While Boone Jenner was out with injury, Jack Johnson wore the ‘A’ for the Columbus Blue Jackets. When he came back, things were expected to go back to normal with Jenner sharing the duties with Brandon Dubinsky. Instead, Johnson has kept his ‘A’ and so has Jenner.
Brandon Dubinsky Stripped of ‘A’
After the game last night, head coach John Tortorella said that Dubinsky was stripped of the ‘A’ because Dubinsky needs to focus on getting his game together. Through the nine games so far Dubinsky has just two assists. One of those assists came last night against the Buffalo Sabres.
Tortorella has not been afraid of threatening to strip letters. At the end of the 2015-16 season, he met with captain Nick Foligno to say how he hadn’t decided if he was going to keep Foligno as captain. That year Foligno had 37 points in 72 games, missing a handful of games with a concussion just when he started to get hot.
Of course, Foligno kept his ‘C’ and had a big bounce-back year the next season.
Tortorella has also said that the move to give Johnson the ‘A’ is not temporary. Thus, it may be a while before we see Dubinsky with the letter back on his jersey.
#CBJ Dubinsky, on losing the”A”: “I’m not going to lie. You guys know me. I was pissed. But I’m not going to let it affect the way I play.”
— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) October 26, 2017
Dubinsky Struggling So Far
It can’t be an easy pill to swallow for Dubinsky. He’s been an alternate captain for the Blue Jackets since he first arrived in Columbus for the 2012-2013 season.
On the other hand, it’s not hard to see that Dubinsky has been on the decline for the past season or so. Just last year he had 29 points in 80 games. The year before that, the 2015-16 season, he had 31 points in 75 games.
Through nine games Dubinsky has a relative CF% of -4.1, meaning the team is performing 4.1% better without him on the ice.
It might be for the best for Dubinsky not to have the pressure of being a leader and just focusing on getting his game to better place.
Moving forward, the leadership group in Columbus consists of Foligno serving as captain and Johnson and Jenner serving as the alternates.
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