"ast night, upon the occasion of the Blue Jackets' 10th home opener, there was a pregame ceremony during which a collage of "classic" moments was presented on the Jumbotron. Among the flashbacks was a scene from the 2002 draft, when Rick Nash was taken with the No. 1 overall pick. Another was of Nash scoring a goal in his first game, and yet another was of Nash accepting the Rocket Richard Trophy in 2004.

Nash was shown commenting on these moments and, in the backdrop, there were old photos of him from six and seven years ago. And the sellout crowd in Nationwide Arena went "ooh" because everyone was thinking the same thing.

Look at that baby face. He was so young then. Look.

In that moment, everyone in the room, all 18,305, felt the slippage of time.

"Oh, yeah, it flew by," Nash said. "And it seems like the older you get, the faster it goes."

The Kid is 26 years old. He is 6 feet 4 and 216 pounds, an inch taller and 28 pounds heavier than he was as a rookie. He is in his prime, and his career might be half over. Scary, isn't it?

For all of his metamorphoses - skinny to beastly, minus to plus, All-Star to Olympian, cash-poor to millionaire - Nash hasn't changed. Not at his core. He came to Columbus as a quiet kid with a healthy sense of self, a genuine humility and a confidence in his talent. He did his talking on the ice.

He is no different now. He has played for seven coaches in seven years with the Blue Jackets, gone without a playmaking center to his left, or his right, he has suffered through losing and he has not changed. In 2009, he signed an eight-year contract extension, and it was a signal to players everywhere that Columbus was not the poisonous place Adam Foote made it out to be. His third contract is as important as any other in the collage of classic moments in Blue Jackets history."