werenski and Cam Atkinson. This is a lineup that definitely has potential of three players in Dubois, Panarin and Atkinson to score 30-plus goals over the course of a season. That's good for a power play.
Again, when Jones returns, it's hard to tell if Foligno or Werenski will get the nudge back to the secondary unit, but the fact that Zach Werenski might be playing on the second power play unit for a majority of the season is a tremendous benefit for the Jackets to have. On almost any team in the NHL that isn't the San Jose Sharks, Werenski would be on the top power play unit.
On the penalty kill, the Jackets have guys who are as gritty and competitive, ready to block shots and get in harm's way if it means preventing a goal. They may have some new faces in that mix, as well, if preseason experiments are any indication. John Tortorella has indicated his desire to get more players involved killing penalties.
What's Concerning:
The fact that the Jackets' special teams were so awful last season, and the only real player addition they made was adding Nash to the penalty kill seems...well, concerning, right?
Making quick decisions on the power play never seemed to be an instilled mindset last season, and it caused a lot of trouble with their flow. The No. 1 unit has shown its ability to move the puck, but with Panarin as the focal point, they're at times easy to defend.
For the penalty kill, it's also worrisome that the Jackets don't typically have the fastest players on the ice. They might have solid two-way guys, but the likes of Jenner and Savard and Dubinsky aren't the best options to track down speedy forwards. This has shown to be a problem at times when facing teams who skate circles around them.
What To Watch:
Pierre-Luc Dubois will not be ignored on the man advantage.
Dubois is primed for a dominating year, which means opposing players can't ignore him when they are on the penalty kill. He moves incredibly well without the puck, and is bound to cause fits that make opponents keep their heads on a swivel trying to find him. When he gets the puck handed to him, he has a strong release that we'd like to see more of.
Having Panarin roving around looking for shooting lanes, Werenski or Jones up top, Atkinson sneaking back door and Foligno screening goaltenders should give Dubois plenty of ability to work freely in the slot.
How They Stack Up:
The Blue Jackets are a well-rounded team, but they are gaining momentum to have a handful of elite talents as well. It's hard to have an amazing power play if you don't have three 30-goal scorers (yet) all on the ice at once, which it seems like a lot of the best teams do, but the Jackets aren't too far away from this happening.
For now, what they are lacking in any sort of pure skill, they will need to make up for in the old fashioned Blue Jackets way: outworking their opponent and winning one-on-one battles. It seemed like the Jackets took their time way too much when on the power play last season, and that they were far too careful on the PK.
Playing it safe is the quickest way to be mediocre in hockey. If they can grow to play with calculated risk, that's when they will have the chance to thrive. To be the best, sometimes you need to start doing what the best do.
