When one door closes, another one opens.
With Brandon Dubinsky set to miss the next four to six weeks, an opportunity has arisen for Lukas Sedlak. Sedlak spent the first two games as a healthy scratch but will draw in tonight against the Avalanche. He talked to reporters yesterday about this opportunity"
"It’s more fun when you get to play games, so I’m looking forward to it and I will have some fun. Hopefully I will help the team."
Sedlak will start on the fourth line, centering Sonny Milano and Oliver Bjorkstrand. He doesn’t expect there to be much of an adjustment period as these are two players he’s played with in the past.
"New line mates, but I’ve played with Sonny before, I played with Bjorky before too, so it’s nothing really new to me. I know how those guys play so I will just try and get out of their way offensively. I’ll try to do my job and hopefully we will get some chances."
The three of them actually had a couple shifts together last season, spending 3:58 together, per Natural Stat Trick. Sedlak, however, did play 53:39 with Milano and 83:37 with Bjorkstrand at 5-on-5 last season. He and Milano were quite good together with a 53.06% Corsi. The results with Bjorkstrand were not quite as good at 48.18%, but those two go way back having been line mates in Cleveland during the Monsters' Calder Cup run in 2016.
"I played with Bjorkstrand the whole playoffs. He got to score goals and he still played with me."
Bjorkstrand scored 10 goals in the playoffs that season to lead all players. Sedlak might be selling himself short; he was quite good as well in that run, scoring nine postseason goals and equalling Bjorkstrand’s total of 16 points.
Sedlak isn’t that type of offensive player in the NHL, but he’s played a fair number of games in the league and knows what to expect. This is a big part of having depth; you don’t have to just jump right away to a rookie. As much as we all want to see Vitali Abramov up here or even a Kevin Stenlund, it’s good to have a player like Sedlak who can jump in and be ready right away.
"I have some experience now, I’m not the youngest guy there. I know what to do and it’s not my first NHL game either so it’s going to be a little bit different.
I think I can jump right in. I think I had some decent games, we were a little bit tired so it’s going to be different you know even the other teams, it’s different from preseason hockey. I think I will have to be a little bit more on my toes than preseason but I don’t think it’s going to be any crazy adjustments."
Hopefully he and Bjorkstrand can regain some of that old chemistry they showed, and give the Blue Jackets a dangerous fourth line.
