Kekalainen: Blue Jackets established an identity
/Columbus Blue Jackets Jarmo Kekalainen gave his end-of-season wrap Thursday.
One of the takeaways from the presser was the successful establishment of the franchise's identity.
"The one word that I've heard a lot after the last game is that 'you should be proud.' Proud of the way the team finished, the team played.
"I'm kind of, in my own mind and talking about it, trying to define it a little bit more narrowly, I guess, to say I'm really proud about the effort. I'm really proud about the no quit in our team and I'm proud about the identity we established.
"Again, this year I think we established it. Next year I think we build on it and now I think the Blue Jackets are well-known around the league for the identity that we have, which is hard working, hard to play against, never quit, blue collar team. I'm really proud of that and basically... let's not be satisfied here."
On Brandon Dubinsky: "The way he played against arguably the best player in the world in Sidney Crosby and did a great job on him and drove our team on the ice."
On Ryan Johansen: "I get goosebumps now thinking about where this guy could go with his career. It's basically all in his control."
On how active he might be this summer with free agency and trades:
"I think we have to be careful. We want to keep the good chemistry and I think that was a big theme going into this year that we want to give our young guys enough room to grow and opportunity to play and get their ice time... earning their spot on the team.
"So we want to be careful of that. But at the same time, we're going to always look at every option we have to make our team better, but with a special group like this you want to make sure - and I've emphasized this with our amateur scouting staff and pro scouting staff - that when we bring in people, whether it's through the draft or through free agency or trade, we want to make sure about the character and the heart. If you talk about playing fast, the ability to understand the game and playing on that instinct level, that makes the game fast.
"One thing about getting faster is in our control, which is getting bigger and stronger and faster. The physical aspect of the game. But I can't emphasize the character enough to make sure we always bring in the right type of people; not only as hockey players, but as teammates and human beings. So, it's going to be an important part of our scouting manual, I call it, where we're trying to find out the hardest part to find out about players, which is their character."