Pascal Vincent Addresses Kirill Marchenko's Healthy Scratch

Pascal Vincent Addresses Kirill Marchenko's Healthy Scratch

When it was announced before yesterday's Columbus vs. Pittsburgh game that Kirill Marchenko would be a healthy scratch in favor of them playing an 11F/7D setup, fans and media went nuts. The Blue Jackets were on a two-game winning streak and were going to need all the offense they could muster against a team they flat-out can't beat, so why scratch him of all people? Well for starters Marchenko had only scored 4 goals since his hat trick in mid-December, he did have a good amount of assists however. After his early season scratch, Marchenko came back fired up and started scoring regularly. And then Vincent said the Russian line was playing like the Harlem Globetrotters i.e. too flashy. 

On Morning Juice, he was asked about the standard that's being set for the team, Vincent said "We have standards for this team, and we have expectations for players, what they need to do. There are some non-negotibles for all players, but all players and different. They all have different personalities, they all have different skill sets. There's a few things that's between the coaches and the players and they all know what to expect, they all know what we expect from them individually and as a team. And when that's not met, then there's some consequences."

Vincent goes on about Marchenko, "Marchenko wasn't playing bad, and you know what? I know it's kind of a story for some reason, I don't understand. I understand Marchenko is a good player and everything, but we had a guy like Andrew Peeke that's been a good soldier for us, he's been playing extremely hard for us, he's a low-maintenance guy, he works hard. We had guys like Boqvist that didn't play, Peeke. We obviously had a guy like Patrik Laine that didn't play this year. Because of little things here and there, that are not meeting the expectations. We meet with the players all the time, we tell them where they're at with our expectations, and where they're at with their game. There's highs and lows and Marchenko is a real good player for us, he's a real good, nice person. These decisions are not easy to make, but they're simple to make. All players need to understand that, and they do. What matters to me, is that the organization knows, the players know, the room knows why we're doing this. It's because we have high standards, we don't want to be average. I refuse for our guys, and our team to be average, and that's going to lead to somewhere. We expect to be a playoff team, we expect to become successful in the playoffs. In order to get there, we have to get the standards high. Whether it's Johnny Gaudreau, Marchenko, or anybody else on the team, there's some non-negotiables and that's what we live by." 

You can listen to the full interview below. 

What's Next - Columbus returns home on Wednesday to take on the Edmonton Oilers.

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