‘Minicamp’ will allow Rick Bowness to further put his stamp on Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Throughout a conversation Tuesday, Columbus Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness repeatedly used the word “camp” to describe what will take place at Nationwide Arena over the next eight days.

The NHL’s Olympic break is still very much in effect, and the regular season doesn’t resume until Feb. 25 for several clubs and Feb. 26 for the Blue Jackets.

But the NHL’s non-Olympians will return to practice Wednesday. With the exception of Zach Werenski (United States) and Elvis Merzlikins (Latvia), who are still in Milan, the Blue Jackets will take the ice at 11 a.m.

It won’t be treated like the end of the break, Bowness said, but the beginning of a second training camp.

“Yeah, it’s a minicamp,” Bowness said. “That’s what it is, and that’s the approach that we’re taking. If you go into this next stretch of this season without every bit of your intensity and energy, you’re making a huge mistake. From here on out, the games are going to get harder. Much harder. We’ve got to use this camp to prepare for it mentally and physically.”

The Blue Jackets’ outlook changed dramatically when Bowness was lured out of retirement to take over behind the bench on Jan. 12. They’ve won 11 of their past 12 games, including a still-alive seven-game win streak, to soar back into the playoff race.

When play resumes, the Blue Jackets, who are in ninth place overall in the Eastern Conference, will sit just 4 points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild-card spot and just 4 points behind the New York Islanders for third place in the Metropolitan Division, with games in hand on both teams.

Those two opponents — Feb. 26 at Boston and Feb. 28 vs. New York — are the Jackets’ first two games out of the break.

Though a large contingent of players skated on their own in Nationwide Arena on Tuesday, the Blue Jackets’ coaching staff gathered in their offices to fine-tune their systems and map out a schedule for the next eight days.

“We went over everything,” Bowness said. “The specialty teams, the five-on-five plays, both sides of the puck. … We’ve got a good grasp on where we are right now.”

Bowness said the Blue Jackets will settle into a two-on, one-off schedule leading up to the Feb. 26 game in Boston. The Wednesday-Thursday practices, he said, will be “flow” practices, just getting players acclimated to being back on the ice again.

After an off day Friday, the Saturday and Sunday skates will not be for the faint of heart, he said. Neither will the practice next Tuesday. They will be physically demanding and a challenge for the legs and lungs.

“The third and fourth practices will be a lot more demanding,” Bowness said. “The fifth practice will be demanding, and then we’ll lighten the load before we go to Boston. But those three days are going to be tough practices.”

The reason is twofold. Bowness wants to get them in the right frame of mind to start playing at a playoff-level pace as the season cranks up to its crescendo. Also, the Blue Jackets will need to be physically fit and fully up to speed on how Bowness wants them to play, because there’s virtually no practice time in March.

The postponement of a Jan. 26 game vs. the Los Angeles Kings because of heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures added another game in March. It will be made up on March 9, giving the Jackets 17 games in 30 days.

“It’s unreal,” Bowness said. “There’s only one two-day break (March 15-16) in the whole month. A lot of other teams have 15-16 games. That L.A. game being postponed, that bites us a little bit, but we’ll deal with it the best we can.”

Bowness came to town with plans to make changes to the Blue Jackets’ style of play, their systems and so on. Some of that has already been addressed via video during his first month behind the bench, he said. But the upcoming “camp” will make on-ice training finally possible.

But a strange thing happened while the Blue Jackets were earning 22 of a possible 24 points from Jan. 11 until they last played on Feb. 4. Bowness said he’s wise enough not to change too much.

“We’re feeling better about our game defensively,” he said. “We’re defending better. The minor changes we’ve made, they’ve picked up. Anytime you make changes, it takes time. When I was in Winnipeg, it took me about a year and a half to get them out of playing that 1-1-3.

“We’re not looking to make any major adjustments coming into camp, just fine-tuning. But you have to keep pushing them and giving them the direction you want them to go. We still have a lot of work to do — let’s not kid ourselves.”

Bowness said right winger Kirill Marchenko, who missed the final two games before the break with an illness, may be held out of Wednesday and Thursday practices because of a nagging lower-body injury.

“He’ll be ready to go for Boston,” Bowness said. “That’s all that matters.”

The NHL hasn’t taken a midseason break for the Olympics since 2014. Players scatter all over the globe, with some returning to their homes on the other side of the world, some heading to exotic beaches and others staying home to catch up on rest and sleep.

They’d better take a breath, Bowness said.

“If you’re not beat up this time of year, you’re not playing hard enough,” he said. “This break has been beneficial, I think, for everybody. It’s a break, but most guys worked out on their own. I’m confident our guys looked after themselves. Some guys kept skating throughout the break, which is great news. They know what’s coming, how difficult this stretch is going to be for us.”