It has yet to be determined whether Claude Noel, the Blue Jackets' interim coach, will retain his job beyond this spring. But after five days, this much can be said: He is the perfect antidote for the moment.

Ken Hitchcock is a wonderful human being and a marvelous coach. The problem this season was he had the young Jackets confused by mixed messages, fearful of making mistakes and mentally exhausted. Hitchcock was fired Wednesday, and leadership transited from General Patton to a character right out of Kelly's Heroes.

Those of an older generation might be familiar with the World War II movie, released in 1970, about a misfit band of GIs who steal $16 million worth of gold. Kelly is played by cool-headed Clint Eastwood. Among his band is Oddball, a tank driver played by Donald Sutherland. (For you young kids out there, that's Jack Bauer's real-life father.)

Noel is something between Kelly and Oddball.

Upon initial inspection, he is closer to Oddball, who famously says: "Why don't you knock it off with those negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?"

Noel had a long minor-league career as a player, a cup of coffee in the NHL and a history of winning as a coach at various minor-league levels. He has been an NHL assistant with a first-rate boss for two years. He is not a groundless goof. But he is different.

On Saturday night, after Noel's postgame news conference, team president Mike Priest was seen red-faced and smiling in the hallway outside the interview room. Priest was red-faced and smiling, one must presume, because he was stifling the mirth he must have felt as he listened to Noel's rambling, stream of conscience that passed for a Q&A.

Noel is funny, yes, but it's the source of his humor that is his secret. He has no airs. He is completely comfortable with himself. He seems to be utterly honest and totally open. He'll talk about the key point to a game, for instance, forget one of the points and wonder aloud, "Now, what was that third thing?" He'll ascribe the holes in his memory to an old concussion, shrug and say, "The players know what I'm talking about."

One of his favorite phrases is, "Joy."

Another is, "Free your mind."

On Saturday night, he said, "There are times in your life and in hockey when you have to let your mind go free. On days off, that's when you relieve the stress. You see me (Sunday morning), and I'll be in a full lather laughing, and there won't be anyone around me."

To hear him is to smile, stifle a chuckle and scratch your head -- just as Priest did. The key here is, after Hitchcock, who tends to overwhelm, Noel's underwhelming nature is the perfect antidote for the Jackets. They needed their minds freed. The initial results have been substantially positive.

The Blue Jackets have won two games by a 6-1 aggregate. Goaltender Steve Mason stopped 50 of 51 shots. Other young players, such as Derick Brassard, Jake Voracek and Kris Russell, have been given a wider breadth of responsibility and more ice time. They have responded as if their minds have been freed.

"He keeps us calm," Voracek said. "If there's a turnover or something, that happens in hockey."

A week ago, Voracek could never indulge in such blasphemy.

Brassard could never satisfy, or gain the trust of, his former coach. It hurt Brassard's game, and it weighed on his mind. A part of him feels as if he failed Hitchcock. A bigger part of him is moving on, and is bent on expanding his game.

After Saturday's 4-0 victory over the Buffalo Sabres in Nationwide Arena, Brassard talked about being left on the ice against Tim Connolly's line -- something that would have never happened under Hitchcock. "It's too rich for him," Hitchcock would say. "He's not ready."

Brassard said, "The message (from Noel) is, figure it out. That is a challenge. It is also trust. The second thing is playing in all different situations, especially some situations you haven't gone through. ... Me and Jake were out there 4-on-4. Jared Boll was out there 5-on-4, for the first time in three years. He worked hard, so it was, 'OK, go out 5-on-4.'

"When you're a young player, you just feel better when you feel challenged. And you bring a young player's energy."

It is apparent that Noel's first order of business has been to uncork the team, let the players play, assuage their worries. He has spoken of their nerves and his attempts to calm them. He has been candid that the task is not yet accomplished. He has also been clear: That's OK.

"We're not playing more relaxed," Noel said after the Sabres game. "They're working extremely hard, but they were less relaxed than I've seen them all year. That's OK. I asked them to manage the game as best they could. We'll deal with the adjusting part."

For two years, Noel has been an incessantly positive and delightfully idiosyncratic -- almost goofy -- assistant behind the scenes. He has not changed in the least. It is said he has a harder edge, which he showed with some regularity when he directed the Milwaukee Admirals to the Calder Cup in 2004. But the side of him we see now is the one that is required.

It is Oddball, the tank driver, who said, "This gun is an ordinary 76mm, but we add this piece of pipe onto it and the (Germans) think, like, maybe it's a 90mm. We got our own ammunition, it's filled with paint. When we fire it, it makes ... pretty pictures. Scares the (heck) outta people! We have a loudspeaker here, and when we go into battle we play music, very loud. It kind of ... calms us down."

Michael Arace is a sports reporter for The Dispatch.

marace@dispatch.com