The Dark Blue Jacket

DBJ's 5 Thoughts on Game 54: Dallas

2012-02-10T01:09:00.000-05:00

Dallas 4 - Columbus 2
15-33-6, 5th in Central Division, 15th in Western Conference

The Columbus Blue Jackets narrowly avoided winning their third straight game in almost an entire year, falling to the visiting Dallas Stars, 4-2, in regulation at Nationwide Arena.

1. A NEW TWIST ON AN OLD CLASSIC - Remember, back in the day, how Blue Jackets fans instinctively went white-knuckled when the last two minutes of the period hit? How we all just braced for the inevitable collapse of our beloved Boys in Union Blue? Well, that was SO Scott Arniel. With Todd Richards - at least for this night- it was different. The Blue Jackets collapsed at the beginning of periods! Dallas scored at 1:35 and 4:21 of the first period and 1:09 of the second to essentially put this thing away (the fourth goal being an empty netter at the end).

2. LOOK HONEY, A FUNCTIONING POWER PLAY - The early 2-0 deficit meant that the CBJ were playing catch-up all game long, and a string of three penalties in the second period gave the Blue Jackets a chance to get back in this game. Surprisingly, the CBJ converted two our of three to cut the Dallas lead to one by the end of the game. And was this Brassard feed to Nash picture perfect or what?

You're probably sick of my belaboring the point, but the work that Derrick Brassard has done in resurrecting his hockey career since Scott Arniel left town has just been incredible. He's become one of my favorite players on the ice in no time flat. But I'm also a sucker for redemption stories.
3. WE INTERRUPT THIS RECAP FOR INTERMISSION SILLINESS - The first intermission Tweetup by the cannon on the main concourse at Nationwide, a creation of DBJ blog contributor @AlisonL, only gets bigger and bigger. I strolled on down with my buddy Chris, and we stumbled into Pepsi Power Patrol peeps (including @Life_SizeBarbie, who shared a laugh over my near-impalement by the t-shirt cannon - no blood, no foul...), some (CBJ?) suits and Fox Sports' communications guru Kate Buddenhagen and the @FSOhio_Girls - with whom a certain face to remain nameless grabbed a picture:

@Life_SizeBarbie grabbed a snapshot of the gathering (though I think Chris and I had already returned to our seats when this was taken):

If you follow the #CBJ hashtag on Twitter, and you should if you read
this blog, swing by the cannon after the 1st period. You'll put a bunch
of names and faces together in a hurry!

3a. AS IF THE TWEETUP WASN'T ENOUGH - Alison then found herself on the big screen at Nationwide, winning one of Mike Todd's contests:

Congratulations, Alison! I hope whatever you won was signed by Derek Dorsett.
3b. BUT WHERE'S THE INTERMISSION VIDEO? - Glad you asked, because this one's a beaut. The Ohio State University synchronized skating team. Really. Synchronized skating. Seriously. Watch:

4. DROPPING LIKE FLIES - Another couple nasty injuries in this game for the Blue Jackets, this time to Jared Boll (broken foot, I didn't see the hit) and Marc Methot (broken jaw, I saw that one). [UPDATE: I'm gathering both are done for the season.] For all of the many, many structural deficiencies in building this team, no history of the 2011-12 Columbus Blue Jackets will be complete without appreciating the incredible - and ongoing - volume of devastating injuries that this team has suffered.

Marc Methot appears to be
lost for the balance of the season

4a. IT AIN'T PRO WRESTLING - As I mentioned, I saw the Methot hit and aftermath, seeing as it occurred in the defend-twice side of the ice (or, as Chris and I like to ironically refer, "Where the action is."). Anyhoo, Methot goes down in a heap. The ref calls the medics over. Methot gets his moment of on-ice treatment and stumbles off the ice, never to be seen again. And then I saw the blood on the ice and mentioned to Chris, "This one looks bad."

Then, the ice crew comes out and chisels the blood off the ice. Now I appreciate that there are good reasons to do so - keeping ice even and smooth chief among them - but the cleaning of the ice hit me on a human level. It's a brutal sport, hockey is, and the cleaning of the ice seemed to impose a Warner Brothers cartoon sensibility on the injury, as if it was a hit that didn't have consequences. That's just not the case.

Not sure where I'm going with this thought, but I thought it was worth sharing. Even as this team's season fades into oblivion, these guys are still putting themselves and - to an extent - their lives out on the line for their sport and their livelihoods. And I respect them for that.

5. THE STRONG FINISH - Back to the game. An interesting aspect of this particular come-from-behind game was that the team appeared to build up a head of steam as they pushed for that third goal. They did not wither from the challenge, a nice testament to the (kinda sorta) fight that this team has been displaying of late. In fact, the last three to four minutes saw perhaps the most sustained effort in the offensive zone all game. Now, if this team could only find that energy and effort for the other 56 minutes of play...they'd be downright deadly.

Bonus number 6. FREE THE JOHAN - Third straight scratch. Sigh. I'm sure the talent developers have a worthwhile rationale (and I refuse to accept parallels with the Boston Bruins and Tyler Seguin - didn't do it in September and won't now...this team is nothing close to the Boston Bruins), but I just don't see any good reason for Ryan Johansen to be munching nachos when he could be learning on the ice.

'nuff said

NEXT UP: The Jackets limp up to St. Paul for another shot at the Minnesota Wild at 8PM on Saturday.

A Savior is Born in Columbus

2012-02-09T10:16:00.000-05:00

Follow me. I will show you the way. Thumbs up if you like chili!

(Cross-posted at Full Mental Jackets by Greg May.]

It's been a couple of weeks since both non-hockey ops president Mike Priest and GM Scott Howson promised Blue Jackets fans some big changes to the roster. Nothing big has happened yet, outside of wild speculation over what part of the locker room the wrecking ball will hit first. Yesterday, the Blue Jackets announced that fan favorite Vinny Prospal has been given a one year contract extension. The move caused a lot of big smiles in Columbus, and more than a little head-scratching as well.

A lot of people, Blue Jackets fans among them, figured that Prospal was as good as gone come the NHL trade deadline. The soon-to-be 37 year old is in the sunset of a well-traveled career and the assumption was that he would relish the chance to jump yet again to a team that could give him another shot at playoff glory. By announcing the one year extension today, not only did the Blue Jackets and Prospal zig when everyone thought they would zag, they zugged (newly invented word that means to go in a different direction than a zig or a zag) by agreeing to a no trade clause in the deal, essentially assuring Vinny that he won't get Cartered (another new word that means hosed).

There's no denying that this move feels good. Prospal has won over the fans and now the front office with his passion and enthusiasm for the game, his tireless work ethic and, perhaps mostly, his honesty. Having him around another year just increases the chances that science might figure out a way for the Blue Jackets to clone him while he is here.

What's causing people's scalps to itch is the thought that this might just be the proverbial first shoe to drop. All those things that Vinny brings to the table are good things. Really good things. That many assumed Prospal would be dealt at the deadline speaks to the fact that, despite Prospal's age, he was sure to be highly sought after by more than a few contending teams. So if the Blue Jackets aren't selling a quickly depreciating asset when his value might not ever be greater, the question becomes: why not?

The timing of the move might be suggestive. The Blue Jackets appear to be on the verge of launching Operation Clean Howson. We have been told it will be "big." Is it big as in big R, big N with a big C on the front of the sweater? Forget the rumors du jour, common sense dictates that trading Nash has to be given consideration. Such a move would result in a gaping hole in the leadership of the team. The size of that hole is open to debate, but we can all agree that losing your captain is messy business. The Blue Jackets would need a player with special leadership qualities to step in and fill the void. Ask any diehard Blue Jackets fan who is still carrying the flag and you will be hard pressed to find one that doesn't think Vinny Prospal is that type of special player.

And if Scott Howson were about to drop that kind of bomb on the fan base, it makes sense that he would announce Prospal's extension now, with a contract that says "he might be here longer than me" -- BEFORE he pushes the button. In fact, given what we have come to learn of the calculated world that Scott Howson lives in, it makes a hell of a lot of sense.

But if you are Vinny Prospal, no matter how much you want to avoid uprooting your family, why would you want to subject yourself to more of this? Because you are a doer. Because you are a leader. Because you are a fixer, and this is a chance to prove it before you likely enter a career as a coach or scout. Because with a wink and a nod you have been promised a role with the team after your playing days are over. Because the team needs you, the fans love you and you have a unique opportunity to make a lasting impact on a franchise that so desperately needs and wants a lasting impact.

Whether Prospal's extension is the first shoe to drop in a massive roster makeover, or simply a wise GM realizing that he can't get equivalent value in a trade for a player that possesses so many badly needed intangibles, Blue Jackets fans are rejoicing today. They can now place their faith in Vinny. They know that with Vinny, all things are possible.

Venit. Vidit. Ipse signati novum contractus.

2012-02-08T15:17:00.002-05:00

Vinny Prospal signed a one-year, $2.5 million contract for the 2012-13 season with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Here's the Dispatch story on the signing.

Blue Jackets fans will see Vinny Prospal around the
practice rink for at least one more season

I have quite a few thoughts on this and don't want to confuse, so I'm going to split this post up and address each topic separately.

Good for Vinny. Despite his somewhat recent slump, Prospal, at age 37, still is a leading scorer for the team (which admittedly isn't saying a lot, considering the team is third-worst in the NHL in scoring, with 123 goals thus far this season). He's been recognized as a powerful and positive locker room presence by the likes of Derek Dorsett and Ryan Johansen.

To toss $2.5 million - less than the cost of an average NHL salary ($64.3 million divided by 23 players equals $2.79 million) - at a guy like Prospal comes across as a no-brainer to me. The fear of signing a 37-year-old is easily tempered by the fact that it's a one-season contract. If it doesn't work out, very little is lost from an organizational flexibility perspective. So good for the Blue Jackets, too.

That's not to say that the Prospal signing wasn't a surprise. Most of the intelligentsia (CBJ, NHL) looked at the CBJ salary/contract chart and identified Prospal as a reasonably affordable player who 1) could actually help a winning team go over the top and 2) get the CBJ something in return as a result. So it was almost presumed that Vinny would get shopped.

But then Vinny signs, presumably at the urging of the club. (I suppose a scenario could come up where Vinny begs Howson to re-sign him, but the fact that the salary is the same makes that less likely.)

So a potential prospect or draft pick is foregone. Is the "nuclear option" - the back to the foundation rebuild of the roster and perhaps the franchise - off the foundation? In the Dispatch article linked above, Howson says no...and I believe him on two levels.

Howson has come across to me as being as honest as the day is long. When he opens his mouth, he speaks the truth about where he's coming from. (The trick is to get him to open his mouth. Damned lawyers.)
If you think that signing one player - especially one with a limited shelf life - to a one-year contract to a 23-man roster would fundamentally change the strategic direction of the team (ACK! No extra second-round pick! We're doomed!), well...I'm not sure there's much hope for you. Enjoy the fights.

The players to watch for indications of an overhaul are obvious, and they make a lot more money than Prospal while being tied down for a lot longer. Think about players like Nash, Carter, Umberger, Vermette, Brassard, Tyutin & Methot. When Howson draws from that pool of players to make his deals, then you know the yard sale sign is out.

He may be 37 years old, but Vinny Prospal is
at least as good as an average NHL player

Then there's the idea that both Prospal and Howson shared about bringing Vinny into the team's hockey operations structure when his playing days are done. Done wisely, its a masterstroke that other teams (especially the Detroit Red Wings, who seem to make a habit of finding room for beloved old players in the front office and on the scouting staff) have long embraced.

The CBJ? They've elevated Tyler Wright. Wright might be a great choice to move on this progression - I don't know him or his work at all - but he's one guy regardless of any merits he may have.

And for all the reasons listed above, Prospal looks like a good choice.

Finally (and astute readers of this blog know that I often leave the best for last), there's the whole discussion of older players on the roster. Implicit in this "We'll move you up the ladder" type of handshake agreement is that the player pretty much ends his career in Columbus.

(I know, Wright was dumped onto the Ducks at the end of his NHL career at the trade deadline and then grabbed a cup of coffee in Europe before coming back, but bear with me. I'm trying to make a point.)

Prospal made mention that he and his family (wife and three kids) like it here in Columbus. Freddy Modin, after getting bounced around the league at the end of his career, has chosen to make Columbus his home after retiring from the NHL (and my nephew has played travel hockey against his kid this season). Mike Peca wanted to keep going with the Blue Jackets, as did Jan Hejda.

Point being, older players - especially those with families - tend to like Columbus. And why not? Decent schools, reasonable quality of life, low cost of living...for a thirty-something NHLer with a spouse and kid(s), those are real compelling reasons to pick Columbus.

So why aren't the Columbus Blue Jackets taking advantage of this?

Drawing upon my NFL-centric fan background, I think of the 1980-81 Oakland Raiders (not the steroids and stick-um parts). That was a team with a heavy dose of short-term veterans at the end of their careers. That also was a team that won Super Bowl XV. Their starting quarterback? An old goat named Jim Plunkett.

Now look north at the Red Wings. How many times have they plugged in a few key veterans on shorter-term contracts to put them over the top? Same could be said of the New York Rangers, who snagged Mark Messier away from Edmonton and won a Stanley cup with him. Or Ray Borque in Colorado. It goes on and on.

There is no good reason that the Blue Jackets can't sprinkle their roster - among the youngest in the league with an average age of 26.814 - with a handful of Prospals to mentor the young guns while wrapping up their careers in a place where they are valued and relied upon to contribute. It's a 23-man roster; what if the Blue Jackets had four or five such "Prospal-like" veterans players? The whole complexion of the team would be changed dramatically, and probably for the better.

I know that Howson has tried this approach in years past, bringing in the League of Ex-Captains (Chris Clark, Ethan Moreau, Craig Rivet) to help bolster the locker room. The problem with all of those guys was that they couldn't walk the walk. Prospal is an older vet, sure, but he's a top contributor. Big difference.

Final 'sub-thought': The notion of rotating older players through on short-term contracts to end their careers here in no way contradicts my thoughts on the Blue Jackets roster. If anything, it enhances the ideas already presented along the lines of the Don Maloney/Phoenix Coyotes rebuilding model. Send the kids down to the minors to learn and win, backfill with talented (enough) old veterans while the kids mature. Works for me.

Lastly, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Howson made the effort to re-sign Prospal. I mean, how many Blue Jackets players received this type of attention in recent years - let alone one who had been on the regular season roster for all of two-and-a-half months? Clearly, the team likes the guy...and for good reason.

DBJ's 5 Thoughts on Game 53: Minnesota

2012-02-07T23:43:00.000-05:00

Columbus 3 - Minnesota 1
15-32-6, 5th in Central Division, 15th in Western Conference

The Columbus Blue Jackets, sporting home ice advantage for the first time in what felt like forever, defeated the visiting Minnesota Wild, 3-1, in regulation at Nationwide Arena.

It was the second time all season that the Blue Jackets had back-to-back wins. They're now 11 points out of 14th place in the Western Conference.

1. IT'S GOOD TO BE HOME - Good golly, that felt good. Two-and-a-half weeks with no home ice hockey really stinks. Worse yet, the away hockey was largely of that dreaded West Coast 10PM/10:30PM start variety. It was good to be back at Nationwide Arena, back to hear "Leo!", back to hear @CBJ_DJ's tuneage, back to hanging out with friends (this time in the comfort of club level, where I almost got impaled by the Mountain Dew ATV's t-shirt cannon!), back to the last line change...

1a. OH YEAH, THIS TOO - A guy on a motorized Igloo beer cooler. You really don't need to watch it all, but I got 30 seconds of footage.

Shame I missed getting footage of the guy driving the cooler straight into the boards. Day late and a dollar short...

2. ESTABLISHING A BENCHMARK - In a season where little has gone right, it is good to know that the team can get one past a stick-less Niklas Backstrom:

(Even better, that was David Savard's first NHL goal. A goal and an assist - his 6th of the season - netted Savard the Première étoile on the night. Good for the kid.)

3. YOU GET TO WALK HOME - I'm not one to talk much about the opposition in my five thoughts, but Minnesota's Nick Schultz had an impressive four minor penalties on the night. One of those CBJ power plays resulted in Antoine Vermette's PP goal. Four minors in a night...that takes special effort.

3a. YOU WALK, TOO - "Laughing Cal" Clutterbuck, he who flopped his way into Blue Jackets lore by getting James Wisniewski suspended for half the preseason and the first eight games of the regular season and then yukking it up with his teammates on the bench after Wiz was penalized, was on the ice. I think the DJ pumped up the angry music just a little louder when The Laughing One did his time in the sin bin in the second period. The strobe spotlight effect on Cal was also appreciated. No, we won't forget that one.

This just in: Jeff Carter is pretty good

4. CARTER SCORES AGAIN - When he's in the game - 32 times so far this season - Jeff Carter does a pretty decent job finding the back of the net. In fact, he's scoring goals at a rate of .375 per game played, highest on the team. He's third on the team (behind Rick Nash and Vinny Prospal) with .594 points per game played. All that while Imagine what the guy could be like if he could ever get into a rhythm in Columbus. Will he ever get the opportunity, or has management written him off?

4a. WHICH BRINGS ME TO THE TRADE DEADLINE TALK - I'm just one fan, but I'm starting to think that if the team has to trade one of its top players, it might be better to keep a $5 million Jeff Carter around than a $7+ million Rick Nash. The goal/point production out of Carter is comparable to Nash, and Nash could yield some incredible trade assets and a giant chunk of change could be freed up to invest around the roster. Heresy, I know...

5. THE CBJ FAN COUNTDOWN, LOS ANGELES-STYLE - Our section was cheering the clock countdown as time ran out in the third period:

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, 1, 0!

Bonus Number 6. ATTACK OF THE CHILI JERSEYS - Amazing. The Blue Jackets get three goals, and I see a bunch of "chili" jersies:

Love it!

It's hard to see, but that's "CHILI" and "MAMMACHILI"...
both number three sweaters

NEXT UP: The home cooking continues on Thursday night as the Dallas Stars (3-6-1 in their last 10) mosey into Nationwide Arena for a 7PM faceoff. Will the Blue Jackets make it three straight for the first time all season?

Glass Bangers, 2/7/12

2012-02-07T00:33:00.002-05:00

Then-assistant coach Todd Richards looks on as rookie Ryan Johansen
participates in drills at the opening of CBJ training camp

THINKING THROUGH THE (INTERIM) COACH - I suppose I've seen enough of the Columbus Blue Jackets since returning from my Mayan experience to develop some thoughts on the Todd Richards (interim) coaching regime. Of course, most of that viewing was somewhere around the time that Craig Ferguson was signing off, so my perspectives were about as cloudy as the gallons of coffee I swallowed the morning after last week's death march. So let's throw caution to the wind...

The team is playing harder. It's not happening for entire games, not that I can discern, but the collective team effort is better than I recall seeing under Scott Arniel - at least the 2011-12 edition of Scott Arniel.
Richards has no answers on defense or in goal, but I attribute that to a combination of the roster hand that CBJ GM Scott Howson dealt him and the injuries that peeled back a couple layers of precious skill and experience on the blue line.
I'm not sure that Richards has answers on offense, either. Since he took over, the Blue Jackets have cleared the two-goal threshold three times (two four-point games and one three-pointer - all of Richards' wins thus far) - and that includes overtime games. So effort is great, but it doesn't mean a lot if more goals aren't happening.
It looks like Richards is applying common sense. Nash and Carter weren't working under Arniel, so Richards split them up. Derek Dorsett has actually shown up to play on most every night all season, so Richards slapped an "A" on his sweater as a message to the seemingly blasé locker room. Derrick Brassard is getting another look as a means to help fire up an anemic offense. None of these moves were rocket science, but Arniel couldn't figure them out over 50-ish games...so Richards looks good by comparison.
I won't shrink away from the fact that I really, really didn't want Richards on the Blue Jackets staff. I honestly didn't think that he was going to be a good "veteran" (as much as a two-season NHL head coach can be a veteran) shoulder for Arniel to lean upon, and a guy who proved in Minnesota that he couldn't coach a team through the transition to an up-tempo offense -- OK, well, the Blue Jackets backed off Arniel's "unlimited pasta bar" offense. A 3-7-1 record isn't helping change my mind, regardless.
At the same time, Richards appears to have learned from the experience of getting the heave-ho in Minnesota. By that, I mean attitudinally. I expected a bag-skating hot-head from what I had read about him with the Wild and instead got a somewhat bemused...observer...of his hockey team. I mean, how many times have we heard this from Richards: "What team will we see tonight? I don't know." Of course, that could be the position of a man who is serving as interim head coach and has no interest in sticking around town after the last game.

So some mild surprises, a healthy dose of circumstances and enough hard facts that suggest that Todd Richards will make the rest of the season interesting...as he keeps the seat warm for the next guy.

DA COMMISH SPEAKS - I caught the "NHL Hour with Commissioner Gary Bettman" on XM satellite radio over the weekend (the 2/2/12 edition - you can get a free copy of the podcast on iTunes here) and noticed that he ran through Columbus' 2013 All-Star Game (with a few compliments thrown the way of the city, the arena and the Arena District) and "clock-gate." The clock-gate comments were interesting insofar as how Bettman is going about the investigation.

He also pointed out the obvious potential for error and mistakes in every game, saying something to the extent of: "If something can go wrong, it will." I only wish he had concluded the sentence with, "And if the Columbus Blue Jackets are involved, it's even more likely."

ONE AWESOME READ - Scott Lewis at The Score.com offers up a mashup of the 2011-12 Columbus Blue Jackets and the neo-classic movie "Stand by Me." Yeah. So I suggest you just read it. I'm sure Lewis won't mind my using one of his photo(shops) as a teaser...

ONE COOL VIDEO - Working off a Tweet from En4cer45, I saw this brief video. Pretty cool, and worth sharing:

DBJ's 5 Thoughts on Game 52: Anaheim

2012-02-04T01:29:00.002-05:00

Derick Brassard with the game winner!

Tonight, er, uh, this morning (Eastern Time) the Columbus Blue Jackets prevailed in overtime over the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 on the strength of a Derick Brassard overtime goal. The win definitely makes writing the re-cap easier, I've got to admit.

1. Typical West Coast Trip - The last time the Jackets visited Anaheim, Scott Arniel got fired following the game. Probably a fitting end after his snide comment last year after the Jackets swept a West Coast trip, when Arniel said 'what have you guys been doing?' Well, now you know coach. Pride goeth before the fall. Back to the present, after getting pushed off the ice by San Jose, Clock-Gate, when the L.A. Kings scoring at the 60:00:01.4 mark, this game looked like it was following a similar trend. In spite of the ice, the breaks, and the officiating tilted against the CBJ, they managed to contain the damage, and keep the game close.

2. Power Play - Well I had a pretty good whiny rant in mind when I jotted down this note. After the first period, the CBJ were 0-2 with 1 shot on the power play, having gone 5 games without scoring on the man advantage. HOWEVER, with 2:05 gone in the third period, Jeff Carter scored a power play goal off a super sweet pass from Antoine Vermette to tie the game at 2-2. That goal loomed huge later in the game. Carter was engaged all night, and played a good game.

The Sand Man was very tough tonite

3. Curtis Sanford - The goal tender played very, very tough down the stretch. He made some very big saves, and was 'tidy' around his crease, not giving up many rebounds. Sanford's calm as the game wound down helps his teammates.

4. Going for the Win - The CBJ did a good job of going for the kill in the last 2 minutes of this game, instead of trying to sit back and preserve the tie. The were aggressive where they could be, and played good defense down the stretch. Again, the goal tender erased some of the mistakes.

5. More Defensive Injuries - Brett Lebda left the game at the end of the first period with an injured hand. That left the CBJ with 5 defensemen for the remainder of the game. Balanced with that, is the continuing emergence of number 4, John Moore on defense. Moore continues to play very, very well, and is starting to push towards being the best defenseman of the unit. He is continuing to progress, and is responding to the situations he is being put into. This is a very nice turn of events in what is otherwise a disastrous 2011-12 campaign.

Bonus Thought: Derick Brassard - Brass scored two goals tonight. He had a very solid game. It looks like Brass is starting to skate with the puck the way he used to back in 2008-09, bringing the puck up the ice with authority, and a predatory air. He is starting to shoot the puck, which is a good thing. His battle level was called out by Coach Richards in the post game interview. It is good to see him starting to emerge. If Brass emerges from this season with a growing ability to take over games, it would be another positive by-product of a tough season.

Finishing the West Coast trip with a win is huge for the psyche of this team. They were tough, and overcame many obstacles to achieve the win they deserved. Well done lads!

GO JACKETS!!

Let's look at Derrick Brassard

2012-02-03T14:45:00.003-05:00

A fresh start with Todd Richards
has done Derrick Brassard
some good, but how much?

Of all the current Columbus Blue Jackets players to have an opportunity for a fresh start after the reign of error of former head coach Scott Arniel, perhaps Derrick Brassard was doing the most chomping at the bit. Even the most casual observer could see that Brassard was only to be found somewhere deep in Arniel's doghouse (which, according to Brassard's agent, Allan Walsh, was legendary), an odd place for a 24-year-old former first round draft pick with four years of NHL experience already under his belt. [UPDATE: For a terrific recap of Brassard's life pre-Richards, check out Andy's fine work at the CBJ Blog.]

Circumstances change, however, when a new coach takes over. Interim head coach Todd Richards, in his opening comments after taking the reins, promised a clean slate for the players. While I'm sure everyone had a degree of motivation to start fresh, Brassard had to feel like he finally had a chance.

So how has Brassard done under Richards in comparison to Arniel this season? I'll suggest that the stats help tell the story.
Using my favorite stats compilation site, CBSSports.com, I crunched the following numbers out:

October

Scratched in none of the team's 12 games
Scoring pace: .25 points per game played
Ice time: 14:30 minutes per game played
Defense: -.67 plus/minus per game played

November

Scratched in 6 of the team's 12 games
Scoring pace: .17 points per game played
Ice time: 12:36 minutes per game played
Defense: -.50 plus/minus per game played

December

Scratched in 2 of the team's 14 games
Scoring pace: .50 points per game played
Ice time: 14:56 minutes per game played
Defense: -.33 plus/minus per game played

January - Arniel

Scratched in none of the team's 3 games
Scoring pace: .67 points per game played
Ice time: 15:29 minutes per game played
Defense: -.33 plus/minus per game played

January - Richards

Scratched in 0 of the team's 9 games
Scoring pace: .44 points per game played
Ice time: 17:18 minutes per game played
Defense: -.33 plus/minus per game played

February

Was not scratched in the only game played thus far
Scoring pace: 1 point
Ice time: 18:21 minutes
Defense: Zero plus/minus

In the aggregate between the two coaches, here's what we see:

Arniel

Scratched in 8 of the team's 41 games
Scoring pace: .36 points per game played
Ice time: 14:24 minutes per game played
Defense: -.48 plus/minus per game played

Richards

Scratched in none of the team's 10 games
Scoring pace: .50 points per game played
Ice time: 17:24 minutes per game played
Defense: -.30 plus/minus per game played

What is not being displayed in these statistics is the fact that Brassard, to the best of my recollection, is getting most of his minutes on the top two lines under Richards and spent a healthy amount of time on the bottom two lines with Arniel. Thus, the improved scoring touch might have something to do with playing alongside more talented players (granted, he's probably been playing against more talented opposition, so I would think that tends to even things out).

Is Derrick Brassard worthy of consideration to keep around as
part of the Columbus Blue Jackets' core talent?

Point is, Brassard is getting consistent top six minutes under Richards and has improved both his scoring and defensive statistics.

What surprised me (and blew a hole in the entire reason I started researching this, as I really wanted to write a feel-good "Look at how Derrick has resurrected his career!" piece...) is that Brassard's improvement is not more dramatic. I wasn't expecting him to improve to a point a game overnight, nor was I expecting him to become part of a defensive dynamo (keeping in mind that there are four other players on the ice who influence a player's plus/minus).

I wondered back in August 2010 if Brassard would ever become the player he was after his shoulder separation following his December 2008 fight against James Neal. It's probably a topic worth revisiting, because he's playing harder but, in my opinion, not well enough to be relied upon in the clutch. (Same could be said for a lot of CBJ players, granted.)

Let's hope that the balance of the season, combined with a strong off-season, buys Brassard the time that he needs to become a meaningful contributor worthy of his draft status in 2012-13. I hope he's still got the game inside of him, because he sure seems to be trying to make the most of his opportunity under Richards.

Glass Bangers, 2/2/12

2012-02-02T15:13:00.000-05:00

HUMAN NATURE - From online and offline chatter, it's clear that the circumstances of this season have created a situation where the Columbus Blue Jackets fanbase is increasingly polarized on what I consider to be The Big Question about my favorite National Hockey League franchise and whether/how to address it.

Do you see "No" or "Yes"? All depends on your bias.

Moving past the question itself, this polarization has resulted in a terrific case study in the application of confirmation bias by many - and I'll throw myself into the mix so as not to imply that I'm above the fray. I've done a little bit of study in this area and find it to be fascinating.

What is confirmation bias? The above Wikipedia link does a decent job of summarizing the premise:

Confirmation bias (also called confirmatory bias, myside bias or verification bias) is a tendency of people to favor information that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses. People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. The effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs.

Now that we understand on a basic level what confirmation bias is, I'll share that it is the lens through which I've been tracking pretty much all of the dialogue since the All-Star break started. Those who were opposed to the notion of a CBJ fan protest were vocal in their opposition before and after the protest, pointing out what they consider to be inconsistencies and shortcomings of the protest - both in terms of form and substance. Those (including me) who were in favor of the protest did pretty much the same thing, just from the other side of the coin. And both sides actively seek out information which buttresses their opinion and/or tears the other opinion down.

Point being, we've dug into our respective frames. Because we all know that the Columbus Blue Jackets would never be so naive as to tell us the unvarnished truth on how they perceived the protest, reacted to it and perhaps adjusted their business plan as a result, we're all left to speculation...and the search for confirmation bias.

Which brings me to today's discussions. And I'll be the first to admit my bias, so bear with me if you don't share my opinion. Or, if you're really threatened by opinions that run counter to yours, just move along.

IT'S ALL IN THE TIMING - Protest co-organizer Light The Lamp presented a theory on how the Blue Jackets management's knowledge (and perhaps fear) of the protest may have influenced the team's bid for the NHL All-Star Game.

(A quick digression: Much as I enjoy LTL, I don't track his work automatically. I use Twitter as my initial means to learn of new blog content, and LTL doesn't use Twitter to promote his latest like I and other bloggers do with ours. So more often than not, I learn of LTL's blog posts by seeing the reaction...or reading Matt Wagner's masterful "Shrapnel" daily summaries of CBJ-related news and blogs. Back to the story.)

This particular LTL post came to my attention this morning via the Twitter chatter post-"Shrapnel". I tell you this because of how my confirmation bias was activated. The same folks (which includes many of my Blue Jackets friends) who decried the protests all along were patting Matt on the back for his slap-down of LTL. So, of course, I had to see what got everyone going.

In my opinion - and I am now deep into my personal bias at this point - LTL constructed a reasonable scenario as to how the team's knowledge of the forthcoming protest combined with a knowledge that Columbus was already a finalist for the 2013 All-Star game (The Columbus civic boosters had done their job, make no doubt about it!) provided sufficient stimulus for team ownership to finally agree to a few final capital investments in Nationwide Arena to seal the deal. LTL then suggests that the timing of the McConnell letter to the ticket buyers and fans, the McConnell interview with the Dispatch and the 2013 All-Star Game announcement all may have been influenced by the protest. I also note that LTL also admits his own bias, calling it "my 'conspiracy' opinion only".

So let's get to the meat of the issue:

Is it reasonable to think that, sans protest, McConnell would not have written a letter to the fans at the All-Star break essentially suggesting that the season is lost? Yes.
Is it reasonable to think that the media-shy McConnell would not have spoken to the Dispatch last week had a public protest not been scheduled? Yes.
Is it reasonable to think that the Blue Jackets, a team that surely isn't rolling in extra money considering the volume of team-issued free and discounted tickets on the street, would have preferred to avoid spending more money on infrastructure improvements at this point in time? Yes.
Is it reasonable to think that the NHL would have preferred to let the Ottawa All-Star weekend actually take place before upstaging it by an announcement of the 2013 game had a protest not been scheduled...if only to allow for a bigger public relations bang when the 2013 announcement is made? Yes.
Is it reasonable to think that the protest and the protest alone is responsible for all of these actions? Probably not.

It's just as reasonable to suggest that team management, fresh off receiving their ticket holder online survey responses (and thank you for the free lower bowl tickets for completing the survey, CBJ), could have panicked, hired a Chicago public relations firm, implemented a rapid-fire plan to stem the now-anticipated hemorrhaging of ticket package holders that could have included the letter, interview and final push for the All-Star Game. And I'm sure that other warning signs could have been interpreted in a way to make such a flurry of team ownership and management activity plausible.

I've said all along (here, here and here, to be specific) that protests work as far as making leaders uncomfortable and changing the public dialogue. McConnell's own words in the Dispatch interview do not suggest that he was entirely comfortable with the idea of the protest. Same goes for NHL commissioner Bettman. And there is no question that the public dialogue was affected by the protest.

To wrap this section up, I'll also guess that the protest probably played at least a minor role in the discussions that led up to the flurry of public relations activity. But that's my bias.

LOOK OVER THERE! - Then we have "clock-gate". Oh, how I was hoping that this one would have gone quietly into the night because I really, really didn't want to spend the next few days discussing how clocks work. As I watched the "Blue Jackets Live" postgame show, however, I knew it wasn't going to happen. This is a league and a sport that will spend days wringing their hands over the relative severity of brain-crushing hits and whether common sense should prevail when it comes to wearing protective equipment. The chance to talk about how an electronic clock works or doesn't work is like manna from heaven for NHL intelligentsia in a long, 82-game season.

What I didn't expect, however, was Scott Howson's engagement of the issue.

Howson posted perhaps his strongest-worded blog entry ever on the subject today. [UPDATE: As of 3:30 PM today, Howson's blog post has been pulled off the Columbus Blue Jackets website. Here's a screen capture of the post.] In fact, in this "get along to get along" culture that is professional sports, it's genuinely surprising to see Howson put something in print like:

"...this was an unjust result. In reality, this game should have gone to overtime, and we will never know what the true result of the game should have been."

Comments like this get people fined in the NHL. Coming from a guy like Howson, it's surprising.

Better yet - especially in light of LTL's "conspiracy" post mentioned above, was this gem from Howson:

"It is an amazing coincidence that with the Kings on a power play at STAPLES Center and with a mad scramble around our net in the dying seconds of the third period of a 2-2 hockey game that the clock stopped for at least one full second. I can only think of two ways in which this would have happened. Either there was a deliberate stopping of the clock or the clock malfunctioned."

I'm willing to grant Howson that either possibility could have occurred. I'm also willing to grant that the CBJ fan protest influenced the actions of the Blue Jackets management over the past week. Gotta keep an open mind, you know.

Honestly, I don't care about "clock-gate". Not one iota. And I didn't care about it before Howson blogged on the topic. Regardless of how the NHL decides to handle their own little public relations nightmare, it doesn't change the Blue Jackets' season. The CBJ started the night deep in last place and are so far behind 14th place that a "loser point" from getting to overtime just wasn't going to make a difference.

I know that it could have an effect on the outcome of the Western Conference playoff seedings. I fully support every team challenging Los Angeles for the final Western Conference seeds to scream bloody murder and call for an investigation in the hopes of overturning the outcome.

I just find the Blue Jackets protesting it to be a distraction from the fact that the team - for a host of reasons - couldn't find a way to win the game in the other 59 minutes and 58.5 seconds of playing time. Chief among those reasons is that the man carrying the flag on this acceptable protest put together a roster that wasn't playing .500 hockey (8-9-4) when its two prized acquisitions were in the lineup and the team was - more or less - healthy and not suspended.

And thus I will look at Blue Jackets involvement in "clock-gate" as a big distraction from the fact that Columbus couldn't beat a Los Angeles team that really didn't play that well last night. I consider it a distraction much as I looked at the seemingly rushed All-Star Game announcement as a distraction from the CBJ fan protest...just another shiny bauble to take the fans' eyes off the fact that this team, as constructed, is plunging deeper into the NHL record books for all the wrong reasons.

RIGHT GUY, WRONG EMPLOYER - One last thought on Howson's blog, separated from the above argument so as to give everyone a chance to catch their breaths.

It's abundantly clear that Scott Howson loves professional hockey. He is passionate about the sport and appears to have a vision for how he wants it played.

Scott Howson: Great for the NHL, but perhaps not
the right guy to manage a team's hockey operations?

Case in point, he worked tirelessly on the issue of eliminating the shootout, compromising with a new NHL rule making non-shootout wins the first tiebreaker for playoff eligibility. Now, his team has been terrible in shootouts, granted, but it needs to threaten for a playoff berth before this rule is relevant to those of us in Columbus. From my perspective it was a personal crusade by Howson to make the game that he appears to love even better. And once you put the Columbus-centric lenses aside (because we would likely be saying, "Why the hell are you spending your time on that stuff? How about the team you're supposed to manage?"), such a move is admirable.

Now, with the determined public stance on getting the "clock-gate" matter straightened out despite the fact that it just won't impact the CBJ season, we see Howson saddling up once again for the cause of better hockey. From that perspective (and that alone), I say good for him.

If I may be so bold, I think Howson has found his calling...and it's in Toronto or New York, not Columbus. I would love to see a deliberate, thoughtful, measured and - above all - bright man like Howson in a position with the National Hockey League where he could advance improvements in the game. Perhaps he could work with the likes of Colin Campbell and Brendan Shanahan, bringing his legal acumen to bear on some of the hardest issues facing today's NHL. He could manage the "clock-gate" investigations. He could help broker profound improvements in the game by bringing owners, managers and players together.

Talk about a dream job for a man with his skills and outlook. And please note that this theoretical job has absolutely nothing to do with constructing the roster and hockey operations staff for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

DBJ's 5 Thoughts on Game 51: Los Angeles

2012-02-02T01:25:00.002-05:00

Los Angeles 3 - Columbus 2
13-32-6, 5th in Central Division, 15th in Western Conference

The "Columbus Blue Jackets Pajama Party Road Trip" out west continued with the second night of a back to back, with Columbus suffering a soul-crushing, literally last-second loss to the host Los Angeles Kings, 3-2 at Staples Center.

1. Groundhog Day - It was a 6-0 shellacking last night, and it was a reasonably competitive game ending in an LA goal with 0.3 seconds left tonight. Regardless, it was the same result:

2. Carry The Coffee Pot - This 10:30PM Eastern start time is sick and wrong. It is downright mean to the Eastern team's fans who have to stay up until 1AM to see the end of the game. Then a back-to-back? Brutal.

2a. New Rules - I humbly suggest to the NHL a new rule: If an Eastern Time Zone team is playing in the Pacific Time Zone, the game can start no later than 7PM Pacific. If a Pacific team is playing in the East, the game can start no earlier than 8PM Eastern. That way, it's a touch more fair to both coasts.

3. Dorsett Again Impresses - First, the goal (off a sweet feed by Derick Brassard):

Then Dorsett shows the calm, presence and command of the issues (without retreating into the sugar-coated fantasy land where it seems like all too many CBJ players reside) in the first intermission interview with Fox's Natalie Taylor. The kid is quickly becoming captain material.

3. Sanford is just better - Whereas Steve Mason had "trampoline pads" that saw pucks bouncing every which way off him (more often than not into a rebound-grabbing Sharks player) last night, the pucks died on Sanford's pads. They dropped to the ice, and Sanford took control, cleared the pucks away or covered up. Like I believe professional goaltenders are supposed to.

That being said, Sanford is a backup at best. This team badly needs a #1.

4. LA is not very good - Despite the fortuitous (for them) goal in the 3rd, I can't believe this team is in 7th in the West. They play nearly as disjointed as the Blue Jackets, perhaps with a shade more talent in front of their vastly superior goaltender. Still, it's easy to see why that team fired their coach as well this season (It's not easy to see why they would hire Daryl Sutter...but that's not our problem as CBJ fans). As a result, I found the play to be rather sloppy with very brief, intermittent flashes of decent hockey.

4a. LA is not very good (sorta) - While the CBJ entered the game at 29th in the league in goals scored with 112, Los Angeles carved out the bottom spot for themselves with 107. Of course, LA is 3rd in the league with 105 goals against...which explains why they are where they are in the standings.

4b. Columbus is not good at all - While messing with the stat sites to get the info above, I was struck that the CBJ have a -55 goal differential on the season thus far. The next worst is Carolina at -32. The best in the league? Boston at +70. The best in the West is Detroit at +45. This team is in dire, dire straits.

5. All I can do is laugh - The clock apparently stopped for a moment less than two seconds before the game ended, giving the Kings just enough extra time to jam that last goal home. Was it fair? Nope. Should the goal have been nullified and the game sent into overtime? Yup. Has it been that type of season for the Blue Jackets? Totally. Move along...

NEXT UP: Get your zzz's now, crew, because the Blue Jackets wrap up on Friday night at The Pond in Anaheim to face Bruce "Ovechkin Won" Boudreau and his Ducks. Boudreau's had a degree of success of late, with the Ducks recording a 7-2-1 record in the last 10 games, pulling the team further away from the awesome privilege of drafting Nail Yakupov.

DBJs 5 Thoughts on Game 50: San Jose

2012-02-01T01:43:00.002-05:00

Steve Mason Practicing Giving Up Rebounds

Tonight, er, uh, this morning the Columbus Blue Jackets got pushed off the ice by a bigger, badder San Jose Sharks team 6-0 for the Sharks second consecutive shut out. It wasn't really that close.

1. Rebound Control - Really? Are you allowed to do that? Steve Mason's rebound control was brutal. His teammates hung him out to dry a couple of times later, but only after he had given up enough soft rebounds to the Sharks that the game was out of reach.

2. No Offense - All Sharks this game. The CBJ never really mounted a meaningful offensive possession. The CBJ barely got the puck out of the D-zone in the first period. Although the shot totals were only 18-11 at the end of the first period, it wasn't really that close.

3. Chippy Play - Jared Boll probably unwisely woke up the Sharks by going with a pretty high hit on Joe Thornton, for which he received a minor penalty. Had he not kept his elbow down at his side, its probably a game misconduct. Joe is a big guy, and I think that Cam Atkinson would have hit him high, as he was nearly bent double. That said, no problem with the call. This started a tone of chippy play the exploded in the third period, when Dan Boyle boarded Derrick Brassard from behind, then decides he should beat the livin' crap out of Brassard when he was offended by the dirty hit. Many of the team tried to respond, but the bottom line is that the Sharks are bigger and badder, and weren't too impressed.
4. Not Competitive - The team the CBJ is fielding right now is not competitive in the NHL. True, the team on the ice will not meet the cap minimum. 50% of the defensive pairings are made up of AHL players. Top notch Western Conference teams are not impressed. Actually, even lousy Western Conference teams are not impressed. Its a sad state of affairs. We now have an 11 point lead in the race for the first pick. I'm thinking no worries. I hope Yakupov has a strong stomach.

Refreshing commentary by Todd Richards after the game. He calls out poor puck management, self inflicted goals, bad turnovers. He also said 'you can see the guys who are willing to make the difference'. Yeah, you can. Maybe DBJ has something here.

5. Back at it - Another late night tomorrow night as the CBJ take on the LA Kings. They need to play better, or its gonna be the same thing.

GO JACKETS!!

The Carter Conundrum.

2012-01-31T14:39:00.001-05:00

There's hockey tonight kids! So once again, our attention turns away from the great All Star announcement back to the specifics of our team. It was announced loudly and clearly right before the break that management would be willing to make a trade involving Jeff Carter. To say Jeff has been a "lightening rod" of innuendo, rumor and negativity since day one of his CBJ tenure would be an understatement. Now, as those of you who know me are aware, I am by no means a "brilliant hockey mind", but as of right now, I'd say keep Jeff. If you come across a trade that is just insanely positive for CBJ, then trade him for as much as you can get - but don't just throw him away. Many are attributing the demand for trading him to be based in how "unhappy" he is, but I've yet to see a thorough analysis of his game on ice that demands he leave the roster. Its all off ice stuff.

If your curious in some of this analysis of game prowess, I'd point you to a post made over at Carry the Flag today that discussed Carter's possible value in staying in more detail (comments are good here too). But, as is my focus, I'd offer a bit of food for thought from a fan perspective.

Controversy sells. Why is everyone talking about Jeff Carter and how unhappy he is? Because its drama. And drama sells. We can talk all day about "what we heard" and "what so-and-so said" without necessarily having cold hard facts to prove it. Right now, right or wrong, we have to go on what's on record from Jeff Carter and Jeff Carter's agent. Everything else - well its hearsay. If Carter gets traded, and buys a billboard that says "thank goodness I'm gone from Columbus" look to me to be the first to say I was wrong, but until then - we can't say we know anything.

Glass Houses and All That. Oh I've heard the stories too. "Jeff Carter doesn't talk to the press", "Jeff Carter was mean to fans", "Jeff Carter didn't sign an autograph". Now don't get me wrong, I'd be crushed if all I wanted was Jeff's autograph and he shunned me. But, unfortunately, in many of these "Jeff's a jerk" stories that have been told to me, they involve equally embarrassing acts by fans. Taunting a player with obscenities and insults is probably not the right way to get him to like the hometown fans nor make him more welcome to participate with them in the future. For what its worth, at official engagements I've heard positive feedback (and yes, I know some of you have not), but, honestly, that's the only place we can truly know all the facts to evaluate Jeff off-ice when it comes to the Jackets.

A Different Game. With all this talk, it might be easy to forget Carts is paid to play hockey. ;) Well, do you remember how many of us commented that Jeff looked "lazy" when he first appeared on Nationwide ice? A lot - because I did it too. I'm thankful to my friend, Jeff, at Ten Minute Misconduct (here's one such POST, scroll to paragraph "Nash has a lot of skill"), as well as other blogs that talked quite a bit about understanding Jeff's skating style and game. And, let's not forget, while facing two significant injuries this season (and I have had a broken foot so I totally get that one) Jeff is still tied in points with none other than fan faves Johan and Wiz. And, this team has one hat trick brought to you by none other than Jeff Carter. (and for those of you down on Carts, would YOU not be frustrated if you score three goals and THE ENTIRE REST OF THE ROSTER can't secure a win?)

Time After Time. Remember that Jeff was brought in to give Nash the center he always wanted. While that hasn't proven to be as effective as we hoped, many have discussed the value of moving Jeff to the second line. Look at your Sedin twins. part of what makes them so effective is that they know each others' game. Intimately. To learn to support one another can take time. And, in lieu of many whispers, I've closely watched Nash and Carter in more than one practice. Same line or not, they are jovial, friendly and interacting in hockey. Signs of strife just aren't there.

Have a Seat on My Couch. Lets not forget the elephant in the room. Maybe Jeff Carter is miserable. Maybe he hates it here. Fair enough. What have we given him? A losing team, an arguably non-competitive locker room, some fans who berate him, and now piling on via trade rumor and media attention. Oh and he got hurt twice. Don't ask me to pile on when this is a year that might break even the strongest of spirits.

Polish Up Your Assets. Ok. Let's go to the complete other end, he sucks, we hate him, get rid of him. OBVIOUSLY we want the best return possible for our team, why in the world would we all shout from the rooftops how horrible Jeff Carter is? Perhaps not the best way to entice future "buyers", eh? Even Puck Daddy agrees.

So - let's review. If you want Jeff Carter to stay, you probably should be positive about him. If you want Jeff Carter to go, you probably should be positive about him. He's given us things to talk about on-ice, why negate them by gossiping about everything else that's off-ice?

Glass Bangers, 1/29/12

2012-01-29T13:44:00.002-05:00

PROTESTS WORK (REVISITED) - We're right around 24 hours since the Columbus Blue Jackets fan protest got started. Considering all the online sturm and drang over the event, let's revisit the question: Did it work? To try to answer the question after such a short period of time is a tad tricky, but I think a review of my thoughts on why I am a solid supporter of the public protest might be in order:

Can you hear me now?

Protests change the dynamic of human dialogue. They grab attention. They make those in power uncomfortable. They are factors in driving change.

Without question, the public dialogue shifted and the voice of at least 250 diehard fans was injected into the conversation. "Big" media coverage has been strong and, from this vantage point, fair (Channels 4, 6 and 10; Columbus Dispatch's Hunter and Puck Rakers). The protest sure grabbed NHL commissioner Gary Bettman's attention, as he spoke to the "passion" of the Columbus fans yesterday, and Blue Jackets staff who were present were certainly standing at attention. In fact, one could point to John P. McConnell's open letter to ticket buyers and fans as a preemptive response to the protest.

Honestly, I'm a tad surprised that the protest was so effective from a public communication point of view. The organizers were smart (lucky?) in picking a date where there was no meaningful (at least to Columbus) sporting event going on and filled the sports news hole with an organized, civil, passionate and brutally effective call for change on McConnell Boulevard. I clearly was wrong to have misgivings about the timing, location and structure of the protest. The organizers did a great job.

Whether the protest is a factor in driving real change within the executive suite of the Columbus Blue Jackets remains to be seen. A protest rarely yields an immediate result. Even the celebrated Detroit Lions (NFL)-related "Millen Man March" of December 2005 didn't yield results until after the 2008 season...but you certainly can bet that Lions ownership knew where the fans stood on the team's leadership. I'm going to suggest that Blue Jackets ownership - the folks who made sure that "hot liquids" were available on a cold day - also has a pretty clear feel for how the protesters and their supporters feel.

YUP, YOU STEPPED IN IT - [In the interest of not tarring and feathering a young Detroit Red Wings ticket sales executive whose Twitter account took a broadside at Blue Jackets fans and has since apologized for his dumb behavior, I'm removing this section. As my friend Rick Gethin says, we expect behavior like that from other team's fans - not their employees.]

TALK TO THE MAN...OR BOTH MEN - If you want to keep your ear to the ground as to what's really happening with the National Hockey League, I'd check out The Hockey News' interview with NHL Players Association director Don Fehr and THN's coverage of NHL commisioner Gary Bettman's All-Star game weekend post-Board of Governors meeting press conference (with a little commentary from Fehr as well).

I think every NHL fan should be cognizant of (if not concerned about) the potential for an NHL work stoppage (strike or lockout, same effect on the fans) in 2012-13...especially with Columbus poised to host the 2013 NHL All-Star Game.

IT GETS BETTER - As I said, protests work. I cited the "Millen Man March," where Lions fans marched outside Ford Field in the hopes of seeing Millen's reign of error come to and end.

Well, Millen was finally fired following the Lions' historic 0-16 campaign of 2008. Martin Mayhew (interestingly, Millen's assistant GM) was promoted to serve as general manager and Jim Schwartz was hired as the team's head coach. The turnaround started, and the Mayhew/Schwartz team led the Lions to the NFL playoffs this season for the first time since 1999.

The Lions' house reporter conducted an interview with team owner Bill Ford following the Lions' first round exit (Hey, it's a work in progress up there!)...something I thought that everyone might get a kick out of reading.

Keep in mind that the Lions have been on an upward trajectory from the NFL cellar over roughly the same period of time in which the Blue Jackets have gone from the playoffs into the NHL sub-basement. I find it inspiring to see a sports franchise owner who has been down so long finally get a chance to savor a degree of success. And the one-year turnarounds of the 09-10 Phoenix Coyotes and this season's Florida Panthers have proven that it's possible to turnaround a terrible team even more quickly in the NHL.

There IS hope, but - as the Lions have shown - it takes the right people to make it happen.

REGIS, I'D LIKE TO PHONE A FRIEND - Full kudos to the Blue Jackets for not just landing the 2013 All-Star Game, but also for landing it as a quick followup to John P. McConnell's letter to ticket buyers and fans. It's abundantly clear that the team is in choppy waters vis a vis ticket sales (suffice to say that the team is heavily discounting plenty of tickets, sometimes giving them away, to get rear ends in seats this season), and next season's ticket package sales were shaping up as gruesome. The protesters said it well yesterday: Love the team, hate the direction. It's hard for a team to sell tickets when they just can't deliver the wins...or even be competitive on many nights.

Commissioner Bettman and the NHL Board of Governors, making a very appropriate statement of faith in the Columbus hockey market, rode to the Blue Jackets' rescue in delivering the All-Star Game at precisely the right time to salvage ticket sales. The Blue Jackets' All-Star Game announcement is filled with All-Star lures for people to buy ticket packages, which makes perfect sense. The once-in-a-generation opportunity is an incredible lure to hockey fans.

The All-Star tie-in with CBJ ticket packages also is a way to stem the hemhorraging of STH's while the club gets its act together. So that buys the club a year to begin its turnaround. But following the "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" theme of this section header, lifelines like this don't come along every year. This is mulligan of the highest order...I just hope that the Blue Jackets hockey ops group doesn't blow the opportunity and begins the road to recovery quickly and wisely.

ONE GOOD PICTURE - I love this photo, from the first day of training camp, with Rick Nash and Jeff Carter putting young defenseman David Savard in the proverbial no-win situation. That the Nash-Carter combo didn't pan out...mystifying.

And now we're left with trade rumors. It's been that type of season.

When the Blue Jackets finally start winning...

2012-01-28T17:14:00.001-05:00

...make sure you thank these people for coming out on a cold day to the Columbus Blue Jackets fan protest as they made their voices heard loud and clear.

All-Stars, all.

The event organizers

Who said a protest couldn't involve a little humor?

Organizer Matt "The Mask" Garrett (sans mask) talks to a television reporter

Photo taken by Dispatch photographer Neal Lauron.
I conservatively estimated 250 at the rally.

2013 NHL All-Star Game in Columbus?

2012-01-27T23:29:00.003-05:00

So says the Dispatch.

Very, very exciting news for the City of Columbus, the State of Ohio and its many hockey fans if true.

Also, let's keep in mind that the woeful on-ice performance of the Columbus Blue Jackets hockey club and the selection of the All-Star Game site are mutually exclusive matters. That being said, can Mr. McConnell and his partners please focus their attention on fixing the host franchise? PLEASE?

(And can we also avoid a lockout year?)

Why I won't Protest; Culpability

2012-01-27T19:58:00.000-05:00

Hitch mingles with the intelligentsia at Training Camp

Ok, culpability is a strong word. Let's be clear, I am not legally responsible for the performance of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Let's just use 'responsibility' as a good synonym, but culpability reads better on a twitter feed.

The responsibility part is kind of hard for me. The only move that Scott Howson made that I disagreed with at the time it was made was the firing of Coach Ken Hitchcock. I didn't agree with it at the time, and I thought the reasons proffered (the game has passed him by) were weak. I feel even more strongly about it in retrospect. Essentially Hitch was fired because he didn't develop Filatov. That's a heck of a note.

Other than that, I have generally pretty much agreed with Howson's moves (except Glencross for Tarnstrom, though Glencross wanted to be in western Canada). In hind sight, I disagree with a lot of Howson's moves. The problem is that Howson never has hindsight to use as a tool when decision making. He has it as a learning tool, which is something that JPM intimated in his letter today. We knew Howson was relatively inexperienced. What is his capacity for learning?

Because I generally agreed with Howson on most of his moves, I won't be protesting tomorrow. (Disclosure, I don't have a lot going on, so I'll be down there because I care, and I'll be in the role of staff photographer for this blog. I also know and respect many of those who will be protesting, so I reserve the right to talk with them like they were regular folks. But I won't be protesting).

Which brings me to the Cleveland Browns.

All you have to do is look north to the Cleveland Browns to see what happens if you keep blowing up your executive offices every 5 years. You get a train wreck. The CBJ brought in significant perspective with Craig Patrick. Its time to see what that perspective does in the current context. I felt that Howson bought himself some time by bringing in Patrick, and I think that is still true. Most importantly, that's how I think ownership sees the situation.

The protesters point out that this is a results oriented business, and we are not seeing the results. And that is true. But I don't think the results are as far off as some think they are.

Blowing up the executive offices likely means a couple of more years of losing hockey. Everyone should get their arms around that. There are executives who tiptoe that mine field, but that is the exception, and not the rule.

If only we could get some truculence!

GO JACKETS!!!

Deeds, not words...

2012-01-27T11:51:00.000-05:00

...but the words are a good start.

I, like apparently every other Columbus Blue Jackets ticket package holder, received this in my email box this morning.

January 27, 2012

Dear [DBJ],

My father held a longstanding belief that a major league sports franchise would prove an important catalyst in the growth and development of Columbus. After more than 30 years of effort, the opportunity to make his belief reality presented itself with the NHL awarding a franchise to Columbus in 1997. To my mind, it is clear he was right in his vision. With the Blue Jackets and the Arena as the anchor, Nationwide Insurance has brought vibrancy to our downtown in the Arena District that simply wouldn't have happened without the team.

That said, there is no question our on-ice performance is nowhere near what it needs to be. All of you are disappointed and many are angry. I and the entire Blue Jackets organization share these feelings. I thought as we approached mid-season at the All-Star break, it would be a good time to reflect on where we've been and offer some thoughts about how we go forward. We have taken actions and will continue our push to improve.

Toward the end of last season, we did a thorough evaluation of our team's strengths and weaknesses. From there, a plan was developed balancing our needs against our tradable assets. During the summer, we believed we executed the plan well and took a good step forward. Most people seemed to agree and we were excited for the season to start.

Unfortunately and surprisingly, we opened the season terribly and have struggled ever since. Disappointing is not a strong enough word.

We began looking at why our team was not performing at an acceptable level very early this season and assessing where we are and where we want to go. We added Craig Patrick, an experienced and highly respected figure in the hockey community, as a senior advisor to assist in this endeavor. While this process is not complete, we have clearly defined our options and are finalizing our plans.

I understand you want to know what we're going to do to fix this, but it is important for us to maintain a degree of discretion to prevent putting ourselves at a competitive disadvantage. I can tell you action will be taken in the coming weeks and months, be it around the trade deadline, the entry draft and/or free agency that will be indicative of our direction.

Our goal as an organization is to build a team that wins consistently and competes for the Stanley Cup. Anything less is unacceptable! Everything we do in the coming weeks, months and years will be done to that end and everyone in our organization - myself, management, staff, coaches and players - will be held to that standard.

I am very thankful and appreciative of the dedication and passion you have shown as a Blue Jackets fan and I am committed to giving you a team of which you can be proud.

Sincerely,

John P. McConnell

Good for him...he's caught on. Now, what is he going to do?

Why I'll be protesting on Saturday

2012-01-27T11:29:00.000-05:00

About halfway through writing my Big Question post, it hit me: I'm pushing myself toward participation in Saturday's Columbus Blue Jackets fan protest. So it only makes sense that I take a blog post to discuss the matter from my perspective.

I write all this not to sway anyone's opinion one way or another. If you agree with me and want to join in, I'll see you on Saturday. If you disagree, I hope that this post helps you understand my actions.

Do public protests work? Ask the Tea Party, who fueled
a Republican takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives.

I am a firm and unwavering believer in the power of public protest. The fact of the matter is that protests often work. Protests change the dynamic of human dialogue. They grab attention. They make those in power uncomfortable. They are factors in driving change. Let's look at some examples:

Tea Party protests fueled a change in control of Congress and helped heal a fractured political party.
The "Occupy" movement of protests helped reshape the public dialogue on the discussion of class in America.
In the world of professional sports, the "Millen Man March" was a contributing factor in focusing public pressure on the inept management of the Detroit Lions by Matt Millen.
Closer to the NHL, Montreal fans are raising cain over the lack of their beloved French language by Les Habitants.

A public protest may not be a form of behavior that is to everyone's liking - especially in a society that has been conditioned to be passive and conflict-averse - but it does work.

Now let's be honest: Protesting over the way a form of entertainment is being delivered to us - in a world where there are much meatier and weightier issues to warrant virulent protest - is kind of silly. But taking that to its extreme, that also makes the time and attention that I (and my compadres, but I do not wish to drag them into this particular post) put into this blog seem silly, too. Sure, it's bread and circuses, but I've planted my emotional flag with the Blue Jackets. So if I'm going to get out and protest, it might as well be something I care about.

And I do care.

I care about the fact that the McConnell family and their partners are trying to do something good for the City of Columbus and the State of Ohio.

I care about the fact that despite their opening the organizational wallet further than it's ever gone in the history of the franchise, their efforts yielded some of the worst results in the history of the franchise.

I genuinely feel bad for McConnell et al. The owners are doing their part, but their hockey operations hires are failing them. Miserably.

And as a Franklin County taxpayer, I want to see my new investment of a hockey arena yield the highest possible return for the people of Franklin County. This whole "professional hockey team in Columbus" thing no longer is a strictly private venture. We're all in this mess now, so we'd best face up to our obligations.

I care about viable, successful elite-level professional hockey in Columbus. As you can tell from the last few posts, everything after that is fungible. I root for the logo on the front, not the names on the backs...or on the desk nameplates.

I do not see this particular protest as the ideal vehicle to advance the cause of a sea change in executive leadership of the Columbus Blue Jackets. I agree largely with the sentiments of Matt Wagner at The Cannon, who suggests that protests at the owners' places of work would be more likely to grab the attention of the people who need to be swayed. Protesting in front of the arena offers symbolism but not much more.

Despite my misgivings, I recall Voltaire's saying, "Perfect is the enemy of the good". In a diverse society like ours, I doubt the perfect protest ever will happen - but that's not a good reason to not protest if you believe in the cause. That there are people of like mind with me, gathering to advance an issue with which I agree...well, that's enough. I should join in.

So I will stand with those who care like I do. Hopefully, our efforts will contribute toward positive change with the hockey team about which I care so much.

What I would do: The roster

2012-01-26T17:07:00.001-05:00

Now that I've decided that Craig Patrick should replace Scott Howson ASAP, it's time to tackle the roster.

We'll start with the coach. It's established that Todd Richards is the interim head coach through the end of the season. To date, I've seen nothing to suggest that his performance should preempt a full coaching search. Not sure much more needs to be said on that front. I'm not married to a playing philosophy...I just want a guy that knows how to coach NHL players and knows how to win with them. Period. So let's move on.

Candidly, individual players are not my strong suit. I mean, any lunkhead can look at goals, assists, time on ice, penalty minutes, plus/minus or even the advanced stats like Corsi et al. You can even try to develop a formula that considers the productivity value that you find against the amount (and length of time) that you're paying the player.

Problem is, I feel that this is precisely what Scott Howson has done with his roster. What's missing, and is clearly so desperately needed, is an addressing of the culture of the team and its roster. This is where Howson has fallen completely flat on his face. As evidence:

Trying to shore up the lack of leadership by bringing in other team's ex-captains - and shipping out high character players in the process.
Trading for a player (Carter) who clearly didn't want to be traded - and I won't even suggest whether he wants to play here or not.
Letting the team collapse for three straight seasons now with no change in its core.

The last point is perhaps the most damning, and it's the one that I'm going to suggest gets addressed with a blunt force object.

DBJ's TACTICAL NUCLEAR OPTION

In my mind, the overarching issue to be addressed is the cultural predisposition of this team to quit. Quitting might involve not practicing hard (thanks for that insight, Mr. Prospal), might involve not playing a full 60 minutes. It might involve tuning out a coach. Point is, it's not winning hockey and fans like me don't want to pay to see it.

So taking the premise I suggested back when answering the big question, that the team has quit on two full-time coaches and only given one interim coach (Claude Noel) a winning record since the CBJ's sole playoff appearance, I'm going to presume that the players who have been here through all of that are at least partly complicit in the club's fall off the precipice.

I'm not savvy enough to suggest which players exactly are at the root of the blame - I have no special insights beyond what I read and hear (and I get precious little insider information), so that's why I'm going to cut wide around the margins and order a tactical nuclear option:

I would aggressively work to move every single holdover from the February 4, 2010 Blue Jackets roster out of Columbus as soon as feasible.

Why that date? That's the date that Claude Noel coached his first game for the CBJ. Thus, the players who were on the squad at that point and still are with the team have been through Hitchcock, Noel, Arniel and Richards. That's four coaches in less than two years. In my estimation, that group is toxic to any coach's career (good/Hitch or bad/Arniel) and, by extension, the team's prospects for success. And it must change. Now.

Who's left over from February 4, 2010, you may ask? Here's the list, taken from the game's roster report:

Jared Boll
Derick Brassard
Derek Dorsett
Kristian Huselius
Steve Mason
Marc Methot
Rick Nash
Sammy Pahlsson
Fedor Tyutin
R.J. Umberger
Antoine Vermette

Is it drastic? Totally. Is it overkill? Perhaps. Would the Blue Line store melt down with useless stock? Most likely. Will it go a long, long way toward turning the CBJ locker room into a place where winning isn't just nice but actually expected? I believe so.

Now, if some new general manager can apply the ability to read minds and figure out how to conduct a more surgical excision of the root causes of this team's current blasé culture, I'm all for it. Save the "good," dump the "bad." But as I said, I'm not savvy enough to be any more precise...and the problems facing this team, in my estimation, are so deep as to suggest that it's worth losing a couple "good" players to make sure you lose the "bad."

Am I suggesting a garage sale? Am I suggesting selling off this crew for late-round draft picks? Of course not. I am suggesting a systematic purge of those players from the roster in as quickly an efficiently a manner as possible, getting as much in return (players, prospects, draft picks) as humanly possible. Some of the trades will work out great for Columbus, some won't...but the roster will get an overdue scrubbing.

So I'm not calling to blow the entire team up. But gosh, I sure come close.

NEXT STEPS

While the purge is underway, steps need to be taken to move the team in the future direction. The interim /new general manager needs to work closely with the coach to determine exactly what identity this team will have and identify talent that will get the team there. Personally, I hope that coming from a winning background is given a priority. I want players for whom, as the saying goes, "it hurts to lose." The last thing we need it to backfill the roster with players who will accept a losing culture.

It's also important to recognize that there is some talent still in the CBJ development pipeline (perhaps Scott Howson's saving grace is leaving the cupboard not entirely bare). Yes, the Springfield Falcons are playing close to the bottom of their conference - just like their parent club in Columbus (As I type, Springfield is tied with four other teams for third-worst in the AHL) - but there is talent to be had. The likes of Cam Atkinson, Matt Calvert and perhaps David Savard immediately come to mind. These promising youngsters, and others whom I have not identified, need to be allowed to grow in the juniors and minors and come along at a deliberate pace. Promote them to the big club when they are ready, and not a moment too soon. Remember, the Red Wings' Jimmy Howard was nearly collecting Social Security when he got the Calder Trophy. It's OK to be patient. Who knows, maybe they might even learn how to win in the minors.

Veterans like Robert Lang helped Phoenix take Detroit to the limit in the
Stanley Cup playoffs while letting the team's prospects develop.

So if I'm suggesting a tactical strike on the current roster and not backfilling with young talent, what am I suggesting for the big club's roster? I've always been a fan of the Phoenix Coyotes approach under Don Maloney. Upon taking control of the team from Wayne Gretzky for the 2009-10 season in September 2009 (not a lot of time to prepare!), I understand that he shipped his young players en masse off to the AHL for the season. Maloney then identified hard-working veterans, most likely at the ends of their careers, who still had talent and were healthy. He patched together a team that worked for a year-plus while the kids grew up professionally. And whaddya know, that team of rag-tag veterans actually made the playoffs and took the Red Wings to seven games! Not a bad stop-gap if you ask me.

In my opinion, Columbus would be in much better shape than Phoenix if they tried this approach. If the new general manager restricted his trade activity to just the players mentioned above, he would start with a team that includes, based upon my scan of the injury list and the most recent game against Tampa:

Dane Byers
Jeff Carter
Grant Clitsome
Colton Gillies
Ryan Johansen
Mark Letestu
John Moore
James Wisniewski
Nikita Nikitin*
Ryan Russell*
Aaron Johnson**
Brett Lebda**
Derek Mackenzie**
Radek Martinek**
Vinny Prospal**
Curtis Sanford**

(Players whose contracts expire at the end of this season are indicated by a * for restricted free agents, ** for unrestricted free agents,)

That's a LOT of talent to bring in for one free agency period.
But Florida has proven that it CAN be done.

Now, a capable general manager starts with Carter, Letestu, Wisniewski, Johansen and Moore. If he brings back a couple of the free agents you see above and is given the flexibility to spend to hit the salary cap floor like Dale Tallon did with the Florida Panthers, he should be able to field a pretty competitive team.

So that's my plan: Extricate the core, protect the kids and backfill with tough veterans who know how to win and can teach the youngsters how to play winning hockey on a day-in, day-out basis.

In many ways, this is a remodeling job that has the contractors stripping the walls all the way back to the studs and starting over...which I fear is necessary to get this franchise on the right foot for the long haul.

What I would do: The management

2012-01-26T15:28:00.001-05:00

Judging from the Puck Rakers post on the current state of the Columbus Blue Jackets and the unanimous (or nearly unanimous) positive response from even the most unlikely of corners, it appears that the proposition that I proposed yesterday - that the team's dismal 2011-12 campaign is not an aberration but rather symptomatic of much deeper problems within the club that will inhibit their ability to win - is one that has some legs.

While I'm not one to bow to the will of the chorus reflexively, I'm inspired by what I've seen and figure it's time to lay all my cards out on the table. I've been biting my electronic tongue for most of this season, and the Blue Jackets' .008 percent chance of making the playoffs tells me that it's time to open up.

Addressing the big question of how to attack these deep-rooted problems is a two-part issue in my head. First, you have to tackle the management question. Note that my earliest "This isn't working!" posts involved discussions of management and not personnel. Point being, you need the right people to be stewards of the ship before you add the crew.

So let's talk management.
Back in early November, I suggested the following two possible courses of action when presented with this train wreck of a season:

Clean house now - management at minimum, perhaps coaches too - and let the new leadership use the rest of the season to assess what needs to be done and - gulp - develop a new plan/philosophy with the power to make whatever changes need to be made to implement it.

Free up current the management and coaching staff from the "win now" mantra, tell them to stop grab-bagging and give them the latitude to shuffle the roster and play the players that would facilitate a rebound in 2012-13 that resembles what we've seen thus far from the likes of the Edmonton Oilers or the Colorado Avalanche this season.

Ownership, by its inaction, went with option two. Problem was, hockey operations management and coaching didn't follow through.

SCOTT HOWSON

Scott Howson traded for Nikitin, Letestu and, much more recently, Gillies. By November, Scott Arniel was deep into a weak version of Hitch Hockey...so weak (or perhaps his "high flying" roster was fundamentally incapable of playing that scheme, I don't know and really don't care at this point) that it got him fired.

I think it's also safe to say that, injuries aside, playing looming unrestricted free agents is not the wisest way to build a cohesive roster for next season. I have to believe that some, if not most, of those players will be plying their trades in other cities.

I've laid out my grievances with Scott Howson all over this blog. To summarize the high points:

I cannot see how his roster acquisitions have advanced any discernible team identity.
I think he was useful on the personnel front in support of a strong-willed head coach (Hitchcock) and went terribly awry once he decided that his vision (whatever that might be) for the club was superior.
I think that since Jason Chimera got shipped off to Washington for Milan Jurcina and Ex-Captain Chris Clark, Howson has been grab-bagging.
I think he gave way too much latitude to a head coach, Scott Arniel, who apparently was in over his head. I know Arniel wasn't Howson's first choice, but he ended up being Howson's choice.
I am amazed at how poorly Howson handled the goaltending position since coming to town. There is no point in his tenure where I can point to the roster and say that the team had two goalies that inspired faith. None.
I feel that he has signed middling talent to contracts that are too large (which is partially forgivable considering I understand that Columbus is not yet a preferred market for players) and way too long (unforgivable). I fear that the team will be crippled for years by these legacy contracts.
The team has gotten progressively worse since the 2009 playoff appearance, and on a fairly steep slope.

In fact, the only true positive I can see is the discipline he has exerted in keeping talented young players away from Columbus - be it in juniors or in the AHL. (I still would have bumped Johansen back to juniors, however.) Especially this season, there is nothing to be gained professionally for an emerging talent from hanging out in that locker room.

I'm sure I could add more, but I don't want to write a book. Point is, Scott Howson has had plenty of chances and, once removed from a coach who could tell him where the sun really shined, has fallen flat. He was an assistant general manager before coming to Columbus, and I honestly believe that type of position is where his talents are best suited. He hasn't shown that he can steward a team for a length of time.

Therefore, I'm suggesting that Scott Howson be removed from the position of general manager for the Columbus Blue Jackets immediately.

MIKE PRIEST

I am much happier with the performance of Mike Priest as president of the Columbus Blue Jackets. I do not look at Priest as a hockey man - he is not one - and thus I look at his function as straightening out the business operations side. I'm also not an adherent to the philosophy that you have to be "a hockey guy" to run a hockey team. You have to be a smart guy, do what you know well and get good people to do what you don't know.

On balance, I feel that Priest has done a pretty good job:

Through years of dogged determination (punctuated by occasional personal public appearances on the topic), he helped make the arena deal happen. This is a HUGE success for the franchise.
He has ensured that ticket activity is high and rear ends are in seats in tough times, almost to the point of being counter-cyclical. I know that many, many tickets are not selling for anything close to full price (and for the first time since I've been a fan, I've had multiple avenues this season to free tickets in both the upper and lower bowls from the team), but he's putting his product in front of people. Think about it - despite being in the NHL cellar so long this season that the team has been to Home Depot a few times to make some improvements, the crowds still officially are in the 15-17,000 range. Unbelievable. From a purely business operations perspective, one can't ask for more.
He's lined up strong sponsor relations, especially with the likes of OhioHealth, AEP and Fox Sports Ohio (with whom he inked an extension of their broadcasting contract).
From public appearances, it seems like he's tried to milk whatever knowledge he could get out of the hockey operations staff that the team has - specifically, hanging out at practice with Ken Hitchcock. If you're paying the man, you might as well pick his brain.
When it was clear that the team was going nowhere this season, it started shedding salaries. Again, wise financial management to cut costs when it was evident that the revenues would not be coming in.

Honestly, the only thing I fault him for is letting Howson roam free with no knowledgable watchdog. Let's be clear: That is a grievous error on Priest's part. But then Craig Patrick arrived. Whether Patrick really is that watchdog or not remains to be seen, but the piece is in place.

So as long as Howson goes, I don't have an opinion on Priest's employment. I only hope that Priest - or his successor - realizes the value of having a couple more strong, informed hockey operations voices in the room.

CRAIG PATRICK

From what I've read and understand about him, the presence of Craig Patrick makes Howson expendable right now. Despite being officially away from hockey (read: not employed by a team) since 2006, Patrick understands enough about hockey and the people involved in the sport to serve as an interim general manager at the least.

And that's what I'll suggest. Blue Jackets ownership should immediately elevate Patrick to interim general manager (or, if Mike Priest is removed, interim president) with the goal of:

Getting as great a return on pending unrestricted (and perhaps restricted) free agent assets as possible,
Preparing the team for the upcoming draft and free agency, and
Assisting team ownership (and, if retained, the team president) in designing a functional strategic plan for a winning NHL franchise and hiring the appropriate people to put that plan into effect.

On the last point, if that means that Patrick continues to keep a role (president, general manager, senior advisor, whatever), great. If he wants a gold watch for his efforts, I'm fine with that, too. Whatever it takes to get through this period.

My larger concern is not letting Howson, whom I feel should be removed immediately, manage the team's affairs in a way that jeopardizes its future any more than he has already done.

So that's my take on management. I'll talk about the roster in the next post.

The big question

2012-01-25T18:20:00.000-05:00

Being away from the scene for a couple weeks forces me into a little catch-up, so bear with me. I promise, this has direct bearing on the issue of the day (the forthcoming Columbus Blue Jackets fan protest, not the blog's 1000th post!).

Scott Howson and Mike Priest listen to former Blue Jackets head coach
Ken Hitchcock in happier days. (Photo from The Hockey Writers)

As I understand, the newly-reconstituted Blue Jackets ownership group met on January 16th. The group now includes 30 percent shareholder Nationwide Corporation, however I learned today from the Puck Rakers chat that John P. McConnell still retains 50.1 percent of the team. Thus, the Blue Jackets are still McConnell's toy to play with despite the new injection of ownership capital by our insurance friends downtown - when you own more than 50 percent, you win every vote. So it's still McConnell...and everyone else.

Anyhoo, the Dispatch tells us that the meeting apparently included a presentation on the current state of Blue Jackets affairs from team executive management - meaning team president Mike Priest and general manager Scott Howson. There could have been others, I don't know. But the Dispatch is suggesting that those two had significant input.

Which brings me to the one question that needs to be answered, decisively, before anything else can be decided: Is the Columbus Blue Jackets' terrible 2011-12 an aberration, or is it symptomatic of deeper problems on the club?

The Dispatch suggests that ownership went with the former explanation instead of the latter:

The Blue Jackets are blaming the 2011-12 season on their bad luck with injuries.

That is a reasonable conclusion. Without the injuries, it's fair to think that the team would have more than 13 wins at this point in the season.

Reasonable as that conclusion may be, I strongly disagree. I believe that while the many injuries (and the Wisniewski suspension) did not help things one bit, they only exacerbated existing problems related to team culture and performance. In a nutshell, here's why I think this way:

The team gave up on Ken Hitchcock in the 2009-10 campaign and essentially got him fired.
The team had not one but two terrible slumps in the 2010-11 campaign under Scott Arniel.
The team never got started under Arniel in the 2011-12 campaign and, again, got him fired.
The team, despite injuries, hasn't shown more than some flickers of life under Todd Richards.
Beyond the coaches, the Blue Jackets only went 8-9-4 when both Jeff Carter and James Wisniewski were in the lineup. That's not exactly playoff hockey. Thanks to En4cer45 for the research on that one.

That's three coaches over three seasons that haven't been able to get this crew to perform. The team has not been crippled by injuries for three straight seasons. One terrible season is an aberration. Three straight seasons, to me, suggests something much deeper.

So we're left at an impasse. Ownership apparently believes that this season is an aberration. I, along with many other fans that apparently include those who will be protesting at Nationwide Arena on Saturday at 2PM, think otherwise.

So what does one do about it? That's another post. All-Star weekend will be long and, for this Blue Jackets fan, somewhat boring...so I'm sure I'll find time to share my thoughts.

The 1,000th post: DBJ's quest for understanding in the land of the Mayans

2012-01-25T11:22:00.000-05:00

[In honor of the Dark Blue Jacket blog's 1,000th post, I thought I'd share with everyone what I was up to over the past couple of weeks while Gallos, Alison, Greg and Rick made you forget I was gone. Like most of my best work, please take everything herein with a grain of salt...it's all in fun, just as this blog is supposed to be.]

Part I: LOST IN PARADISE

It was January 8th. I was one day into my annual retreat from the real world yet, like most vacations, I couldn't turn my brain entirely off like a switch from the matters of the day...like a Blue Jackets game, this one against the Mighty (chuckle) Ducks of Anaheim. The Jackets lost - not exactly a surprise - but they got shelled for (gasp!) seven goals en route to a 7-4 loss. Ugly begat ugly, but it just didn't hurt as bad when I was catching bits and pieces of the game via NHL GameCenter Live from my balcony overlooking the Caribbean Sea. In fact, I was so pleased with my game-watching experience that I snapped a photo:

Little did I know at the time that this was a snapshot of the final minutes of
Scott Arniel's Columbus Blue Jackets coaching career.

I learned that Scott Arniel got the ziggy the following morning when general manager Scott Howson all but conceded what fans like - oh, I dunno, yours truly - have been saying since October: Barring an early season game-changing move that never came, the season was lost and it was time to look to 2012-13.

Is it that easy, though? Can a diehard (yet pragmatic) fan just accept his team Carrying The White Flag with half the season left, especially when hopes were so high for this roster and its slew of offseason acquisitions?

Nope, it's not...which left me 1,354 miles from home, virtually alone in my Blue Jackets fanhood, and grasping for answers that just weren't coming. I was lost.
On the evening of the 9th, the DBJ family went into town to grab a bite to eat and sample the local culture and nightlife as only a trio of wannabe-Cleavers can do. We passed by the taquerias, the silver jewelry stores that made me thrilled that Mrs. DBJ doesn't wear silver, the Italian eateries, the convenience stores carved out of the locals' living rooms, the overpriced "fusion" experiences, the countless gelato shoppes, the vendors selling colorful ponchos (with all sorts of pro sports teams logos on them - no Blue Jackets, though, as I would've grabbed one if they had it).

And then I saw it, stuffed behind the "I make your name bracelet in five minutes" sign at a streetside stand. Eight bucks ("But for you, señor, I sell it for six."). What was it, you ask?

Part II: CRACKING THE MAYAN CODE

All prophecies in this blog post came directly
from this text. Really. Verbatim.

It was a small book listing the Mayan prophecies as we hit the end of their calendar in December 2012. I bought it and was on my way to making sense of the chaos that was the 2011-12 Blue Jackets season. Or at least I thought I was.

We returned to our villa from a very satisfying dinner that, for yours truly, involved a terrific arrachera that was doused in a ridiculously good chimichurri topping. Upon putting the Dark Blue Toddler to bed and kissing a tired Mrs. DBJ good night, I opened up this accordion-shaped publication in the hopes of having the Mayans' secrets of the universe bestowed upon me.

Seven prophecies to announce the beginning of the sixth Sun cycle. And, like everything else, they surely had to relate to the NHL...and the Columbus Blue Jackets.

First Prophecy
On December 22nd, 2012, the Sun will begin its sixth cycle. Every 5,125 years the Sun receives a spark of light from the center of the galaxy, which produces solar eruptions and magnetic changes, with a giant shining blaze; this makes the Earth's rotation axis shift and consequently causes huge cataclysms.
Man must be prepared for the change to a new era. Whatever does not move toward perfection has to disappear. Since 1992, we have entered "time without time," the equivalent for the Maya to entering the great room of mirrors, in which each individual will be faced with his behavior toward himself, the others, nature and the planet. This way, Man would decide to change, get rid of fear, the lack of respect and dissatisfaction and let the spiritual values evolve in harmony with the Universe.

What? Huge cataclysms? Was Bettman prescient in pushing the NHL southward, somehow knowing that a shift in the Earth's axis would make the generation of ice in Florida a plausible idea when the Sunshine State is plunged into never-ending winter? Will Detroit finally implode? Would a self-respecting cataclysm even bother itself with Nashville? Guess we'll find out in December.

And what of the Blue Jackets? If Man will be faced with his behavior toward himself, his world and everything in between, do you think the Blue Jackets roster will face up to their underperforming selves? Will player leadership light a fire under the squad? Will that evolution in harmony with the Universe mean that we fans might actually witness the team developing some chemistry? Could the CBJ finally stop being scared of the Central Division? (We are still getting another year of the Central, right? With the NHLPA vetoing the realignment plan?)

Spiritually speaking...will the CBJ's resident demon, Derek Dorsett, find God?

Second Prophecy
Since the 1999 solar eclipse, we have lived in an era of conflicts, wars and collective madness. On Decemver 22nd, 2012, the energy we receive from the centre of the galaxy will increase and accelerate the vibration in the entire universe to lead it to a greater perfection. This will produce changes in the Sun, the Earth and psychological changes in Man, by altering his behavior, way of thinking and feeling.
Man will have to face his fears and anguishes to solve them and this way he will be able to synchronize with the universe. The human race will focus on its negative side and will see clearly what we are doing wrong. This is the first step to change attitude and achieve unity. There will be an increasing number of events that will take us apart bit also of others that will bring us together: aggression, hatred, split families, confrontations due to ideologies will be on the rise; but at the same time, more people will find peace, learn how to control their emotions and become less intolerant.

Wait a minute: This "era of conflicts" started in 1999? And the CBJ took the ice in 2000? So this team has been in existence only through this era of Mayan-predicted upheaval? Well, that explains our 1,500 head coaches and zero playoff wins.

But here's the problem with the CBJ when it comes to this whole "Man facing fears" and stuff. The "man" who's supposed to change the attitude in the locker room, and by extension in the fanbase...I'm not sure he's human.

I will kill John Connor by drafting
him and starting him in goal!

Seriously, how else can you explain the Legion of Feckless Ex-Captains? What about letting Mike Peca just...go? Or thinking Steve Mason was still the answer coming into this season? That Jeff Carter would play like he wanted to be in Columbus? With that type of tin ear at the helm, how can the Blue Jackets synchronize with the hockey universe?

Then we have the "events that will tear us apart" - well, that's clear as a bell...another coaching search. Even the "newbie" Blue Jacket fans who (like me) really jumped on the bandwagon after The Playoff Appearance of 2009 have been through this rodeo. We'll all take sides based upon lists of prospective coaches that we really don't know built off of rumor and innuendo and then tear each other to pieces while Howson proceeds to pick precisely the wrong guy from a list that in hindsight will be filled with right guys. Talk about clash of ideologies!

Third Prophecy
A heat wave will raise the planet temperature, and produce climatic, geological and social changes on an unprecedented scale, because of Man's destruction and irresponsibility and because the Sun will accelerate its activity and radiation.
A change in individual and collective behavior is necessary to assume the commitment of daily actions that contribute to improve the ecology of the planet and achieve total harmony between Man's actions and his environment.

Ouch - guess we need to scratch that inference that hockey in Florida was a good idea. The notion of watching hockey in shorts, however, does sound nice! I suppose I could start recycling for that.

Fourth Prophecy
The 584-day Venus spin was the basis used by the Maya to make their solar calculations; every 117 spins the Sun suffers alterations and spots. They noticed that every 5,125 years even greater alterations occur; the changes in solar activity will be increasingly stronger, the electromagnetic shield that protects us is getting smaller. The poles will melt down, there will be stronger solar wind, more massive sun eruptions, an increase in radiation and higher temperatures all over the planet.
We must focus on producing positive results for our actions and at the same time keep growing in spite of the difficulties we are faced with. We must assume life and make our decisions in a conscious way.

To this CBJ fan, that sure sounds like the "faith-based fanhood" that we know and embrace so well: Keep rooting like mad for the team despite the fact that their inner core is a white hot mess that melted down somewhere around the first third of the 2009-10 season and hasn't recovered since that point. Yet we keep the faith, rooting on, offering Calls to Arms (which, by the way, remains a masterwork of sports fan video) despite the cold slap of reality at every turn.

Fifth Prophecy
All the systems based on fear will be transformed at the same time as the planet; Man believes the universe exists for him only, that mankind is the only intelligent expression of life, and therefore he acts as a predator. No system will make Man face himself and understand the need to reorganize society and continue the process of evolution, peace and harmony. Then whatever fails to produce this result shall disappear since a new era of light cannot be based on truths imposed upon mankind through force.

There's something in this that speaks to the state of the Blue Jackets locker room ("universe exists for him only"), but I'm not sure exactly where the Mayans were going. So let's jump to number six.

Sixth Prophecy
A comet will come whose path might make it crash with Earth and jeopardize the very existence of mankind.
The Maya knew that for modern man, discovering such a big asteroid ahead of time and being able to deflect it, whether through physical or psychic means, would be one of the major achievements of human history and a crucial fact that would unite us as a species. We must learn to overcome the separation that is the ground of our society. We must build a level of cooperation and international unity.

If this is taken literally, we're probably screwed and hockey will be the least of our issues.

Taken metaphorically, however, the hockey fan's mind turns to the upcoming labor negotiations and the potential for another lockout season - which is as close to a cataclysm as this sport gets. And while such negotiations are always darkest before the dawn, I would tend to agree that a swift and smooth agreement to keep the NHL machine humming along would be a major achievement.

A Blue Jackets fan might also take the more localized view and see this as the long-discussed roster shakeout. Might we actually see the theorized "nuclear option" and witness the Blue Jackets' roster core blow up and get scattered throughout the NHL, AHL and Europe?

Seventh Prophecy
In 2012 the greatest planet transformation ever will occur, the energy of the ray transmitted from the center of the galaxy will synchronize all living beings and allow them to voluntarily achieve an inner transformation that will produce new realities, by receiving new meaning: communication through thought, men who will reach a state of inner peace, raise their vital energy from fear to love and activate the genetic Code of divine origin.
The ability to read man's mind will revolutionize civilization and put an end to lies forever, because nobody will be able to hide anything. It will be an era of transparency and light, in which each individual will be responsible for his acts; and excellence and spiritual development will be the result of men living in harmony.

Mind reading? Hot dang! Now we're onto something. Of course, we'll be mind reading in a world that's been hit by a meteorite and is suffering from melted ice caps, but what the heck...I'll play along.

Imagine what mind reading could do for this team, especially with coaching. We all know that Ken Hitchcock had some mad skills on this front - witness his ability to work miracles as "The Nash Whisperer," transforming the captain into a genuine two-way monster - but I'm not sure any other of the countless Blue Jackets coaches have shown the same ability. Should make the coaching search interesting, to be sure. ("If you were a tree, whose mind would you read?" No, that sounds stupid...)

The one thing that makes me nervous about this prophecy is the whole "transparency and light" thing being predicated on Man. As in, a Man has to be the one to be transparent, to bring light and take responsibility - to bring excellence to the organization. But what if the "man" responsible for building the roster...is not a Man but a T-2000 robot from the future?

Yup. We're S.O.L.

The knowledge imparted by the seven Mayan prophecies only left me with more questions - when I so desperately needed answers. There must be more to the story, and I would have to go seek it out.

Part III: THE PILGRIMAGE

Unfulfilled by the text of the Mayan prophecies, I needed more. If the words wouldn't help me, I would go to the source. I ran down to the travel desk, plopped down my money and booked the DBJ family on the next shuttle to the nearest Mayan ruins. Those ruins happened to be the coastal site of Tulum, perhaps the most significant oceanfront commercial point of entry into the pre-Spanish invasion Yucatan Peninsula.

Why not go inland to Chichen Itza, a site so massive and impressive that it's been labeled one of the New Seven Wonders of the World? Why not trek into the jungle to explore the still-largely unexcavated ruins of Coba, which features the tallest pyramid (I think) in the Yucatan? Two reasons: 1) It was close (meaning I wasn't going to blow an entire day of my vacation wandering through the wilderness), and 2) It was the cheapest trip. I'm on a pilgrimage, sure, but that doesn't mean I'm not on a budget.

The Tulum tram - pulled by a farm tractor
(Photo courtesy of the Dark Blue Toddler. Really.)

So we arrived at Tulum - me appropriately dressed in the only short-sleeved CBJ shirt that I owned - and I help Mrs. DBJ and the Dark Blue Toddler avoid the shop peddlers as we hop on the tram to get to the ruins. Once we crossed through the walls to the city, I was a man possessed. I wanted - no, needed - to understand what the Mayans were getting at and how it could make order out of the Blue Jackets' post-playoff implosion. But what to do? How to go about this search in this awesome and - in its own way - beautiful site? The tour guides were busy spinning their own yarns about the Mayans (with one side suggesting that they were blood-thirsty maniacs out of Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" and the others suggesting they were peaceful farmers, mathematicians and astronomers - strangely, with nothing in the middle). I had no guidance. It was time to dig deep.

One FUNNY book

On a trip to Arizona quite a few years back, Mrs. DBJ and I had the pleasure of stopping over in Sedona. If you've ever been to Sedona, you know exactly what I'm talking about when I say it is drop-dead gorgeous. The towering red rocks flowing southward from the Oak Creek Canyon present a landscape that literally takes your breath away...especially at sunset on a clear night. I've never seen anything like it.

Neither, for that matter, did the strange, crystal-lugging hippies out of California, who cashed out their 401(k)'s, abandoned their overcrowded and smog-filled metropolises and moved east to Sedona. They imparted their unique brand of mysticism into Sedona's surrounding hills by labeling them "vortexes," or places where one can achieve a harmonic convergence with themselves, nature and whatever fine herbs they were smoking. In fact, hiking in Sedona was rather funny - our tour guide told us not to bother the meditative-chanting circles of vortex observers because, well, they were more scared of us than we were of them. But I digress.

Back to Tulum. I looked around at the grounds, saw all of these majestic temples to different Mayan gods, thought about those Fruits and Nuts in Sedona and figured, "What the heck. Why not try?" So I sat my oversized American butt down, crossed my legs, stretched my palms outward and...umm...hummed the Blue Jackets goal song. You know, the same song that seemingly every other team in the league (outside of Chicago - UGH) and even an insurance company are using.

Whoa - Oh - Oh...Oh - Oh - Oh....

Hmph. Nothing. Nothing at all. Well, nothing aside from the strange looks from the United Nations of tourists tromping around the grounds.

On the bright side, those folks had no idea what I was doing either. So I picked myself up, dusted off my shorts and started walking around the site to look for signs, clues, inspiration. Anything to help explain why the Blue Jackets cannot extricate themselves from The Suck.

Indigineous, pre-European merchants pulled their canoes up to the rocky beach opening and brought their spices, gems, foodstuffs and other assorted items to the Mayan people It's an incredible thought to consider that a civilization that couldn't invent the wheel (or so I was told) figured out how to conduct commerce with other cultures deep into Central (and perhaps South) America. This was a culture that understood the value of wheeling and dealing, something that CBJ management just can't quite bring themselves to do if they had their druthers.

Perhaps that was it, the Mayan capacity for commerce. Genuinely shrewd operators - Roster Ninjas, if you will - could take the disparate pieces that fill the locker room, figure out what needs to stay/go and make the deals that improve the team not just on paper but on the ice and in the win column. I ran down to the cove and looked to the sea.

Will the CBJ Savior come perhaps in trade? Or will they be the one making the trades? Do I see Craig Patrick?

Nope. Nothing again. Just a lot of sand, rocks and a rope protecting me from spawning sea turtles.

I walked from building to building, reading the displays and listening in on different guides' interpretations of what we were looking at. Yet no answers were revealing themselves. I tell you, it was more frustrating than watching Grant Clitsome get spun around on yet another Steve Mason softie. I was getting nowhere fast, it was getting hot and the DBT was running out of water on a freaking hot, sunny day in the Mayan Riviera.

ARGH! What does a guy need to do to find peace in this hell of an NHL season?

So I abandoned my quest. Back to the shuttle, back to home base. No answers in sight. Some good this whole Mayan thing was.

Part IV: ENLIGHTENMENT

I was tired. I was hot. I was frustrated. And I wasn't any closer to finding answers than I was when I started my little quest. So I tossed off my sweaty clothes, put on my beach gear and headed down to the sand for a little ocean breeze and a cold drink.

Ho-lee jeez. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

I walked past the convenience store, fully stocked with the finest cigars this American has ever seen. It made me think - perhaps a sacrificial offering for Hockey Jobu involving an honest-to-God Cuban Cohiba, Habano or Montecristo might impart the wisdom for which I so so badly craved. Heck, I could even toss in a bottle of some of the finest Tequila around for not much more. But my resolve was weak. The Mayans already had let me down, and Hockey Jobu probably wasn't going to be any better. And really, what would that get me besides a headache, a hangover and a curious conversation with the property management? So I trudged on, resigned that this crappy season had no answers. Off to the beach.

And then I saw him. Yes, him.

There he was, under a palapa, with a fruity drink at his side. There was no mistaking what - or who - I saw.

I stood there, motionless, stunned and slack-jawed.

He laughed.

And it wasn't even the All-Star break yet.

"What're you staring at?" he asked as he stared me down with his piercing red eyes.

"I...I...I...can't believe you're here!"

He laughed again.

"Why?" he responded as he leaned back into his chaise. "What's going on up there right now? The season's over, chump. Start thinking about the draft and free agency. Everything else is angst and window dressing, kiddo."

I tried my best to compose a coherent thought. "You...you can't be serious. There's almost half a season left! Shouldn't you be banging that silly drum or something right now? Your team needs you. The fans need you!"

"What am I supposed to do - fire up a crowd that is more inclined to lynch someone than cheer at this point? Forget that. I've been down here for a week, and I gotta tell you, these drinks are awesome. Cool and refreshing...really hits the spot on a sunny day."

Then his callous sneer melted away in the sub-tropical sun. "Tell you what," he said. "You obviously want to talk, and you're blocking my sun. C'mon over and grab a seat. Tell me what's on your mind. Of course, you'll need to rub a little more lotion on my wings. They're kinda thin and burn easily."

So that's what I did. I settled down into the sand next to his chaise and told him about my hopes and aspirations for the Blue Jackets and the City of Columbus, my sorrows and pains since the single playoff appearance of 2009, my head-first dive into Mayan mysticism and my pilgrimage to Tulum in the drive to find answers to why this team imploded like they did after that promising season. I don't think he was impressed. In fact, I think he thought I was somewhat silly. But he humored me.

"You really care, don't you?" he asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "I really do."

"Well, then, here's some advice. Just sit back, relax, and let the wind roll over you - just like the majority of the National Hockey League rolls over our team on most nights. Then take a few deep breaths. It'll get better. Definitely not this season, probably not next season, either, but it will get better. Either that, or I'll be banging that drum somewhere in Canada before you know it."

Was it what I wanted to hear? Of course not. However, I appreciated his candor and his honesty. Somehow, having my worst fears validated by someone in the know made it feel better. Our team was mired in The Suck, and he couldn't explain it any better than me. In our own ways, we both were lost.

So we sat back and watched the tide come in.

Minutes turned to hours, and neither of us spoke a word as we grew more and more entranced with the sun, the waves and perhaps the fact that we were so far from home with nary a care in the world. Especially about our dismal hockey team.

Yet despite this bliss, I just had to break the silence and ask one last question.

"Do you think Howson could be a robot from the future?"

If you will permit me, I'd like to offer my heartfelt appreciation to some incredible Columbus Blue Jackets fans whose work has graced the blog over the past 1,000 posts - Kirsi, Puckeye's Mom, Campbell, En4cer45 and Cody. Special mention goes to the current band of bloggers that have raised this little corner of the Internet to a completely new level: Gallos, Greg and Alison. And, of course, Rick is welcome to drop in an post any time he wants.

This blog started as a way for me to share my love of the CBJ and keep my sanity as a first-time father. It's clearly become much more than that, and I have all of my contributing friends to thank.

With all dues respect, however, no contributor comes close to you - the reader. Your readership drives us to produce more and better. Your feedback - here and elsewhere - keeps us honest and connects us to all of our friends out there. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU.

Here's to another 1,000 posts!

Carry The Flag!

DBJ's 5 Thoughts on Game 49: Tampa Bay

2012-01-24T23:08:00.003-05:00

Tampa Bay 4 - Columbus 2
13-30-6, 5th in Central Division, 15th in Western Conference

The Columbus Blue Jackets coasted into the All-Star break with a 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

1. Did I sense a little punch from the boys? - I genuinely thought that for the first part of the first period that the CBJ were pushing well into the offensive zone. This was notable for both being a rebound from last night in Nashville, where there may as well have been a literal wall of concrete at the Preds' blue line, but also for beating the vaunted Tampa 1-3-1 trap. Sure, the Bolts' blue line is almost as bad off as Columbus'...but the system still can work. So making anything happen under such circumstances is a bit of a moral victory. Which appears to be all the Blue Jackets can muster right now.

I've warmed considerably toward Todd
Richards but still don't see him as
more than a caretaker.

2. How's that new coach? - I've now had a chance to watch healthy parts of two Todd Richards-coached games, and here's my take based off of what I've seen: He's probably a better coach than Scott Arniel and seems to get the players to work harder. Still, he's 2-5-1 as interim head coach. Not a fantastic bounce. You can chalk that up to the M*A*S*H unit that is the CBJ injured reserve right now if you want, but I still buy the philosophy that of all the major sports, hockey is the one where raw effort yields the biggest returns and can actually swing games your way. And the games still are not falling into the win column. So while I appreciate his effort right now and find his post-game presser candor refreshing (albeit not as darkly entertaining as this), he hasn't shown me that he's the long-term answer as head coach.

2a. We interrupt this game recap for a more expansive thought - In contrast, Claude Noel had at least as bad a roster by the time he inherited the Blue Jackets from Ken Hitchcock. He squeezed a 10-8-6 record out of them - and that includes the team that remained after the trade deadline. Noel also had a firm grasp on the locker room and ideas on how to address them, as he told the Dispatch back in November when he and his Winnipeg Jets came to town:

“I would have liked to have been given the opportunity to keep the job, because I felt like I had a leg up on that situation, Noel said, referring to the chronic losing in Columbus. “I knew the situation deeply, to its core. They felt that would be a disadvantage. It came up three or four times in my interviews, and I disagreed every time. I still disagree.

“I knew that team. They may not have liked the music I was going to play. But we were going to give them the music. It might not have been pleasant. But I feel I knew what was at the core of what it would take to get that team going in the right direction."

Noel now has the Jets, which has a roster largely made up of of the woeful Atlanta Thrashers, at 22-22-6. His team isn't setting the world on fire, but they're only five points out of the eighth playoff spot.

More and more, I'm thinking that passing on Claude Noel was a huge whiff by Scott Howson. Watching Richards just reinforces that feeling.

3. The top of the 2012-13 shopping list - Fox Sports' Bill Davidge pretty much called it: The first and fourth goals were Sanford softies. While he's the best that Columbus has right now (especially now that the snakebit Mark Dekanich got injured again), he's just not NHL starter material.

Brett Lebda in happier times.
(It was this or raising the
Cup as a Red Wing...)

4. The road to redemption - As a fellow Notre Dame alum, it did my heart good to see Brett Lebda score one for the good guys. He was morphed into a running joke by the Toronto fanbase when he apparently - ummm - underperformed. I was a bit stunned to see him placed in the top pairing with Fedor Tyutin, but he hasn't played any worse than his new teammates. Yeah, I know...set that bar high, DBJ. [rolls eyes]

5. One more day until margarita time - I checked, and all but one flight left Tampa-St. Pete's airport by the time that the game was over. The one that didn't leave was delayed by four hours. That means that unless you're a CBJ'er who is lucky enough to ride Rick Nash's charter to whatever beach he chooses, you're hanging out in a hotel in Tampa tonight. Crocodile tears, I know.

NEXT UP: You can watch Ryan Johansen in the NHL Young Stars component of the All-Star weekend's skills competition on Saturday at 7PM. Otherwise, enjoy a few days off before starting another dreaded West Coast roadie on late Tuesday night in San Jose.

Oh yeah, and the 1,000th DBJ blog post tomorrow. I hope you enjoy it.

Guest post: On that "Occupy Nationwide" thing

2012-01-24T17:20:00.001-05:00

[Guest poster Mark Erickson (@RedditCBJ) had this to say about the scuttlebutt of the day...]

After last night's 4-1 loss in Nashville, a growing number of CBJ fans have been tweeting that they want to organize a protest on Saturday at 2pm outside of Nationwide Arena. Among their primary complaints is that they are tired of 11 years of losing and that Mike Priest and Scott Howson need to be fired.

There are a few things here that don't make a lot of sense to me:

What's going on Saturday at 2pm? Absolutely nothing. Not a single thing. There are no games on the schedule for this weekend because of the All Star Game in Ottawa on Sunday. The skills competition starts Saturday at 7pm. Most NHL personnel use this time to take a breather and to maybe take a vacation. For all intents and purposes, Nationwide Arena will be empty.
The Blue Jackets ownership group met on January 16th. Rumored to come out of this meeting is that both Mike Priest and Scott Howson's jobs are safe. Per Puck Rakers these fans are protesting for something that is clearly not going to happen until at least next season:
Priest and Howson are said to have sold the ownership group on a plan that includes potentially significant changes before the 2012-13 season, but not the front-office and roster overhaul many within the organization and around the NHL believe is needed to simply get the franchise on par with the rest of the league.
If it's "change" that these fans are looking for, Howson has stated numerous times that they intend to be very active at the trade deadline. The biggest black mark on Howson's record, Steve Mason, is speculated to have played his last (or close to it) game as a Blue Jacket. It sounds as if the team is going to attempt to either trade him by the deadline or waive him if they can't find any buyers. With the #1 overall draft pick on the line it's just as easy to lose games in front of Mark Dekanich as it is Steve Mason. If everything goes according to this plan, it sounds as if the Blue Jackets will look significantly different in March than they do right now.

After combining those three points, this protest makes less and less sense. Are the fans mad that we lost yet another game in Nashville? While I can't imagine any fan likes to lose, losing is probably the best thing this team can do right now in hopes of locking up the #1 pick in the draft. Would they rather see this team win 75% of the rest of their games only to pick 5th in the draft? Draft analysts are projecting the top 3 prospects to be sure NHL talent with a big drop off after the #3 pick. The Blue Jackets have had too many #4-#8 picks that didn't pan out.

If there was ever a time for a protest it was back in November when every other team with a mediocre record (some with over 0.500 records) was firing their coach and the Blue Jackets continued to lose at near record pace. If there was a time to protest, it was when the Blue Jackets blew 4-1 and 5-2 leads in Nashville, playing prevent defense for the last 30 minutes of the game. Or giving up 4 goals in the 3rd period on New Years Eve to the Capitals by coming out in prevent defense. These were signs of major coaching issues while Howson was saying "Coaching is not an issue." If you wanted to protest this team, that was the time. Since then, coach has been fired and the organization seems to be working on a plan to make this team a contender again.

Are these fans hoping their wish will be granted and a new GM will be brought in a month before the trade deadline? Do you trust a new GM (not many veteran GMs available and it seems Craig Patrick is content in his advisory role) to come in and handle the future of this team mid-season with only 1 month to prepare? Even if that's what you want, ownership has already decided to let Howson & Priest stick around to handle the trade deadline. If you're dead set on protesting this team, the time to do isn't on a Saturday afternoon during the all-star break in the midst of potential sweeping changes. If you want to protest, wait until after the trade deadline, take a few games to evaluate the changes made. If after the dust has settled you're still angry then protest all you want. But if you really want to be effective, start it at 5pm before a home game, not on a Saturday afternoon when no one is home. A few games come to mind: Feb 28th vs DET if they really screw up the deadline or March 11 vs STL if the changes aren't working out. Do I think the protests will be effective either way? No, not really. Ask Detroit Lions fans how the "Millen Man March" turned out... (hint: It was ~ 2 years after that before Matt Millen was finally fired).

If you really want your voice to be heard, don't protest, don't wear a bag over your head to the game... speak with your wallet. Quit buying tickets. If you have season tickets, sell your tickets or give them away so no new tickets are bought. If you want your voice heard by the folks on the business side of the Blue Jackets, you need to speak to them in a language they understand.

DBJ's 5 Thoughts on Game 48: Nashville

2012-01-23T23:20:00.000-05:00

Steve Mason - Not the Solution

Tonight the Columbus Blue Jackets fell to the Nashville Predators 4-1. As bitter as the taste is in my mouth, I'll confess that the better team won. Although many of us are fond of carping about the amount of money spent this year vs. the results seen, keep in mind the CBJ did not ice a $62 million dollar team tonight. I think tonight's roster would have made the league minimum. Anyway, it doesn't matter to Nashville, they beat the pricey lineup before too. Although that is the lineup that beat them at home, and one of the last few times that lineup was on the ice. Meh. That and a nickel ...

1. Turn overs in the low slot - No, the Preds did not win the game on the Power Play, like Rimmer said. The CBJ lost the game with brutal turnovers in the low slot, allowing Mr. Underwood to bury a beauty early, and Matt Halischuk (huh??) to bury one late. Honestly I thought the latter was one he just threw at the net and got lucky, but somehow, the three BlueJackets repeatedly coughing the puck up contrived to give him the space to make a pretty good shot off a spin move, and go top shelf blocker side on Mason. Mason has to take the low shot on that blind spin move, so not much of a chance there. Also Mason had no chance on Mr. Underwood's shot.

2. Steve Mason - Mason, as earlier in the year, was not the problem, and not the solution. He was hung out to dry on a couple of turnovers, the first power play goal was 3 players, Weber, Mr. Underwood, and whoever was setting the highly effective screen, against Mason (I couldn't catch their number). Mason stopped Weber's shot, but the rebound went right to Mr. Underwood for his second goal. Theoretically, there were up to four BlueJackets involved in this play. None of them were around the three Nashville players however. The last goal was a nice deflection in front of the net by Hornqvist.

Its time to start refocusing our thoughts about Mason. For the rest of this year, and next year, he will make an adequate, and very young back up goal tender. Obviously, Sanford has taken over the starting job this year, and we will need to acquire a starting goal tender in the off season. Mason started this game out pretty solid, really started scrambling after the first goal, and then settled down to play some pretty good hockey for the second, and most of the third period. Its clear that he does not have Nashville's defense playing in front of him.

3. Penalty Kill/Penalties - Look, let's keep the record straight. The referees did not cost the CBJ this game. The bad turnovers cost them the game. That said, there were some pretty BS calls tonight. The make up call on too many men late in second in particular. And the call on Dorsett, ignoring the hook that set Door's penalty up. That said, kill the doggone penalties. AND, score on the Power Play!! The CBJ had several opportunities on the power play, and actually looked pretty good, but could not solve Rinne. In that sense, the goal tending was the difference, in that Nashville's goal tender kept us off the score sheet, in spite of some pretty good shots taken on our power play opportunities.

And, what makes me even more grumpy, is that I had this wicked good rant all lined up about playing Nash on penalty kill, only to have Richards dump him out on the PK for the last Nashville power play, and Suter promptly lofts a soft shot past him that gets tipped in for the goal. GRRRR. Ah what the heck, why waste a good rant. Here it goes (for those with sensitive hearing, please cover your ears, there will be some shouting):
HEY RICHARDS!! YOUR HOMEWORK OVER THE ALL STAR BREAK IS TO WATCH TAPE FROM 2008-09 WHEN NASH WAS ON THE PK, AND WAS A HIGHLY DISRUPTIVE FORCE!! IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A GOOD IDEA TO PLAY HIM AT THE END OF THE SECOND PERIOD WHEN THE DOGGONE GAME WAS STILL TIED!!

Ah. I feel better now.

4. Brett Lebda - Played his first game as a Columbus Blue Jacket. He didn't look too bad, and with a little time to get acclimated, he may be a real asset. The veteran presence will not hurt our young blue line at all. He might not have been good enough to make Nashville's defense, but we are talking about the CBJ here. He might end up being one of our better defensemen. Funnier things have happened.

5. Nashville takes the series - 5-0-1, Nashville wins the 2011-12 season. Two of the games, Nashville won fair and square, these last two. They beat us in the home opener in a tight game, to launch the death spiral. We won the big one in November, finally breaking the long losing streak. And in the other two, in classic Scott Arniel style, we skated their butts right off the ice, only to fold in the last 8 seconds at home, and lose in overtime, and then to fold after lighting them up on 5 minute major penalty (which has served to artificially inflate our power play totals ever since), and then folding to lose the game in Nashville. Scott Arniel was not on the ice for either of those debacles. But its his job to have the team be confident, and to manage the end of those games so we come out with a win. He did not do so, and those last second losses had to factor large into the decision to move on without him.

Our defense of our lottery pick remains strong. Tomorrow, Tampa Bay.

GO JACKETS!!

DBJ's 5 Thoughts on Game 47: Detroit

2012-01-21T22:38:00.000-05:00

Nikita Nikitin played a very solid game tonight.

Tonight the Columbus Blue Jackets succumbed to the Detroit Redwings in a shoot out 3-2. Detroit won their 16th straight home game. They are playing pretty good hockey, but you need a little luck for something like that. And good goal tending. Jimmy Howard is playing very well, and is a very solid goal tender. That's why his wife was the third star of the second match between these clubs, for having a baby right before the CBJ win, and keeping Jimmy out of the game. The Jackets played well, but also defended their lottery position from the plunging Oilers. Now for the thoughts!

1. Nikita Nikitin - Nikitin was having a great game. He scored on the power play, and was playing a very solid defensive game. Was, that is, until inexplicably, Henrik Zetterburg pushed him from behind, causing Nikitin to go HARD into the boards. He did not return to the game, and it will not be shocking if he is seriously injured. Zetterburg drew a 5 minute major and a game misconduct. It was not a hard hit, but Zetterburg pushed him from behind, and the push is likely the difference between a hard hit, and being hurt. Wings fans will whine about it, but this isn't PeeWee hockey, so there is no stop sign on Nikitin's jersey to remind Zetterburg not to hit from behind. That said, the notion that supplemental discipline is appropriate is absurd. If Shanny reviews this, I will politely step aside and let the Wings fans rip. The penalty was appropriate, but that's all it needs to be. For the CBJ, another tough injury. Still no word on the severity of the injury.

Curtis Sanford

2. Curtis Sanford played well enough to win tonight. A bad bounce off the notorious boards of Joe Louis Arena causes the game to go to overtime. He stopped 29 of 31 and had a save percentage of .935. Very well done Sandman!

3. Ryan Russell scored a real nice, crash the net goal, to get the CBJ on the board first. RyRuss has been playing very solidly. It was a very important goal in this game, as the 'Wings would come back and score a real good 'hard working' goal by Niklas Kronwall. Kubalik tried to knock him off the puck, but he gathered it, cut to the high slot, and put it top shelf on the far side. Not a lot Sanford could do about that one. Russell played a strong game in 14:13 of time on ice.

4. A Solid Game - The CBJ actually looked pretty solid tonight, unlike some of their performances earlier in the year. The Redwings will put some pressure on you, and they handled that well. They didn't put huge pressure on the Wings, (no shots for a long time at the end of the second and beginning of the third periods). But they handled the Wings pressure pretty well, even after Nikitin went out. They just fell short. Which is the difference between winning teams and losing teams, they don't seem to find that way to win. Given the folks out of the lineup with injury, this was a good outing. Clitsome had a pretty rough outing, with several giveaways in the first period. He did seem to settle down some as the game went on.

5. John Moore continues to play very solid hockey in an escalating role on this team. If he continues this trajectory into the next year and beyond he looks to be a fine NHL prospect. Last year he seemed lost in the NHL. This year he looks at home. He is a real bright spot in this disaster of a hockey season.

All in all, a pretty good game experience to watch, with the novelty of watching Zetterburg get tossed from the game. Now there's somethin' you don't see every day!

GO JACKETS!!!