I'll skip the "Little Brother" blog pieces

The Metropolitan Division: Trendy, provocative, cutting edge.  The Blue Jackets join the ranks of the formidable Metro Division of the Eastern Conference for the 2013-2014 NHL season.  The CBJ fan base and bloggers are eager to prove the Jackets worth as the team makes a long awaited transition to the Eastern Conference.  Many Blue Jackets bloggers are proud to stand up for their team, oft maligned by cruel hockey jokes, and start a little chirping to the Metro division fans and bloggers.  As the self proclaimed King of Snark, I approach this first season in the East with a healthy dose of humility.

Remember the last time we ran our mouths about
how awesome we were?

Ben Kingsley would want us to
show a little humility.

The Blue Jackets will be the only team in the Metro division without a single banner of NHL accomplishment hanging from the rafters of their home arena.  They join Washington in the Metro and Ottawa, Florida, and Buffalo in the Atlantic as the only teams in the East without their name stamped on Lord Stanley's Jello mold.  While I can't abide the baseless trolling of the Blue Jackets or their loyal core fan base, I will not be participating in the "Unaccomplished Little Brother Syndrome" mantra of tweets and blog posts.  I will not point out your team's shortcomings to feel better about mine.  I will not insist the CBJ finish third in the division based solely on anecdotal stats, a Vezina season, and warm-fuzzies.  However, Expect a full-out blitz on any Metro bloggers that come around here bad-mouthing the loyal CBJ fan base.  But realistically, I will not let 10 weeks of solid hockey in the truncated 2013 season give me, or my opinions of the CBJ, a sense of entitlement in the East.  Like my father used to say, "Let your stick to the talking."  And by that he meant for me to keep my mouth shut, play hard, and score goals - not slap people upside the head with my MacLean curved Titan.


After a solid finish to last season, I feel the Blue Jackets have rightfully earned a temporary reprieve from the brunt of the "worst team in hockey" jokes and tweets.  If you still tell those jokes about the CBJ, you're a single 18 year old punk recently cut from your midget team or an exceedingly entitled Cherry disciple from the sod farms of western Canada.  Despite their strong finish, I don't pretend the Blue Jackets are anything other than the least decorated team currently playering in the NHL.  But I am proud to be a Blue Jackets fan. I am proud that the organization has backed up talk of winning with installing a hockey ops management team that is capable of doing just that. 

Me, when CBJ bloggers gush about how
undeniably awesome the Jackets will be in 2013-14

For the time being, I will refrain from channeling my resentment of ridicule in the form of blog posts or tweets that make me sound like that whiny little brother.  While they may seem like the Broad Street Barbies recently, there are back-to-back Stanley Cup champion banners hanging in Philly.  Washington may not have won a cup, but their rafters are draped with division and conference champion banners.  The Hurricanes may have won that "Big Tournament" and adorn their Zambonies in John Deere livery, but they've had a Stanley Cup parade.  However, for the first time, EVER,  I am confident in the Blue Jackets' ability to play well in the Metro division.  I expect the team to break though the Metro Division, as Ian Fleming once put it, "like a brick through a plate glass window."  The strong finish to the end of last season has given confidence in this team's ability to finally be a relevant franchise in the NHL.  Yet I don't feel entitled to bandy about the team's PROLONGED coming of age in the NHL until they actually get a little nookie with their date in the playoffs.

While I look forward to a new crop of mouth-breathers reminding me how awesome the 1991-1992 Penguins were, I will bide my time and not gush about how theoretically awesome the Blue Jackets will play in the East (no matter that I think they will).  I will longingly wait for the time when the Penguins bloggers write about the shame of having their arena overrun with a mob of Blue Jackets fans.  I won't squawk about another team's shortcomings because last I checked, the Blue Jackets haven't done much other than show some potential recently.  And while potential is the dirtiest word in all of sports, the CBJ's potential is real and I feel very confident investing in it as a Jackets fan this season.  I am looking forward to the Blue Jackets giving me all the ammunition I need to take the fight to the Eastern conference blogsphere.  Then it's on like Donkey Kong.

Go Jackets!