This is close to the worst thing that could happen to the Blue Jackets. Their number one defencemen, Seth Jones, is set to miss the next three weeks with a hairline fracture in his foot.
#CBJ D Seth Jones out three weeks w a hairline fracture in a foot.
— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) November 7, 2016
Jones suffered the injury against St. Louis when he and Patrick Berglund got tied up in front of the net. Berglund’s skate blade came up and cut though the top of Jones’ skate, fracturing a bone. Jones somehow managed to play the rest of the game and even led the Blue Jackets with 26:19 of ice time.
For the team and the player this could not come at a worse time. The Blue Jackets are playing well and Jones is a big reason why. He has been averaging 24:14 per game, the most among skaters. He was routinely taking on other teams top lines, and playing in all situations.
Jones has not only been logging big minutes but he's been producing in them as well. He has six points in 10 games, which is second on the team among defencemen behind Zach Werenski. Even more impressive is Jones has yet to do any damage on the power play. All six of his points have come at even strength.
From a possession standpoint Jones hasn’t been as good but has still been an effective player for this team. At 5 on 5 his Corsi is just 46.76%, per Corsica. Ideally you want your big time defencemen to be well over 50%, but considering the context it doesn’t look all bad. Relative to the rest of the Blue Jackets, Jones’ Corsi is only -0.06 below the team average. He is right in line with the rest of the team. Where Jones has been successful is scoring chances. He may not have the highest Corsi, but when he is on the ice he makes the most of his limited opportunities and gets the puck into high danger areas. Jones scoring chance percentage is at 51.02%, the fourth highest on the team.
Jones’ injury impacts the whole team, but this significantly impacts Zach Werenski more than any other player. Werenski has been quite good this season in his own right, but much of his success has been due to Jones. Weresnki has played 156:07 of his 183:14 5 on 5 minutes alongside Jones. In those minutes Werenski has been solid with a 48.65% Corsi. Without Jones, Werenski has been well below average with a 37.29% Corsi. He’s only played 27:07 apart from Jones which is clearly not a large enough sample to draw conclusions from. But it’s not a good sign. Hopefully Werenski can step up and fill some of the void left by Jones.
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