{"id":20882,"date":"2025-07-25T10:30:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T10:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/20882\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T10:30:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T10:30:22","slug":"blue-jackets-preparing-very-purposefully-with-belief-in-playoff-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/20882\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jackets preparing \u2018very purposefully\u2019 with belief in playoff return"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRAMPTON, Ontario — What a difference a year makes for the Columbus Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n

Though they fell just short of earning an unexpected berth into the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season, they are ready to enter this season with a sense of purpose and a belief that had been absent for too long, one that leaves them confident they can end the franchise\u2019s five-season playoff drought.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still bitter about how our season ended,\u201d defenseman Erik Gudbranson<\/a> told NHL.com at the 11th annual Smilezone Celebrity Golf Tournament at Lionhead Golf Club on Monday. \u201cWe felt like we should have got in. We left some doors open we should have closed. From an honest way, we were looking at that as we kind of shot ourselves in the foot here and there but that still very much burns throughout the summer. Guys are attacking their summers very purposefully this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

After defeating the Detroit Red Wings 5-3 in front of 94,751 in the 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series at Ohio Stadium on March 1 in their 60th game of the season, the Blue Jackets were 30-22-8 and held the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

But a 1-7-1 stretch immediately after, during which they were shut out on four separate occasions, dug them a hole even a six-game winning streak to end the regular season could not overcome. Columbus (40-33-9) finished two points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card.<\/p>\n

When Don Waddell was hired as president of hockey operations and general manager of the Blue Jackets on May 28, 2024, he spent the next several months observing the culture within the organization before coming to a startling conclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing is, I\u2019m not saying it was everybody, but losing was acceptable (here) and losing is not acceptable,\u201d Waddell told SiriusXM NHL Network Radio on Aug. 22.<\/p>\n

Gudbranson had shared a similar belief with NHL.com the day prior.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to get something out of every single day, we can\u2019t lose a day,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not in a position to do so. We did that the last two years (2022-23 and 2023-24) and it did not work out well\u2026We\u2019ve got to get our culture going the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then tragedy struck just over a week later on Aug. 29, when forward Johnny Gaudreau<\/a> and his brother Matthew died when they were struck by an alleged drunk driver, who has been charged with two counts of death by auto, while riding bicycles near their home in Salem County, New Jersey.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jackets only knew one way to move forward last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin the dressing room, with everything that happened with the Gaudreaus, we were just flat-out better people to each other,\u201d Gudbranson said on Monday. \u201cNot to say we were bad previously, but that brought in a culture of caring and just being better teammates. That obviously translated on the ice, we were just better people all around.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is fair to say Gaudreau\u2019s legacy was impactful and remains strong within the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played a lot better than we had in previous years and that goes to our attention to detail and just the growth of the group,\u201d Gudbranson said. \u201cOur new coaching staff led by Dean (Evason) were not hard on us, but very direct and we were purposeful in how we attacked every single day and that made a difference. We got something out of every day this year. Me and Boone (Jenner) weren\u2019t [on the ice] for a long portion of it but we were seeing it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRAMPTON, Ontario — What a difference a year makes for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Though they fell just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-20882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}