Young Blue Jackets learned from first foray into playoffs

April 25, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Five-year-old Emily Peca might be the only Columbus Blue Jackets fan happy to see the season end.

A four-game sweep at the hands of the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings means her dad, forward Michael Peca, will be around home more. And will be less abrasive.

“She kept getting rashes every time I kissed her,” joked her father, who shaved off his playoff beard on Friday morning.

The Blue Jackets held team meetings and made plans for the offseason on Friday, hours after a 6-5 defeat in Game 4 at Nationwide Arena.

As the players packed up gear, arranged end-of-season physicals and prepared to meet with GM Scott Howson, they expressed a flood of different emotions.

There was disappointment in being ousted from the postseason so soon. There was a sense of awe at the play of the Red Wings. There was pride that the Blue Jackets, making their first trip to the playoffs in the franchise’s eight seasons, had finally figured out this whole playoff thing and fought on equal terms with the Wings in Game 4. And there was optimism for a young team with at least a couple of young stars awaiting their own moment in the spotlight.

“At the end of the day, heading into the summer, we had a great year,” veteran defenseman Mike Commodore said. “We did a lot of things that this organization had never done before. We can pat ourselves on the back a little bit for that and be proud of ourselves. All it does really is raise the expectations for next year. The expectation is no longer ‘Let’s just make the playoffs.’ Next year the expectation is ‘Let’s make the playoffs and make some noise.’ ”

The Blue Jackets had their first winning season (41-31-10) and the most points (92) in franchise history.

The backbone of the team is a group of 20-somethings. Captain Rick Nash set a team mark with 79 points and has already 194 NHL goals before his 25th birthday.

One of the first things on Howson’s to-do list in the offseason is to sign Nash to a new contract. Nash is entering the final year of a four-year deal which will pay him $7 million in the final season.

“You can’t say, ‘I guarantee I’m going to be here,’ because you don’t know what’s going to happen and you don’t know what direction they’re going to want to go in and what direction I’m going to want to go in,” Nash said. “It’s sad, but there’s always a business side to hockey. I’ve got to weight my options that way.”