The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Aaron Portzline on the Blue Jackets' Lack of Powerplays, Playoff Push, and more

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

Aaron Portzline joins to discuss the challenges facing the Columbus Blue Jackets, including ongoing frustrations with officiating, the team’s season-long struggles, and what it all means for the organization moving forward. It’s a wide-ranging conversation covering league discipline, star player reactions, officiating controversies, and the latest storylines shaping the NHL right now.#TheSheet #JeffMarek #GregWyshynski #AaronPortzline #ConnorMcDavid #RadkoGudas #BlueJackets #CBJ #NHL #HockeyTalk #NHLNews #PlayerSafety #NHLDepartmentOfPlayerSafety #HockeyPodcast #NHLDiscussionLeave a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheSheetEmail us: [e-mail] TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/caReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaking of justice. Columbus ain't get none. Aaron Portsline from the Athletic joins us. I hope. Sorry he had to put up with like that nonsense before like Aaron Portsline is like a serious distinguished guest. He has a serious report. He's got to listen to us talking about cowbells and sticks on the sack and the thigh. I rather enjoy it.

Oh, God. Well, so we've chummed the waters by talking about the DOPS and we'll localize it even more now and talk about the officials. I had no idea. Like we used to always sort of, you know, look back at, you know, the Calgary Flames after the Wydenman incident with Don Henderson and say, oh, they're paying some, they're paying some, some tax on this one, right? What were they used to get? The Widman tax is what they used to call it.

Like, oh, yeah, Calgary's paying Wyden tax here for a while. I had no idea that the Columbus Blue Jackets felt this way until I'd read your piece this morning, 40. Oh, well, thank you. Yeah. It's been with us for a while. bonus has figured it out. I think the one thing that backdrops all of this

is there, if you've spent time here and I know you guys have, we have a bit of a inferiority complex as a city yet. No, no, no, no. Oh, yeah. It's a great city of experiments. It's where things get tested. You get things early, everything,

all products before it's unleashed on the market. Columbus is the focus market. You get everything first. There will love Columbus. Taste setters, taste makers. There was that unfreeks. There was that unfortunate, huge glowing. It was kind of cool, actually, because it was so classic.

Wonderbread, which is like, that's not what you want. Broadcast about your town. Not wonder bread. But, yeah. So this inferiority complex always, John Tortorella is wired that way anyways, but it goes back way before him to Hitchcock, to Ditchcock, Dave King, the early days of the franchise, that was more rooted in we're an expansion of franchise. We're not getting anything.

Not getting more than it was. Nobody respects the organization. I've heard theories that it's still persist because of how Doug McLean treated officials. I find that. He loved officials. What are you talking about? Wow. He did.

Depending on the episode. I love the officials. Yeah. So, and now Rick Bonas is at it, right? I've gone through, and I wrote this a couple years ago, I just kind of updated it now maybe two weeks ago. And there's a lot that goes into this, of course, but Columbus and in the last decade has had 600 fewer power plays than the Colorado Avalent. 600. Now, I am not naive to say that Colorado Avalanche are really hard to defend.

They're going to draw more penalties. but they haven't always been that in this last decade, right? The Blue Jackets have not been, this year, a bit last year, they've not been a hard team to defend, but they've not always been that. They were pretty difficult to defend during the Panarin years, the four years in a row they made the playoffs. There are more than half of the teams in this league

have had 300 more power plays than the Blue Jackets have over the last. decade. Like the numbers are, if you wanted to build a conspiracy theory, who, what? You could do it. You could do it. And Rick Bonas doesn't know all of this backdrop unless he's been talking to thwarts or hitch. But he has now, this has become a thing with him where he's offering it up even if he's not asked about it. He went one step forward in Philadelphia by saying there's a lack of respect for our team. And we're going to get there. We're going to earn it. But this is what it is right now. And I spoke to Don Waddell yesterday. He's like, we would like an answer as to why we're the team in the league that has the least power plays. Why is that? But he also doesn't want it to

turn into a circus of players diving of right. We've started to hear sort of Bronx cheers whenever there's there's a penalty called. And nationwide fans have picked up on this. Wow. Oh, yeah. Every time there's a penalty called in a game, there's sort of like, hey, great job. Hey, I remember those things.

Right. So it's very much a thing. Something to watch. My first theory is that on ice officials hate the cannon so much that they don't want to give the blue jackets the opportunity to score and then have to hear it. That's my first theory. So hang on.

So with that, with that fall, that was it Mike Priest, who greenlighted that one? Aaron, you would know way better. Well, you, Priest obviously had a role in it. You could blame, I'm looking through my message is not to be rude, but somebody pushed that very theory earlier today, wish. Is that right? Yeah. Really, eh?

There you go. Right? I mean, two people make, two people makes it a, a coincidence. It's not a conspiracy. he asked there's a coincidence three years of first of all like I read the piece on the

go read the piece in the athletic that that Aaron wrote because again it just underscores he's on the Mount Rushmore beat writers for putting forth this information that we would have otherwise never have known about the Columbus Blue Jackets do you think Bones is Bones seems like a kind of guy that likes to gin up a little

us against the world type mentality in his teams you think that's part of it or do you think that it's literally he's going through the numbers and being like what the shit like why don't we get more power play Yeah. Well, and his thing was, I wonder why it's three to one for the other guys in every game. Yeah. And of course, if you go back, it really hasn't been.

They've had more power plays than the other team like four games before this. But the game in Philadelphia, it was a mess of a game. It was a mess of a game. And the Flyers had four power plays before the Blue Jackets had won. Now, I'm not one of those guys that thinks the power play should just automatically be evened up every night. I know those, I've heard hockey fans like that. They've had three, hey, we're do one. And I'm like, well, no, not if you don't, not if they don't commit a penalty.

You're not do one. That's ridiculous. I do think there were some moments in the game in Philadelphia where you'd say, okay, that's a penalty. That's a penalty. But, you know, they've also complained about Fantilli had a breakaway for Kachuk late in the Florida game. And Fantilli dived. he got the puck but he also got some skate they complained about that one

Fantilli accused Kachuk of diving he I think he did sell it Hang on I remember that play Kachuk Fantili did not come near his skates I'm like that that was that would that that should not that should not be a call if anything

I have a hard time in that one and I go like Matthew Kachuk is not born yesterday Matthew Kachuk no exactly what he was doing and he's trying to I'll push back a little. It's okay, but. They're never going to not call that call.

I mean, sweeping, you watch, you look at it again. And from my press box fan, I was like, boom, power play. Like, it was clear. And even watching your view, to me, I go, is that why could Chuck went down? No. Are they ever going to watch, watch his skates when he turns? I understand. Are they ever going to watch that and not call that penalty?

I find that. In Florida, come on. But this gets back to, because part of it is, okay, the Panthers have won two straight cops. That's Kichuk. And we're just the little old blue jackets with this fantilly kid who's, okay, pretty big, pretty big deal in his own right. But that it backdrops all of this for sure. It does. If I can be a total click horror. Yes, read today. But also within there, and I think I highlighted the actual breakdown of all of the disparity of the, because that's not in this one. So I didn't want to go back and go through all that. If you tweet that out, we'll both retweet it so people can find it. We're all about, listen, you're never going to get Russo money, but we'll try to get you as much as you can with subs and stuff at the athletic. Yeah, yeah. Well, there's, I mean, Russo money is unfat.

I can't even imagine. That's that long, that long, quiet green that doesn't make, the money that Greg and I walk around within our jeans, like makes noise when we walk down the street. But Rousse is out of quiet, quiet, quiet bills. Yeah, I still do pennies. I still do pennies. That's, that's me. That's me and we're just rattling our pockets as we, as we walk down the street. So Aaron, are they going to get this over the goal line, the blue jackets?

Like, it's like, the bubble race in the east is, I mean, it's like there's only them in Ottawa, I guess, on the. outside looking in right now basically based on the on the odds are they going to are they going to find a way to sneak into the wild card i mean i hate to give you that answer but we shall see they've been on an absolute tear here it's always funny in these races where a week and a half ago the blue jackets were obsessing over the islanders and then it was the bruin's and now it's kind of the red wings right it keeps changing um yeah i mean they're they're playing really well they've got three lines that really four lines that are playing well but three lines that give you a little bit of scoring concern no none of the lines really petrifies you maybe marchenko when he's going and he is

right now yeah so they're trying to sort of do this in a different way than maybe some other teams but i feel like they're getting to the point now where uh rick bonus has them committed to the playing style that he wants them to commit to up and down the lineup. The defending, defending and defending. He feels like he can play the way that these lines are constructed, he can play most of his lines against anybody. The second line he's got to be a little bit careful with, with the wings. The wings are light with Garland and Ken Johnson. But he loves his third line and he loves his first line.

And he'll play the fourth line against anybody as well. And just to give you an idea of how things have progressed here in the last couple of years, Boone Jenner was their number one center arguably two years ago. He's the captain, of course. He's now on the fourth line. He's their fourth line center with Limstrom and some nights Miles Wood, some nights Dayton Hayden. So that's what's changed here for them at Forward is they have center depth that they've never had here in Columbus. And it does give them advantage against a lot of teams.

teams. Charlie Coil, as a third-line center, is a luxury they never thought they'd have here. It's interesting, too, like the two expansion teams that have just died for centers. Columbus got there first with this group, but the Minnesota wild. Same thing, looking for centers forever. It's always been. Columbus can never get a center, Minnesota can never get a center. Really quick, you mentioned Karel Marchenko, just one thing sort of frivolously. What was with the Tim Horton's cup on the helmet? At the skate today. What was it?

Tim Horton's. What was that? He was skating around and he had a Tim Horton's cup on his helmet. today. I'm not sure if you saw that. I mean, is there something of missing here? That was today.

Yeah. Okay. So Jet Grieves and Jake Christensen showed up early at a Tim Hortons on Olentanyi River Road and worked the drive-through window. Okay. I don't know if there's something

there. Jet was going on about how much fun he had, how intense it was back there. Like those people have a lot This is an NHL role. Those people have a lot going on. He's such an urge to while a young man anyways. Yeah, I'll have to ask him.

I didn't. Optional skate, maybe that was still going on when we took off to go talk to guys. Okay, so let me throw one more thing out of you because you mentioned Jet Creek. And the Philadelphia Flyers found this out quick on the weekend.

He may have the fastest glove in the NHL. That glove is insane. quick. I know every goal tent I have like one thing that they do sort of post play pads whatever rebout

his glove man like I come from the era of like you know the windmill glove saves and palm tier this and all that crazy stuff but like that guy's glove hand is just flat out fast

like don't shoot there guys like you're not gonna score right no you're not gonna score right and you won't be surprised to know he played a ton of baseball growing up yes right like the glove work was a year round practice for him

even if it wasn't really practice, he was doing it just out of, it was, the sports team's playing. Interesting with that, quick pause. A lot of guys would just sort of block with their glove now

because they did, I remember Felix Potfan told me this. Wayne Gretzky always told me, never dropped names. Felix Pot fan told me this. He said, like, so many guys, like you can tell

the goaltenders that played baseball and the ones that didn't because the goaltenders that actually played baseball, like squeeze and grab, and the guys are just like, use the glove almost like another blocker. And we see a lot of that

because you specialize so whirling. And he's like, ah, no, he's had to puck anymore. It's Elvis Merzleekins' weakness, I would think, the glove. Sure. And it's grieves. And there are times where it's almost like he would love this, but it's almost like Jeter-esque where it's just, it's so natural you don't even realize how impressed it.

We're just sort of. Now I'm unimpressed. Greg, comment on that? I have a lot of great genius stories, by the way, I don't want to hear any of your Jeter stories. I have one. He had any good, Ordonia stories or,

they paint him in a wonderful light. He was the Columbus Clipper, you know. Oh, that's great. Was he? Yeah. Yeah, of course he was. He had to be in the minor leagues at some point. Aaron, I got one more for you.

The injury around. Hang on. Pause. Pordy, have a look. The hell. He's got a cup on his head. That's clearly deep to his. Yeah.

His helmet. Helmet? This has got incredible balance. I mean, so the question would have to be does he even know it's there? That's what I'm wondering. That's a great question. Honestly, that is what I'm wondering about too through all this.

If this is like a gag, like who's the prankster on the team? Who's the Mark Andre Fleury on this team? Quite a few of them. Sean Monty and jumps to mind. Was that on their social? Because I'll poke around and get back to you. Is that the team social?

I don't think it was. I don't think it was on the team social, no. Wow. Okay. But there it is. But there it is. The Tim Horton. It's a mystery party.

That's from, oh, hang on. There's good. Okay. What's that? Go ahead, Matt. That's from Mark Sheig. If I'm saying that correctly.

S-C-H-E-I-G. Yeah, there is. Yeah. All right. Yeah, so he took the picture from the stands. He covers the team. for the hockey writers. Yeah, let me, so there, you know,

there is a timmy's attached to the rink right there. Oh, there you go. So easy gag, but yeah, let me poke around and see. I'm going to guess Monaghan. Okay. You know the team. It's always the boring ones.

Well, you would know. Yeah. And Marchenko's fun-loving, fun-loving guy. So, all right. Let me, I'll text you guys, or I'll tweet you guys. What's, what's best? What do we get the most out of?

It doesn't matter. Whatever, whatever you. Listen, it's, it's a culture of attention. Just tweet it out for everybody. I wanted to ask you, like, though, like the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, Blue Jackets got a lot of attention for not trading their UFAs at the deadline, which I think we all said, well, okay, well, it's kind of like they're keeping them. It's a playoff race.

It makes total sense. But do you think that they end up resigning all those guys? All those guys. I would take the under on four. I mean, I would, I mean, I think they would like to. So for me, the tricky thing with Jenner, with Good Branson, and less so, but also possibly with coil is the term. Because I think they're willing to pay and they have the cap room.

But when guys start to get into their 30s, well under their 30s, I think teams get really nervous. And, I mean, players really want term then. And teams really don't want term then. So I think that could be the stumbling block. In terms of priorities, I think the priority would be coil, clearly number one in that group. Marchman probably to Jenner,

and then Good Branson. But I think they want to keep them all. And I must say, Jenner and Good Branson, Jenner's the captain, obviously, but Good Branson is, as guys around the league, we'll tell you, he is a hell of a dude in the dressing room. And I think he's one of those guys that,

if you're lucky enough to get through some playoff rounds, those are the type of defensemen that get harder and harder to play against in a series. Yep. Because that dude's huge physical. And there's not, they don't really have that element. in their back end other than him, the physicality. Let me close on.

You need a long playoff run to ensure the refs start calling penalties, obviously. Right. Point of the realm. Who was the ref? Do you guys remember this years ago? It was when Twitter first started becoming a thing. God, I'm getting old. I can't remember the ref's name.

He called a penalty. People nationwide were pissed off. He skated away from the benches toward the crowd and started making like a crying face to the audience. Do you remember this? And I'm up in the best of the rink of, and respond. And then as he's acting like he's crying

and the fans are getting increasingly animated, he comes up with the middle finger and fakes that he's wiping a tear away from his eye. Wow. Now, yeah. Well, it sounds like him. Wow. Wow.

Wow. I don't know. I don't think Tim. I don't think Tim would do that. I got a plug. But here's the thing. I'd be really curious to see who that was. I could expect that at the junior level, you know, with like an official in their 20s. But by the time you get to the NHL, first of all, you've heard everything. You've had things thrown at you.

You've been threatened in parking lots. Like everything, but your skin is thick as an official. By the time you get to the NFL, first of all, you've heard to the NFL. That's why, Portie, that one stuns me. That at the NHL level. I think that official got a, I can't believe. I'm forgetting the name. Paul Dvorse.

Paul Dvorse. It was Paul Dvorse. It was Paul Dvorse. That did, that did ref forever. Forever. The legendary, the legendary Dvorsky family, whose mother was a delivering nurse for Logan Couture. that's what I'm bringing to the show today

from the Dvorisky family of London slash Luke in Ontario that's what I got for you boys today yeah but yeah it was like this never happened and the fans were like here's 71 pictures of it

you know okay we used to have refs in this league man guys without helmets guys that would make crying faces the fans we used to Exactly. Look, man, I, listen, here's how old, I remember talking to Emil Francis about this once when he was coaching the Rangers.

He said, you know, one of the most disgusting things he'd ever seen in the NHL was at the spectrum. Now, mind you, the Rangers and the Flyers, we all know about that. But anyhow, at the spectrum, what they would do is when they announced the officials, whenever they announced an official, whenever they announced an official. official by name of Art Scove, they would also give out the record for the Philadelphia Flyers when Art Scove offici- and it was something like 33, two, and ones when they had ties. And the referee got a standing ovation at the spectum. And Kat was like, this is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my life. What are we watching here?

They're applauding this guy whose record when officiating Flyers games is like 33, 2 and 1? What? Cat was just like, I can't believe this. And obviously called the league about it and bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, bar. Just to bring the conversation full circle, I was reading the story about the divorcee incident. And it was because the... Did you write about it, too? No, no, no, no, no.

That's a total puck daddy thing. I probably wrote about it and forgot about it. The fans were on edge because the Minnesota Wild received seven power plays while the blue jackets had none. Ladies and gentlemen There you go What other revents you need It's official Oh

We got it all the way back to the beginning Aaron you're the best It's always a delight pal Great to see you, great to hear you Thanks as always for stopping by I really appreciate it We'll find out that Tim Horton's cup On Krell Marchenko's

Yeah Helmet I'm sure you love it When you agree to come on You know some goofy podcast And they give you homework So I apologize I bet Paul Devorsky did that too No kidding everything

everything's the son of the delivering nurse for Logan Couture of the San Jose Sharks. All right, great stuff, pal. You'd be good. Yeah, see you guys. Thanks.