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JONATHAN QUILTER | Dispatch

"It's definitely been my toughest challenge as a captain, and really the toughest challenge of my career. Things just aren't going right." -- Rick Nash

Rick Nash made his NHL debut in 2002-03, about the time the honeymoon between the Blue Jackets and their fans began to fade. The Blue Jackets captain has played for seven coaches, seen three of them fired in midseason, and enjoyed one winning season.

Yet when asked yesterday how he’s enduring the club’s latest follies — a 2-11-1 start and a 5-23-8 nose dive dating to last season — Nash did not pause to measure his words.

“It’s definitely been my toughest challenge as a captain, and really the toughest challenge of my career,” Nash said. “Things just aren’t going right.

“It’s not one player or a couple of players, it’s the whole team. And it’s my job to keep everybody together.”

Nash knows the deal. When the Blue Jackets go this far south, fans want GMs and coaches fired, players traded, and the “C” ripped off the captain’s sweater.

Further, fans want to know that players share their anger and frustration as the losses accumulate. Not just hear the disappointment in postgame media comments, but see it on the ice.

This is where Nash tends to draw heat.

“Sometimes you want to walk off the ice and smash your stick and throw Gatorade bottles, take out your anger,” Nash said. “That helps for some people.”

But not for Nash. He speaks in a measured voice and saves his displeasure for the deep reaches of the Blue Jackets dressing room.

“I’ve always been this way,” Nash said. “I’ve always been the same way to you guys (in the media). I’m the same way to the team, which is honest as well.

“Do I call guys out? Yeah, if it needs to be done I will. I have no problem at all. But whatever happens behind closed doors, I try to keep it there.”

Nash would call himself out right now if such a thing were possible. He has one goal, two assists and a minus-6 rating in the Jackets’ past five games.

“It hasn’t been good enough,” Nash said. “I have to get back to the basics of my game.”

Nash has been pushing his fellow Blue Jackets behind closed doors.

“He’s pissed off,” right winger Derek Dorsett said. “He’s pissed off with the way things are going, and he’s letting guys know. He’s trying to push guys out of their comfort zones.”

Blue Jackets coach Scott Arniel said that too much is made of Nash’s laid-back demeanor, and that good captains come in all varieties and volumes.

“When Rick gets mad on the ice, you can tell,” Arniel said. “He wants the puck, wants to take control. He does things that way. Other guys might fight, or come off the ice and go crazy, start smashing stuff. That’s just a difference in leaders.

“Joe Sakic never said a word. Steve Yzerman never said a word. I can’t see Nick Lidstrom going around smashing sticks and f-bombing everyone.”

Arniel wanted to help Nash on and off the ice this summer with the acquisitions of veteran forwards Jeff Carter and Vinny Prospal and defenseman James Wisniewski.

With Carter out the past nine games with a fractured foot and Wisniewski suspended by the league for the first eight, it hasn’t been much different in the dressing room from previous seasons.

“One thing that’s always happened here — and I saw it even before I came here — is that everything’s on Rick’s shoulders,” Arniel said. “Win, and it’s on his shoulders. Lose, and it’s on his shoulders.

“I really think he’s feeling the weight on his shoulders. He does not want to be where we’re at right now, and it’s noticeable.”

aportzline@dispatch.com