The Columbus Blue Jackets are focused on today.
That's the mindset that coach John Tortorella has established with his club, one he joined last season after an 0-7 start led to the firing of then bench boss Todd Richards.
Following the coaching change, the Blue Jackets finished one game over .500 down the stretch. That success has carried over to the current season, as Columbus holds a 19-5-4 record through 28 games, good for fifth place in the entire NHL.
Related: Tortorella has Blue Jackets playing a different game
Part of that success comes from shedding what Tortorella describes as a "country club" atmosphere that plagued the Columbus locker room.
"I think we've made strides, even from last year. We're more professional with how we go about it. We're more business-like with how we go about it," Tortorella told reporters. "To me, it was a bit of a country club, 'This is okay. We played pretty good, but we lost. We were pretty good, so let's just get our practice done today.'
"It's about each particular day and what is needed to get your workday in the proper way and do it right. Then let's worry about tomorrow. I think we've just been a focused group on the day. That's a huge plus for this club."
But that doesn't mean that the fiery bench boss won't continue to raise the bar.
"I think we have to raise the standard if we want to compete in this league. We've had a pretty good start here, but that means nothing," Tortorella added. "We have to be better because other teams are going to get better here as we go through, and that's the understanding a young group has to understand, and a group that has simply gone along and played and said 'this is okay'. That's why you end up in 27th, or wherever you're going to be.
"We are not good enough as a hockey club to worry about anything that happened before or what's going to happen in front of us here. We have to concentrate on what's going on this particular day."
While the season is not yet at its halfway point, the early signs are there that the Blue Jackets will advance to the postseason for just the third time in franchise history. Columbus joined the NHL in 2000 and made the playoffs in 2009 and 2014, but has never won a playoff series.
| Season | Record | Points | Playoffs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | 34-40-8 | 76 | Missed |
| 2014-15 | 42-35-5 | 89 | Missed |
| 2013-14 | 43-32-7 | 93 | Lost in Round 1 |
| 2012-13 | 24-17-7 | 55 | Missed |
| 2011-12 | 29-46-7 | 65 | Missed |
Columbus has found its offense this season, as just five teams top the Blue Jackets' 94 goals for, while just one team has scored more goals per game.
A big part of that success is due to forward Sam Gagner, who leads the team with 13 goals. A late addition by the Blue Jackets, Gagner didn't sign with the team until August, as his future in the league was in doubt after a few lesser seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers and Arizona Coyotes.
Gagner agreed to a one-year, prove-it deal in the Ohio capital - at $650,000, only two players earn less than Gagner - using the opportunity to rediscover both his confidence and his scoring touch.
"When we talked about signing him, we wanted him as a center because we felt that we needed some more plays made out of the middle of the ice, and he's a right-handed center too," Tortorella said. "I don't think he's a center. I don't think he played well as a center. I had him out of the lineup as a center. We put him on the wing and it just seemed to work.
"There's not a chance - and if a coach is telling you that they have it figured out before it happens on the ice and say, 'Yeah, he's gonna do this, that, and the other thing', that's bullshit. It is finding out what the player can do and then trying to find him those spots that you feel his strengths are by watching him play first, and Sam Gagner is a perfect definition of that.
"And (coaches) make mistakes at it too. There is always going to be a little bit of a trial and error, and it may change three weeks later, depending on what's going on with that player and what's going on with another player that wants his job.
"That's where a kind of accountability comes into play, in, 'Okay, you're doing it now. You better keep on doing it, because that guy is crawling up your ass here. He wants that spot too."
Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.