Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2022 16:22:04 GMT -6
Columbus Blue Jackets – Season 2 – Part 2
Chemistry
10 games into the season GMML finds his team top of the Metropolitan Division only losing 2 games. The new additions of Kubalik, Tierney, Gustaffson, Toews, Maatta and Ullmark have all found their place in the lineup and have seemed to have developed some great chemistry with their new line-mates.
Wronc Cripen of the Columbus Dispatch had a chance to sit down with GMML and ask him about the team and the start to the 2023 season.
WC - Are you at all surprised at the standings and seeing your team the top of the Eastern Conference?
ML - Am I surprised? No. When we sat down at the end of last season we knew we needed to get better down the middle and to get some more speed in the lineup and that would help us win more games. The trend in all of our roster moves was to get a good balance of speed and technical skill in our top 6 and have more defensive player in the bottom. This isn't some secret formula and we are not trying to re-invent the wheel here, we just tried our best to fix some issues in the lineup.
WC - There was a bit of concern when the season started that not having a true #1 goalie in the organization, what are your thoughts on how the current tandem of Stolarz and Ullmark have performed?
ML - Those two are gamers. They both came in to the season hungry to compete for the starting job and, so far, they have both proven more that capable. After we traded Ben(Bishop) for Binner(Binnington) last year and how both the goalies played out the rest of the season, we felt that Tony(Stolarz) was going to beat Jordan out for the starting job this year. Luckily we got two great pieces back in that trade.
Its not just the goalies though, we completely revamped the defense this year to balance speed and skill to help with possession numbers. So far we are trending at the same rate as last year in terms of shots for/against.
WC - Any thoughts on your pending UFA's this year?
ML - Obviously Nikita(Kucherov) is our captain and main engine of this team. He loves it here in Columbus and we are pretty confident we can get something worked out with Dan(Dan Milstien, Kucherov's agent) in the near future. Klingberg we will have to see on, there are some issues we have to see get ironed and try and convice him to stay. Any scenario is possible for him, even trade.
It is still VERY early in the season but Peter Laviolette has got this team firing on all cylinders, lets hope that it continues for another 70 games.
