When news came out before the start of the season that center Pierre-Luc Dubois wanted out of Columbus, the Blue Jackets presented themselves as disappointed but unrattled, insisting that they would handle it the same way they went about their business in 2018-19 when the entire world knew Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky intended to leave.
It didn’t worked out that way. The Blue Jackets have just one win through five games, a rough start that is worsened by the short season and with every game being intra-division. Dubois himself has just one point in five games, and that’s hardly the worst of it.