Blue Jackets/Kings Cancellation: Inside Crazy Morning in Columbus

We talked to both Mateychuk and captain Boone Jenner to get their thoughts on the storm that hit Sunday and the upcoming game against the Kings. Jenner said he treated Sunday like a snow day even trying to get his son into a sled.

“He wasn’t too fond of it,” a laughing Jenner said. “I got him outside in the sled for the first sled ride, so that was fun.”

Jenner is the longest tenured Blue Jacket who would be the most familiar with how the weather works year round in Columbus. He didn’t recall anything like he saw on Sunday with this record snow.

“Yeah, definitely. Probably the most since I’ve been here, no doubt.”

Mateychuk is used to the snow being from Canada. But even he was amazed how quickly things changed on Sunday.

“We get it,” Mateychuk said. “But not straight from bare grass to a foot-and-a-half to two feet of snow. It seemed like a lot.”

Head coach Rick Bowness held his usual availability. He confirmed Mateychuk was set to return. After about 10 minutes, Bowness was done speaking. Everything still felt normal and on schedule.

The Los Angeles Kings, who arrived in Columbus around 3 A.M. Sunday morning from St. Louis, spent Sunday in their hotel. Like the Blue Jackets, they had the day off from practice. They spent the day watching the NFL Conference Championship games while slipping in some meals.

The Kings all took the ice as usual for a road morning skate at 11:30 A.M. eastern. Darcy Kuemper and Anton Forsberg worked at each end of the ice. Again, nothing felt off as the skate started.

But as the clock started getting closer to noon eastern, you could tell something was going on. Between observing several staffers on the phone as well as player’s bags being packed, word was starting to go around that the possibility existed the game would be postponed.

At 12:02 P.M. eastern, the official word from the NHL came down that the Kings/Blue Jackets game was postponed. The two teams will make this game up on March 9 in Columbus.

Certainly, questions remain outstanding in the aftermath of this news. Among them, what actually prompted the postponement discussion to happen? Everyone involved was getting ready to play a game. Both teams were in town. What exactly changed?

Also, if postponement was a real possibility, why wasn’t it decided sooner? Franklin County was in a Level 3 Snow Emergency from Sunday into Monday. An update to Level 2 was made early Monday afternoon.

In Ohio, a Level 3 snow emergency is defined as “All roads are closed to non-emergency travel due to extremely hazardous conditions, with only essential personnel allowed on roadways, and violators face potential arrest.”

Meanwhile, Level 2 is defined as “Roadways are hazardous with blowing and drifting snow. Only those who feel it is necessary to drive should be out on the roadways. Contact your employer to see if you should report to work.”

A lot of extra work and preparation to come into the rink was made thinking the game was on. It just felt like a lot of this could have been prevented if a decision was made sooner.

The other question then becomes was there consideration to play the game with no or limited fans? At this point, the answers to those questions are unknown.

What we do know is that may of the side roads in Columbus and Franklin County haven’t been touched yet. Plows are out all around to try and get as much cleaned up as possible. But there were still many areas of hazardous conditions. Couple that with the bitter cold and you have a situation where the decision makers thought it best to postpone the game.

It’s not often you see two teams going through the full morning routine in a city before seeing a game scrapped for a later date. It made for one of the most unusual mornings in Nationwide Arena in recent memory.

The Blue Jackets will return to practice Tuesday morning at 11 A.M. The Kings will head up to Detroit for a Tuesday night game against the Red Wings in what was originally scheduled to be the second of back-to-back games.