On Wednesday, Blue Jackets President of Hockey Operations John Davidson appeared on 97.1 FM The Fan's Rothman & Ice. He spoke about the team's start to the season, and the development of young players like Kent Johnson and David Jiricek.
Davidson highlighted that while the team has been in games and the younger players like Marchenko and Fantilli have played well, the older players on the team haven't lived up to expectations.
"The veteran players," Davidson said. "I don't care if you have an 'A' or not. If you're a player that's a good player, you've got to do your part as part of the team to help us get out of this thing. And we've got some veteran players who haven't played up to their capabilities. And that's just the fact. And that that does happen. But they've got to find a way themselves... And then we'll have a better chance of winning games. This is about as simple as that. There's no other way around it."
Davidson added that Johnson, who was sent down to Cleveland on Nov. 3 and has posted 4-10--14 in eight AHL games, has done a good job with his workout plan to get stronger.
"What I've liked about him to this point is his attitude's been really good," Davidson said. "He's gone there with a positive attitude, play the game, get a lot of minutes, get some points."
Davidson also spoke about Jiricek, saying that if there's an extended stretch where he's not playing at the NHL level, they'll send him to Cleveland.
"I don't want a kid sitting for a week or 10 days," Davidson said. "It's ridiculous...We don't feel that Jiricek's a player that should be in Cleveland, we feel that he's got a great chance to improve with us. But sometimes it doesn't work like that with a young player game after game after game after game. Sometimes you take steps back, so then you've got to sit. And if you're going to sit, we don't want a guy sitting too long. So we'll have him play in Cleveland for a game. And that's been communicated. And so that's just how it works with young players. It's about development. We have a great situation here, where our farm team isn't two time zones away. It's up the street, and it's a good situation."
The Blue Jackets currently have the fourth-worst power play in the league at 10.9%, and Davidson said that's a function of the top players not playing up to standard.
"A lot of our really talented players have not had great starts to the season," Davidson said. "They're good players. They're good people. They're working. But they got to be better."
Davidson added that Johnny Gaudreau, who was benched in the team's loss to Arizona on Nov. 16, has been playing better since then.
Throughout the interview, one theme stuck out.
"We need more from a lot of our guys," Davidson said. "It's about as simple as that."
