NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The numbers next to his name don't bother Blue Jackets center Derick Brassard. Good thing, too, because they haven't been pretty this season and certainly not up to his standard.

What has bothered Brassard in the first 20 games, he said, is how the games have swirled around him at an uncomfortable speed, how the puck has felt foreign on his stick.

"I never expected anything different," Brassard said. "I knew it was going to be hard. It's all about timing."

Brassard missed the final 51 games last season due to injuries, so the rust that normal players have to work off in training camp was more like corrosion for Brassard. Like all skilled players, his game is based on precision, which is always the last hurdle to clear.

Brassard headed into a game last night at Nashville with three goals, seven assists and a minus-9 rating in 20 games.

Through 20 games last season, Brassard had six goals, 17 assists and a plus-8 rating.

His play has kept him on the No. 2 line -- he played last night with wingers R.J. Umberger and Jake Voracek -- but has prompted a series of meetings with coach Ken Hitchcock.

"What we've seen is that Brassard doesn't have confidence with the puck," Hitchcock said. "He's the kind of player who needs the puck and wants the puck, but he's getting rid of it too quickly.

"It's no different than it was early last season, it's just taken him longer to dig out from it this year. And we know why that is it's because of the time he missed last season."

Brassard said his game is coming around, and Hitchcock agreed. Both said his past two games, wins over Anaheim and Dallas, were among his best of the season.

"Yeah, yeah, I felt good," Brassard said. "I felt like it's starting to turn for me."

All-Star boost?

The planned opening of a 532-room Hilton hotel across from the Columbus Convention Center will help the Blue Jackets attract an NHL All-Star Game as soon as 2012, Columbus Sports Commission director Linda Logan said.

The NHL has rejected previous bids, not because there aren't enough rooms in close proximity to Nationwide Arena but because there aren't enough "high-end" rooms to handle the national sponsors associated with the game.

The new Hilton, due to be completed by early fall 2012, will certainly meet the high-end criteria, and it is scheduled to open about five months before the game would be played.

There is no NHL All-Star Game scheduled for this season because of the Winter Olympics. The 2011 All-Star Game is rumored to be awarded to Phoenix, assuming the Coyotes are still in Glendale, Ariz., next season.

Bids for the 2012 game will be accepted next year.

Slap shots

Center Sammy Pahlsson returned to the lineup last night after missing three games because of an infected elbow and back spasms. Left winger Tom Sestito and defenseman Kris Russell were healthy scratches.

aportzline@dispatch.com