Happy Gilmore once famously said "I'm a hockey player, but I'm playing golf today."
Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno is a winger, but he's playing center today. And tomorrow.
Entering training camp, the club was hopeful for top prospect Pierre-Luc Dubois to step up and grab a spot at center, but it hasn't worked out. Dubois is going to make the team but when the season begins Friday night at Nationwide Arena, he is likely to play on the wing with Foligno at center and potentially Oliver Bjorkstrand on the other side.
Dubois has played much better since John Tortorella moved him to left wing last week. He struggled as a center in limited preseason action, but make no mistake: his long-term future is not on the wing. This is only temporary. Foligno has a bit of experience playing center no stint has ever lasted too long, usually stepping in due to an injury and then sliding back on the flank after a few games.
But for now, this experiment will continue into the regular season.
"Right now, he's going to play center. He'll open the season playing center," Tortorella said after Saturday's preseason win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. "With Nick, it doesn't matter. He can play all the positions."
Tortorella says Foligno will start the season at center. #CBJ
— Alison (@AlisonL) September 30, 2017
Some players can make a position change look easy (left wing to right wing, for example) but playing center is a different animal. The center touches the puck a lot, is asked to cover a lot of important ice in the defensive zone and can dictate whether or not his line starts with the puck.
Reading and understanding those coverages and shifts will take some time, Tortorella said, but with each passing game it has gotten better. Had it not, the head coach probably wouldn't be so confident in Foligno's ability to line up at center on opening night in less than a week's time.
"He's really trying to concentrate on his coverage, asking a lot of questions," Tortorella said. "He knows the coverages...he just hasn't had much work at it because he's been playing wing."
Foligno was one of the catalysts to the Blue Jackets' turnaround last season, bouncing back from a dreadful 2015-16 in which he scored only 12 goals with 26 in a 108-point season for the team. The bulk of his offensive production (including a career-best 31 goals and 73 points in 2014-15) has come while playing on the wing, so it's natural to wonder if moving to center will have an impact.
Tortorella is not yet sure how the Blue Jackets line up on Friday -- you can bet Alexander Wennberg, Cam Atkinson and Artemi Panarin will be together -- but he's counting on his captain to make a seamless transition to a position where they need him.
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