With John Tortorella gone, the Blue Jackets had been on the search for their next head coach for about a month now. The team didn't have to go very far as they simply promoted assistant coach Brad Larsen to head-coaching duties. This kind of seemed fast as maybe there'd be more coaches available in a month or two but they want to get this locked up now, and Larsen is their new coach.

This was that GM Jarmo Kekalainen had to say:

There is a press conference set for Friday morning.

I am going to be honest here and say I'm assuming nothing really changes for Columbus, at least nothing outside of what we would normally expect. Tortorella had been the Jackets's coach for six years, and Larsen was working under him for all six. Maybe he has some fresh ideas, or maybe it'll be the same ideas with a new voice. I think before we judge what this will be, I am going to wait to see what the beat writers around the team have to say after the press conference. They have a better read on what we should expect than just about anyone.

When writing "what we would normally expect," what is meant here is beyond any natural progression he team may have. Patrik Laine can't possibly be any worse, it appears Max Domi may have been playing injured, Gustav Nyquist missed the whole year, and Zach Werenski missed about a third of it. If those guys are healthy and Laine is the guy of even two years ago, this team looks a lot different offensively than they did this past regular season. They should also have a bit of cap space to work with if they want to go out and make a splash, and Liam Foudy may finally be ready for full-time duties. There are reasons to be optimistic.

That is where Larsen comes in. If he just runs it back with Tortorella's schemes, leading to stifled offensive creativity in favour of staunch defence, on top of an uncreative power play, then I don't see why he would be an upgrade. A new voice teaching the same lesson won't lead to wildly different results.

On the other hand, if Larsen can help instill a bit more offensive spark, there is enough here to put together at least a good top scoring line and top PP unit. They might even be able to squeeze a decent second scoring line, depending on when Domi can return and what he looks like when he does. Larsen has a real chance to make a difference with this team.

All that said, I don't see much changing here. The culture and identity of the Blue Jackets for basically a decade has been hard-nosed, grinding, forechecking hockey. They see themselves more New York Islanders and less Colorado Avalanche. Which is totally fine – they're here to win hockey games, not be great fantasy options. But if Larsen is just more of the same, there isn't a lot of reason to get excited over this hiring.