Blue Jackets training camp starts today, and Hitch and Howson have announced that they will start the year off with an experiment: Zherdev will be moved to center.
Howson travelled this summer to Ottawa, where Zherdev was living in the off-season, and met with him.
Howson told Zherdev what he expected of him and what kind of shape the player needed to be in. Then Howson dropped a bomb on Zherdev.
“We suggested it and he about fell off the back of his chair,” Hitchcock said with a grin.
Howson said it was evident that Zherdev didn’t think he could play centre, which involves feeding teammates, sacrificing your body for others to score and not making turnovers.
Zherdev will form a line with David Vyborny and Rick Nash. Rick first heard about the switch during a radio interview and said it was “interesting.”
In other CBJ news:
- Alexander Svitov has been officially suspended from the team for failing to report to camp. This should create some breathing room under the salary cap.
- In general, players reported to camp a little more fit than last year. Even Shelly lost some weight, and Nash has “bulked up” his upper body.
- Fox Sports has graciously allowed your Columbus Blue Jackets, brought to you by FSN, to rename their retail shops the “FSN Ohio Blue Line.” Thank you FSN.
- Sunday’s exhibition game against the Predators faces off at 5 p.m. On FSN.
[Ed. – Note we’ve updated the CBJ post icon to reflect the team’s new logo. MotSaG is on the ball… or the puck…. um… whatever. Choose your own mixed metaphor. The icon is updated, though.]
Hockey season can’t start soon enough. Hopefully with low expectations the Jackets will exceed them.
This season can be the opposite of the last two season where Doug Maclean was everywhere saying “This is the year for the playoffs”, etc.