We can all agree that last season was an unforgettable one for the Columbus Blue Jackets and their fans.
We can also agree that several things within last season aren't likely to repeat themselves. The road back to the Stanley Cup playoffs will be bumpier and more difficult than it was last year. The Blue Jackets are no longer surprising anyone, and teams are now more keen on exploiting their weaknesses.
As we've passed the time and discussed the major stories here at 1st Ohio Battery, an interesting topic emerged: which player is most important to the Blue Jackets? Who can they not live without?
Is it two-time Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky, who played the best hockey of his career last season? Let's talk about it in this week's edition of Plus/Minus.
MIXER'S TAKE: PLUS
Sergei Bobrovsky is the Blue Jackets’ great equalizer.
As he goes, they go. When it’s well and good, safe money says Bobrovsky is on top of his game. When they struggle, often times Bobrovsky’s play is behind it. His .931 save percentage is a significant reason why they were able to cruise to 50 wins and 108 points.
It’s also no coincidence that, in his first fully healthy season in a while, the Blue Jackets reaped the benefits. John Tortorella gave him all but two starts in the Blue Jackets’ 16-game winning streak (Curtis McElhinney got the Arizona Coyotes and Los Angeles Kings), riding his red-hot goaltender most of the way to a runner-up place in NHL history. The coach had no chance but to keep playing him because he was playing so damn well.
For those reasons, I just can’t pick anyone else as their most important player. What would have become of their season if he missed a few weeks with an injury? Or went through a funky month and didn’t have his game? Last season’s Bobrovsky was a far cry from the Bobrovsky who infamously said he’s lost his confidence (TBT to Oct. 2015), and his 2016-17 season was MVP-worthy.
There’s no scenario, in my mind, in which the Blue Jackets return to the playoffs (and make a run) without Bobrovsky being the Bobrovsky we saw last season, or at least very close to it.
SVOBODA'S TAKE: MINUS
Let me start by saying something: of course the starting goaltender is the most important player on any hockey team. If Sergei Bobrovsky becomes Badrovsky – that wasn’t a good pun – the Jackets are in a heap of trouble.
But when it comes to someone who absolutely has to live up to expectations for Columbus this year, Bobrovsky’s fellow countryman Artemi Panarin fits the bill.
The Blue Jackets said goodbye to four forwards this past offseason – Brandon Saad, Sam Gagner, Scott Hartnell and William Karlsson – who averaged 80.5 games, 15.3 points and 26 assists. That’s 165 points the Blue Jackets have to make up from a year ago.
It won’t all come down to Panarin, but if he falls short of the 30.5 goals and 45 assists he’s averaged over the past two years, it becomes that much harder for Columbus to get where it needs to go offensively.
In addition, the Blue Jackets’ stated goal this offseason was to become more explosive offensively. The team won a lot of games with depth a season ago, with 12 different players reaching double digits in goals and eight players topping 40 points.
What the brain trust said it learned, though, in the postseason is you need a superstar or two who can make offense out of nothing – much like Pittsburgh did – to make it in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“We felt that we needed a game-breaking type of player with individual skill who will create offense,” GM Jarmo Kekalainen said before the start of training camp. “He just gives us another dimension that we felt we didn’t have. Obviously, we had to give up Brandon Saad, who was a good player for us, but I think we have more players that style coming from within and can replace Brandon Saad. But we didn’t have a guy the style of Artemi Panarin, and that was probably the biggest reason for (the trade).”
In other words, here’s the message to Panarin: You’re what we were missing. Now go show us.
Playing with some talented offensive players like Cam Atkinson and Alexander Wennberg, there’s no reason Panarin shouldn’t be able to do exactly that. And if he doesn’t, the Blue Jackets are in real trouble.
That’s why I think Artemi Panarin is the most important player this season on the Blue Jackets roster.
