Blue Jackets finish emotional season with romp over Islanders
Blue Jackets finish just shy of the playoffs after routing Islanders in season finale, salute fans amid postgame chants of ‘Johnny Hockey!’
Dean Evason almost made it.
After keeping it together on the Blue Jackets’ bench April 18 at Nationwide Arena amid “Johnny Hockey!” chants blended with a backbeat of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” Evason’s eyes welled while standing behind a lectern at his postgame press conference.
Asked about an emotionally trying season that began with an offseason tragedy that took the lives of Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew and ended just shy of the playoffs following a 6-1 romp over the New York Islanders, the Blue Jackets’ head coach momentarily lost his stoicism.
“Yeah,” he said, nearly melting into a puddle of tears. “It’s a lot of stuff. Right? A lot of stuff. So, yeah … It’s just a lot of stuff that we’ll go over here, but we’re very proud of how this team played.”
The Blue Jackets’ faithful, otherwise known as “The 5th Line,” agreed wholeheartedly.
After an emotional video montage about the season played during the final TV timeout, fans stood for an ovation as the final seconds of the season ticked away. A final cannon blast to celebrate the team’s 40th win was followed by blue and red streamers and then chants of “Johnny Hockey!”
The Jackets skated over to wish Islanders veteran Matt Martin well going into retirement, and captain Boone Jenner thanked fans over the P.A. system for their continued support – vowing that next season wouldn’t end so abruptly.
The Blue Jackets lingered on their home ice, taking it all in following a draining campaign.
“You almost don’t want to leave the ice, to be honest,” defenseman Zach Werenski said. “You just want to enjoy it and embrace it. It’s obviously been an emotional year, but just having our fan support and having our team put it together … has been super special. It’ll be a season that I always remember and cherish. It’s just been a lot of fun. I’m sad that it’s over, but we’re going to be hungrier than ever for next year.”
Here are three takeaways:
Dean Evason says Johnny Gaudreau will remain ‘a presence’ in Columbus Blue Jackets‘ locker room
Evason was asked about his take on the way Gaudreau was celebrated by fans and players after the final horn, and he finished his postgame press conference with a declaration.
“We clearly wish that ‘Johnny’ chants would continue here this year, but I’ll tell you this: He will not leave our dressing room, as long as I’m here,” Evason said. “He will be in there and he will be a presence, and he will help us win hockey games and he’ll hopefully get us to where we want to be … and that’s to win a Stanley Cup.”
Gaudreau’s presence was omnipresent with the Blue Jackets all season.
They wore helmet stickers with Johnny’s No. 13 and Matthew’s No. 21 at Boston College, kept Johnny’s locker stall intact in their dressing room — including a pair of his gloves — and the postgame award handed out in the locker room switched from a blue Civil War kepi hat to a gray felt donkey cap with a No. 13 on the side.
That’s an ode to Gaudreau’s jovial personality and habit of calling his friends “a donkey,” whenever they did or said something humorous.
The Blue Jackets also hung Gaudreau’s No. 13 jersey in their locker room every game, home and road, and they concluded many practices with “The Johnny Skate” — in which a chosen shooter takes aim the empty net at the other end of the rink to determine how many conditioning laps the team skates.
A make means one full sprint around the ice. A miss is three. One, three … 13.
Columbus Blue Jackets’ Zach Werenski finishes strong
Werenski finished with two points on a goal and assist against the Islanders, which gave him a scoring line for the season of 22 goals, 59 assists and 82 points in 81 games.
His assist and point totals tied for second-most in franchise history for a single season, pulling Werenski even with former Blue Jackets forward Artemi Panarin in each category. He also finished third in franchise history with 22 multi-point games, trailing only Rick Nash’s 24 in 2008-09 and Panarin’s 25 in 2018-19.
Werenski, who is likely to finish top three in voting for the Norris Trophy awarded to the NHL’s best defenseman, also excelled defensively.
“He’s one of the guys we’re talking about, who’s committed to playing both ends of the rink,” Evason said. “Sure, it’s wonderful he scores points. No question. We need points, we need goals, we need offense to win hockey games … but you have to keep it out of your net too, and he’s committed to doing that. He’s been a big part of our team. He’s been a leader and will be for a long time.”
Greaves, Mateychuk are Cleveland Monsters again
After helping the Blue Jackets finish the season with six straight wins, all in regulation, rookie goalie Jet Greaves and rookie defenseman Denton Mateychuk were loaned back to the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters to finish their season.
The Monsters are trying to clinch the final playoff spot in the AHL’s North Division, so getting some high-end help on the defensive side of the ice should be a big boost.
Mateychuk played 45 NHL games after starting the season in Cleveland — cementing a regular role on the second defensive pairing — and Greaves starred for the Jackets in their final five games. In fact, his play against the Islanders prompted chants of “Jet! Jet! Jet!” on multiple occasions.
Mateychuk finished his first NHL season with four goals, nine assists and 13 points while providing a calm, steady presence in the defensive zone. Greaves earned the NHL’s First Star of the Week honor April 14 for the first three wins in a 5-0-0 stretch that ended with a 0.80 goals-against average, .975 save percentage and two shutouts as an emergency recall from the Monsters.
Greaves nearly completed a third straight shutout before the Islanders’ Hudson Fasching finally got a shot past him with 5:12 left to play. It ended a shutout streak of 173:38 for Greaves, who’d only allowed one goal in the prior two games by Alex Ovechkin, the NHL’s new all-time leader in goals.
“It’s been fun to watch him the last week or whatever it’s been,” Werenski said. “He’s a special player and a special person, I think, just the way he approaches the game, the way he works. It’s one of the best I’ve seen, so I’m super happy for him, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of Jet.”
Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social
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