Jackets find right fit with same lineup, new coach

The glass half-full view for the Columbus Blue Jackets shows them sitting fourth in the Western Conference and being a nominal challenger to Detroit for the Central Division crown.
Then there is the glass half-empty one that reminds the Jackets they are just a point ahead of the ninth-place team, the result of dropping a home-and-home series to the Red Wings in an early-season litmus test over the weekend.
Still, the way Columbus general manager Scott Howson sees it, to get a true sense of where his upstart team really is a quarter of the way through the schedule, you have to take both views into account.

LW Rick Nash is leading Columbus with 13 goals and 4 assists. (Getty Images)

"Detroit is the best team we've seen this year and we got their 'A' game. But we stayed with them and to me that's another important step in the right direction for us," Howson said. "You want to know you have the compete level to go up against the best.
"But we know it's going to get tougher moving forward. This West is really tight and the group is pretty large, you get behind and there's two or three teams in front of you before you even get to eighth and it's daunting ... it's really important that we find a way to build on the start we did."
A little more offense from someone not named Rick Nash would no doubt help in that regard, especially on a power play that ranks 28th these days after being one of the team's few bright spots last season. But even Nash has managed only one of his team-leading 13 goals with the man advantage, and the problem scoring goals in those situations is something everyone on the team acknowledges as a real concern now.
Especially since in the meantime, Columbus is getting only some secondary offense from Derick Brassard and R.J. Umberger, while no one else on the team has more than five goals.
"We realize we have to get that part better," Umberger said.
Fortunately for the Blue Jackets, they've already done that when it comes to playing team defense this season even though they have a non-descript group along the blue line and no typical No. 1 type defenseman. But the Jackets forwards are helping with their aggressive forechecking and Columbus has gotten some outstanding goaltending from backup goalie Mathieu Garon, whose work has allowed starter Steve Mason the time to get himself back on track.
The result is a 14-8 start that ranks among the best in the team's 10-year history and makes the Blue Jackets one of the league's biggest surprises this season.
Columbus has appeared in only four playoff games, losing them all, and wasn't widely expected to improve on that mark this season. They are coming off a 14th-place finish in the West and did almost nothing to alter a lineup that finished in the bottom third in both offense and defense.
"We had a lot players underperform last season, but we thought they were ready to take the next step," Howson said. "I had a belief the players would be embarrassed by what happened and more determined this year."
But Columbus did make a major change behind the bench where a new coaching staff headed by rookie Scott Arniel has taken over a team that began last season with Ken Hitchcock as coach and finished with Claude Noel. Arniel, who played 11 seasons with three different teams beginning in the early 1980s, has implemented a more aggressive style that has apparently made the current group comfortable and certainly much more effective.
The Jackets are ranked fourth overall in goals-against, allowing nearly one goal-per-game fewer than last season, they've been one of the league's best penalty killing units, and they have turned into one of the league's top teams on the road, where Columbus is not necessarily "out to entertain," says Arniel.
"It's a simple game that we play, [but] we've been real consistent night in and night out," Arniel said. "When you start winning some hockey games, you start to feel good about yourself. That's a confidence that builds." And right now that seems as important as anything for an organization that believes many of the young pieces now in place are ready to take the next step.
"When you look at it, the lineup is basically the same, but the coaching staff has done a really good job getting the point across that this is a new year and last season is over and done," veteran defenseman Mike Commodore said. "Everything blew up in our faces last year and we couldn't recover.
"Then you have everybody saying get rid of this, fire that guy, trade the other guy -- that's sports but that's not the way you do things. We have a lot of talent here that we have confidence in, but we just had an off year that we all have to learn from. But I think we did all learn one thing. Losing sucks."

extracted from cbssports.com