The Columbus Blue Jackets have officially kicked off Training Camp. Two groups of players practiced at the Ice Haus Thursday for a little over an hour each.

This marked the first organized on-ice activity for the team since the passing of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau. While emotions are still very high, just being able to get on the ice together to start camp was another important step of pushing forward.

This also marked head coach Dean Evason’s first practices with the Blue Jackets since he was hired as Pascal Vincent’s replacement. While the team has a lot of work ahead of them as they prepare for the season, there was a small glimpse of what some of the opening-day lineup could look like.

Most notably, captain Boone Jenner skated on a line with Sean Monahan and Kirill Marchenko. Jenner was on the left side while they were doing drills.

Evason says the roles haven’t been defined yet. However he made clear that Jenner going on the wing to start is something they will be doing.

“I think Boone can play anywhere, right?” Evason said. “You guys know that as much as I do. He doesn’t care where. It’s just he wants to help the hockey club. But right now, we like the look of their line. There’s a lot of guys that I’m seeing for the first time up front and close to watch their, to be actually on the ice, watch their speed and skillset. It’s exciting. Yeah, Boone’s definitely going to start on that left side with Monahan and Marchenko.”

Jenner has played at center the last few seasons. With the addition of Monahan and the continued development of both Cole Sillinger and Adam Fantilli, the Blue Jackets now have the option of putting Jenner on the wing.

This move makes sense on a couple of levels.

First, Jenner won’t have as much responsibility being on the wing. He can worry about playing his game without having to consider everything a center has to do.

Second and perhaps more importantly is Jenner’s health. He has had back issues in the past. Making this move allows him the opportunity to not exert as much on his back.

There certainly can be times that Jenner ends up taking a faceoff or plays center later on. If Monahan is tossed out of the circle, Jenner can go right in and take that draw. Having “two centers” on the top line can work to their advantage.

Longer term, nothing is set in stone as Evason and the Blue Jackets figure out the best places to slot players. At least at the start of camp and perhaps into the preseason, look for Jenner to play the left wing, the position he had when he had his best season in goal scoring.

Jiricek Gets His Prime Opportunity

One of the other big questions coming into this camp was who would occupy the right side on the second defensive pair? On Thursday, it was David Jiricek there playing alongside Ivan Provorov.

Jiricek’s journey has been well documented. He was told to get a place in Columbus only to find himself back in Cleveland. Reports started to surface that he was unhappy.

To Jiricek’s credit, he became an important contributor for the Monsters during the season and in the playoffs. Now, his goal is to make the NHL roster and stay there once and for all.

Coach Evason says Jiricek will get his chance to prove it. As for what his role will be exactly, that’s still ultimately to be determined.

“We haven’t defined anything yet,” Evason said. “We’ll define roles when we get to that point. And then they have an opportunity to change those roles after we define them. If they want to play different positions, then they can. They’ll earn that right to do that. But as far as David’s concerned, he has as good an opportunity to make our hockey club as anyone.”

We’ll see as camp goes on if Jiricek plays mostly with Provorov or if that gets switched around. The other notable pairs on Thursday were Zach Werenski with Damon Severson, Jack Johnson with Erik Gudbranson and Denton Mateychuk with Cole Clayton.

Eventually, once the junior players are sent back to their teams, two groups will form. One will be the NHL group and the other the Cleveland group. Players will dictate which group they fall into with movement between each group being possible.

For Jiricek, this camp is showing it will be his best chance to not only make the Blue Jackets but have it become a permanent stay. Expect him to get multiple preseason games.

Fimis Making Most of Opportunity

An underreported story throughout hockey is the after-effects of the pandemic. Now that a few years have passed, a select group of players who were affected by the pandemic had their development either slowed or halted.

This was the case for camp invite Pano Fimis. The former number-two overall pick in the OHL is now thriving with the Erie Otters. His efforts caught the attention of the Blue Jackets. He got an invite to the Buffalo Prospect’s Challenge that came with no camp guarantee. He goes out and scores three goals. He gets an invite to main camp.

Fimis credits his coach Stan Butler for helping him get to this point. Butler is Fimis’ ninth junior coach. Seriously. Between the issues in Niagara and in Erie before they hired Butler, there was never any consistency from a coaching standpoint. Now he’s ready to show what he has.

“Stan’s been great to me. He keeps me honest everyday,” Fimis said. “That’s one of his biggest things is accountability and making sure that everyday, we bring our best whether it’s practice, in the gym, on the ice during the game. Because if you get better two days out of four, you’re not getting better four days out of four. That’s something we talk about throughout the season. That goes unnoticed sometimes but it definitely leads to performance on the ice.”

Fimis is expected to return to the Otters after camp where he is set to potentially have a monster year with a lot of talent around him. Until then, he is trying to prove he can be an NHL player.

“I want to be able to prove myself and make a statement. I think it’s been a bit of a rough go just through junior and the whole Covid situation. But there’s honestly no excuses and your timeframe for opportunity is pretty small. So I want to be able to just make a statement and make sure I make a name for myself and do my thing because you got to be able to play to your capabilities and do what got you here.”

Other Day 1 Notes

• Jordan Harris believes he can make the Blue Jackets’ roster. What does he feel he has to do to accomplish that? “Just be myself honestly and show what I can do. I take a lot of pride in the work I put in this summer in preparing.” What did Harris prioritize this offseason? “A little bit of everything. I think getting back to some of my skating details and some of your skill work and focus on little things like making sure you know what you want to do with the puck before you get it, scanning the ice a little better, practicing both sides.”
• Adam Fantilli said he had to change a few things he did workout wise while still recovering from his injury. He played in the exhibition game at the Men’s Worlds and grew confidence from that even though he didn’t play in the tournament. He says he wasn’t able to run, sprint and jump the same way while in recovery. It was halfway through the summer when all of that came back for him. He was able to train fully for the last 7-8 weeks of the offseason. He played on a line with James van Riemsdyk and Dmitri Voronkov.
• Day 2 of Training Camp goes Friday. A quick update to the schedule. The original schedule had Group 1 practicing before Group 2 daily. Per the Blue Jackets, they will alternate. Group 2 will go first at 9:15 A.M. followed by Group 1 at 12:15 P.M. With multiple shows at Nationwide Arena, practices will be held at the Ice Haus.