Blue Jackets president: 'No rash moves' coming despite poor start

Columbus Blue Jackets president of hockey operations John Davidson isn't keen on making any big changes to the club at the moment despite a tumultuous start to the 2023-24 season.

"No rash moves right now," he told The Athletic's Aaron Portzline.

"We just keep riding this, keep pushing. No white flags. No sense of 'Woe is me.' 'Woe is me' does not work. It's an emotional game, a hard game. But we need the improvements we're seeing with some of our younger players - Alexandre Texier, Kirill Marchenko, Adam Fantilli, these guys - to continue, and we need our best players to start playing like they're capable of playing. That's what we need, and that's what we're waiting to see."

The Blue Jackets sit at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division at 4-11-4 and are stuck in a nine-game losing streak to start a season in which many expected the club to progress from a 31st-place finish in 2022-23.

Columbus has drawn plenty of attention of late due to the lack of production from star forwards Johnny Gaudreau and Patrik Laine. Both players have been benched recently, and Laine was a healthy scratch for Sunday's loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.

"We don't have too many of our best players playing at the top of their games, and that's where the problem lies," Davidson said. "It's pretty simple. Your best players have to be your best players. If they aren't, it's hard."

Gaudreau and Laine rank 12th and 16th, respectively, on the Blue Jackets in scoring this season, each managing just two goals.

The Blue Jackets' next game comes Wednesday against the Chicago Blackhawks.

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