COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2014 Throughout a conversation Tuesday, Columbus Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness repeatedly used the word \u201ccamp\u201d to describe what will take place at Nationwide Arena over the next eight days.<\/p>\n
The NHL\u2019s Olympic break is still very much in effect, and the regular season doesn\u2019t resume until Feb. 25 for several clubs and Feb. 26 for the Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n
But the NHL\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
It won\u2019t be treated like the end of the break, Bowness said, but the beginning of a second training camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s a minicamp,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cThat\u2019s what it is, and that\u2019s the approach that we\u2019re taking. If you go into this next stretch of this season without every bit of your intensity and energy, you\u2019re making a huge mistake. From here on out, the games are going to get harder. Much harder. We\u2019ve got to use this camp to prepare for it mentally and physically.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets\u2019 outlook changed dramatically when Bowness was lured out of retirement to take over behind the bench on Jan. 12. They\u2019ve won 11 of their past 12 games, including a still-alive seven-game win streak, to soar back into the playoff race.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Those two opponents \u2014 Feb. 26 at Boston and Feb. 28 vs. New York \u2014 are the Jackets\u2019 first two games out of the break.<\/p>\n
Though a large contingent of players skated on their own in Nationwide Arena on Tuesday, the Blue Jackets\u2019 coaching staff gathered in their offices to fine-tune their systems and map out a schedule for the next eight days.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went over everything,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cThe specialty teams, the five-on-five plays, both sides of the puck. \u2026 We\u2019ve got a good grasp on where we are right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u201cflow\u201d practices, just getting players acclimated to being back on the ice again.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe third and fourth practices will be a lot more demanding,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cThe fifth practice will be demanding, and then we\u2019ll lighten the load before we go to Boston. But those three days are going to be tough practices.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s virtually no practice time in March.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unreal,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cThere\u2019s 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\u2019ll deal with it the best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bowness came to town with plans to make changes to the Blue Jackets\u2019 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 \u201ccamp\u201d will make on-ice training finally possible.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s wise enough not to change too much.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re feeling better about our game defensively,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re defending better. The minor changes we\u2019ve made, they\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re 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 \u2014 let\u2019s not kid ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll be ready to go for Boston,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cThat\u2019s all that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NHL hasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
They\u2019d better take a breath, Bowness said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re not beat up this time of year, you\u2019re not playing hard enough,\u201d he said. \u201cThis break has been beneficial, I think, for everybody. It\u2019s a break, but most guys worked out on their own. I\u2019m confident our guys looked after themselves. Some guys kept skating throughout the break, which is great news. They know what\u2019s coming, how difficult this stretch is going to be for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2014 Throughout a conversation Tuesday, Columbus Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness repeatedly used the word \u201ccamp\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[392,385,99],"class_list":["post-476217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}