His frustration is at a boiling point.
After a 3-9-0 start for the Blue Jackets followed by a slew of key injuries , a few blowout losses and a six-game losing streak going into the NHL's holiday pause, Sean Kuraly has seen enough. Losing is difficult enough for a veteran center who nearly won the 2019 Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins , but the Blue Jackets ' habit of simply not showing up enough is costing him sleep.
"Injuries are bad or whatever, but whenever you come back into the locker room and you lose … no matter the situation, it doesn't feel good," Kuraly, 29, said. "You don't sleep well and you think about it a lot, so it's a challenge. This has been one of the most challenging seasons for me."
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As one of the few veterans on a young team, Kuraly is leading by example.
He has scored seven goals, won faceoffs at a 50.6% clip, killed penalties, delivered momentum-shifting hits ― including a wallop of Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews in a 5-2 loss on Friday ― and has dragged the Blue Jackets into multiple games they've started poorly.
It's what he does.
"Lead by example, right?" Larsen said. "Less talk, more action. I think that's real important. He's a guy that doesn't say a lot, but he's consistent in his effort in practices, games and physicality. He knows his role and does it very well."
Kuraly rarely backs off the gas pedal. It's not in his DNA as a player. It isn't how teams get to the top and certainly isn't how the Bruins rolled in Kuraly's first five NHL seasons.
Arriving from Miami of Ohio in 2016, he stepped into a locker room in Boston filled with hard-driving players who had led the Bruins to the 2011 Stanley Cup and wanted another.
Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand are still there, driving Boston to the top spot in the NHL, while defenseman Zdeno Chara just retired at age 45.
"I really do owe a lot to the Bergerons, the Charas, the Marchands, because there really wasn't a day off," Kuraly said. "They showed up every day, and if you didn't show up, you were embarrassed. So, I learned a lot of it from them."
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The Bruins had an unspoken standard that applied to every player.
"They were never ashamed," Kuraly said. "There was never a 'too cool for school,' moment or, 'you're working too hard,' or like, 'I'm a skill guy.' They worked their butts off and left everyone in the dust. And if you didn't, you were left in the dust."
It explains a lot about the player Kuraly has become.
"It was just out of necessity to be part of that team," he said. "You didn't have a choice. And that's something I try to do here."
Since returning to play for his "hometown" team, Kuraly has felt the sting of humiliation more than he'd like.
There was a 9-2 loss to the Florida Panthers last season, when fans in Sunrise, Florida, chanted, 'We want 10!" midway through the second period. There was a 7-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 30 that prompted former NHL goalie and Devils radio analyst Chico Resch to issue an on-air rebuke of the Blue Jackets' play in front of goalie Elvis Merzlikins .
There was also a 9-4 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Dec. 7 at Nationwide Arena and what happened a week ago in Chicago — when the Blackhawks capitalized on multiple Columbus turnovers to take a 4-0 lead early in the second period.
Kuraly's hit on Toews snapped them out of that funk, and he continued stoking the fire with a hit in the third on Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy , his longtime friend and fellow Ohio AAA Blue Jackets alum from Columbus.
That hit sparked an exchange of cross-checks between two hard-nosed buddies, just the way Kuraly experienced in practices and games with Boston. His goal now is helping the Blue Jackets embrace the same mentality.
"When you get embarrassed a couple times, you realize, 'Maybe I wasn't as ready as I wanted to be for that practice or that game,' and that's one thing I know I can bring," Kuraly said. "For me, there's no excuse not to bring it every day. That's why I'm here. That's my job and I expect more of myself."
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Sean Kuraly leading by example for struggling Columbus Blue Jackets
