Blue Jackets feeling urgency to start winning regularly

The four-year-old NHL team regressed last season.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- The novelty of the Columbus Blue Jackets is wearing off.
Heading into its fourth year, the team has built a solid fan base. Now it must deal with the most important item on any club's checklist -- wins.
The Blue Jackets set a team record with 29 victories a year ago while easing rookie sensation Rick Nash into the lineup. Now Nash is bigger, smarter and stronger -- and the Blue Jackets need to be as well when they open Thursday night in Atlanta.
"We're a lot tougher team this year," Nash said.
Last year, the Blue Jackets had 69 points, 23 behind Edmonton, the eighth and final playoff qualifier in the Western Conference, so they added speed and experience to a core of young players to offset the loss of leading scorer Ray Whitney.
Free agent boost
President, general manager and now full-time coach Doug MacLean signed free agents Todd Marchant (center), Trevor Letowski (winger) and Fred Brathwaite (goaltender). Perhaps most important, he picked up defenseman Darryl Sydor from Dallas for Mike Sillinger and a third-round draft pick.
"I like our group," MacLean said. "I think we're a tougher team to play against. Still, you've got to take it on the ice."
Sydor gives Columbus a leader for the power play and a defenseman who can handle the puck.
Marchant is among the NHL's quickest players, Letowski adds grit and attitude similar to that of Tyler Wright, and Brathwaite can provide relief for Marc Denis, who set a league record for minutes.
Road woes
The Blue Jackets were a respectable 20-14-5-2 at Nationwide Arena but 9-28-3-1 elsewhere.
"We've just got to get better on the road," Letowski said. "You do that by staying within the system and playing hard every night."
If the Blue Jackets get off to a rough start, the blame will fall on MacLean. After all, he put the team together. He fired Dave King midway through last season and took on the mantle of coach. He now is responsible for not only the personnel but how it plays.
Nash, 19, enjoyed a solid rookie year, scoring 17 goals and 22 assists in 74 games. Almost every night he made a play or two that dazzled. But often he didn't finish the play with a goal, frequently drawing enough attention to get knocked off the puck.
"I feel a lot stronger out there and I feel my strength will help me a lot," he said.
MacLean hopes the blend of youth and veterans can override the failures on the road and supply a solid work ethic.
Veterans
He has proven commodities in Andrew Cassels (68 points), Espen Knutsen (slowed by injuries last year), Wright (19 goals), Geoff Sanderson (club-record 34 goals), David Vyborny (46 points) and defensemen Luke Richardson and Scott Lachance.
Rostislav Klesla, the team's first draft pick in 2000, showed signs of developing on the blue line.
The Blue Jackets' most recent first-round pick, right wing Nikolai Zherdev, could bring another youngster into the mix -- if MacLean can pry him from his Russian team.
"There are a lot of good things we can look forward to," Denis said. "We'll definitely carry the confidence and the swagger that comes with winning a few games and performing well in the preseason."
Letowski has spent four seasons in the NHL in Phoenix and Vancouver. He remembers playing the Blue Jackets. Now he has a good perspective on how the team can turn the corner.
"We're very fast up front and we've got some D-men who can move the puck well. We can be a good transition team," he said. "But we're really going to have to come to play every night. We do that, and who knows?"