Part V: The Dark Blue Jacket's Definitive History of the CBJ

The Howsonian Era -  The Later Stagnation Period to the New Reformation!

The Columbus Blue Jackets Cannon Logo

Arrrggghhh!  This thing has me by the throat, and the puck drops tomorrow!!  Must....blog......harder....    OK, ok, focus.

We last left this tale at the end of the glorious 2008-09 season, when the Columbus Blue Jackets lifted the playoff stigma from their resume, and made the post season for the first time.

By virtue of their strong showing, they picked 21st in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, selecting Defenseman John Moore.  In the off season they parted ways with Freddy Modin, Michael Peca, and Jason Williams.  Optimism was high, the pundits largely picked the squad to finish where it had the previous year, much as they are picking the 2011-12 CBJ to finish where they did last year (shocking newzzzz!)

Should I stay or should I go? Part I: The Forwards

[Campbell's brand-new series, getting a jump-start on the looming offseason...I'm posting while he gets up to speed with the Blogger interface. - DBJ]

Over the next couple weeks I will be doing an in depth examination of the upcoming free agents of the Columbus Blue Jackets and whether they should return or not.

PART 1 – FORWARDS

Chris Clark

RW #71

Age: 35 Ht: 6'0” Wt: 196 lbs.

Acquired: Via trade with Washington Capitals

Current Salary: $2,633,333

Status After Season: Unrestricted Free Agent (UFA)

The former captain of the Washington Capitals was acquired in the 2009/10 season along with defenseman Milan Jurcina in exchange for perpetually off-side left wing Jason Chimera. Clark was mainly acquired to add leadership to the locker room, something the team was deemed to be missing after the retirement of Michael Peca following the 2008/09 season. While Clark started off the year extremely well, nagging injuries and age seem to have caught up with him and he seems unable to stay healthy enough to play a bottom six role. It is impossible to determine the effect Clark has had in a leadership role, however it seems that Rick Nash and R.J. Umberger are the leaders of this team.

I can't see Howson offering Clark a contract, and if he did it certainly would have to be one that included a substantial pay cut. His numbers and injuries just have not allowed Scott Arniel to find a solid role for him, and even when not hurt he has often been a healthy scratch. Springfield is teeming with gritty wingers that can pitch in points every now and then, so my guess would be Clark is allowed to walk.

Game 74/Phoenix: My Take

In their last 10PM start of the 2010-2011 season, the Columbus Blue Jackets lost, 3-0, to the Phoenix Coyotes in front of 215 people at Jobing.com Arena.

Word is that Rick Nash and R.J. Umberger held a closed-door, players-only meeting after the game.  The DBJ blog had a mole in the room, and thus we offer:

THE TOP 10 COMMENTS OVERHEARD AT THE BLUE JACKETS' PLAYERS-ONLY MEETING

1. Rivet, Moreau, Clark, Murray, Hejda, Stralman - Out.  You're not going to be here next year anyway.

2. Guys, the season isn't over yet.  It's really OK to keep scoring.

Game 60/Phoenix: My Take

The Columbus Blue Jackets left for a week-long road trip on the right foot, dispatching with the Phoenix Coyotes, 5-3, in front of nearly 17,000 fans at Nationwide Arena.

The obvious big story is that rookie Matt Calvert, in his 20th NHL game, dropped a natural hat trick on Phoenix goalie Ilya Bryzgalov.  That makes 9 goals in 20 games.  What more needs be said?  How about this picture...instead of a thousand words:

Hats rained onto the ice for minutes after Matt Calvert scored his third goal.
(Photo from the Columbus Blue Jackets)

Observation from practice

For the first time in way too long, the Dark Blue Toddler and I ventured down this morning to Nationwide Arena to check in on the Columbus Blue Jackets' open practice in anticipation of tomorrow's tilt with the streaking (7-1-2 in their last 10 - Yow!) Los Angeles Kings.

When reached for comment about practice,
the Dark Blue Toddler stopped on the stairs to say,
"Up! Up! UP! Down! Down! DOWN! Hockey! Boom!"

The visit was punctuated by a pre-practice breakfast with DBT at the Arena District's Sunny Street Cafe on Nationwide Boulevard, where we redeemed a Groupon and he gnawed on perhaps the largest "dinosaur" pancake that I've ever seen.  (They apprently pour the batter into a 8-inch long dinosaur mold, kinda like a cookie cutter for pancakes.)  Of course, the DBT is the discriminating type, so he ate my home fries instead.  At least I got coffee.  And Sunny Street is a great way to kick off your CBJ practice morning.  Nice folks, fast service.

As for practice, I got pretty much what I've come to expect with the little man.  DBT runs the stairs and the rows nonstop (only stopping to tell me what row letter I've parked in to monitor him while he tears around sections 114 and 115), and I get about 15 minutes of actual observation during a one-hour practice.

Most notable from practice was who was NOT out there: Steve Mason.  We now know that Mase has bronchitis and a "minor" pulled groin (how such a muscle pull can be "minor" is beyond me).  With that, and no goalie callup from Springfield, we were treated to the CBJ equipment manager in net.  I think I got a taste of what the diminutive Darren Pang would have looked like between the pipes for the Blue Jackets.  Actually, the guy did OK considering they weren't pushing him too hard out there.

An early spring cleaning

First, let's sort through the chatter out of Nationwide Boulevard for the day:

Never thought I'd be using THIS graphic again...

• Center Kyle Wilson has cleared waivers.  
• Defenseman Mike Commodore was waived and, barring something entirely unforeseen, will clear.  He carries a pretty high price tag.
• Winger and Alternate Captain Ethan Moreau has been placed on injured reserve retroactive to January 4.  
• Forward Matt Calvert has been called up from the AHL Springfield Falcons.  Coach Scott Arniel says that Calvert will play on Friday night against Anaheim.
• Both Wilson and Commodore are skating with the CBJ in California today.
• Other bits and pieces - This blog entry by Jeff Little perhaps does the best job I've seen in tying up the loose ends.

It's clear that something is afoot in Blue Jackets land.  Or maybe a couple of somethings.

The boiling point

When Doug MacLean was frog-marched out of Columbus, one of the many grievances aired about him was his oft-frantic approach to personnel moves.  I won't admit to a first-hand knowledge of MacLean's foibles as I started following the Columbus Blue Jackets when he had one foot out the door - right before Ken Hitchcock was hired.  Regardless, the terms "circus huckster" and other all-hype/no-results slurs have been tossed his way.  And it appears that trades like that for Sergei Federov were at least in part based upon desperation, not just for improving the team.  And the results were not strong, to put it gently.

[UPDATE: I just read this blog piece about the rebuilding of the NFL's Detroit Lions.  Read this paragraph, substitute Doug MacLean for Matt Millen, and I think you get a sense of where I'm coming from:

Under former GM Matt Millen, the franchise wasted roster spots on blown draft picks and lemon free-agent acquisitions. And, under the multiple coaching changes, never appeared to establish any scheme. As Millen's pokes and prods turned into desperate risks and frantic prayers, the transient, ambiguous roster fed an incessant identity crisis. One that was defined only by failure.

Does that make sense?]

Enter Scott Howson.  Our very own personnel Ice Man (or Ninja GM, depending on the jargon you use) has dropped the organizational blood pressure considerably in Columbus.  He often is loathe to make any moves at all, but he most certainly does not get rolled over when he does.  Consider Antoine Vermette for Pascal Leclaire.  Who won that trade?  Or Tyutin/Backman for Zherdev/Fritsche?

Perhaps the penultimate demonstration of the patience on Howson's part was this entire past offseason.  Staring a disastrous 2009-10 season in the rearview mirror, complete with the firing of likely Hall of Famer Ken Hitchcock and replacing him with Claude Noel, one would think that Howson would take advantage of the drop-off after the 2008-09 playoff year to move some players out, bring some in and improve the roster.

Think again.  The two major roster moves that Howson made were: 1) Claim Ethan Moreau off of waivers, and 2)  Re-sign Steve Mason.  Other than that, Howson essentially said that he liked his roster, and that while he'd like to upgrade the defense, he'd be comfortable taking this squad into the season.  And, yes, he overhauled the coaching staff.

So here we are, the week after Christmas.  Despite what still is the best CBJ start ever, the Jackets are struggling mightily to extricate themselves from a slide that has seen them win a whopping four games (including overtime/shootout winners) since Thanksgiving.  As I've written all over this blog, the Blue Jackets have demonstrated since their dismantling at the hands of the Red Wings that they are incapable of reliably beating any good NHL hockey club with this roster.  It's probably past time to start making moves to get the CBJ out of 12th place in the Western Conference and back into playoff contention.

What we love about Howson - his ability to keep his hand close to the vest until he gets a deal he knows will at least be an even trade if not a win...his willingness to stand pat rather than stir the pot up - is precisely what drives us crazy at times like this.  

Game 17/Anaheim: My Take

The Columbus Blue Jackets stared down the grim face of history on Friday night, never giving in (or giving up) against a tenacious Anaheim Ducks squad at the Honda Center.  The Blue Jackets won, 4-3, marking their first Friday win of the season.

Or was it Saturday?  I mean, the victory wasn't sealed until after midnight Columbus time.  Curse these West Coast trips...

Anyway, onto the game.  It seems like only yesterday that I wrote this:

All the CBJ will do is come into your house, track mud onto the carpet, empty your fridge, eat your chips, turn on all the lights...and send your fans home unhappy. 

That's what the Columbus Blue Jackets do this year.

And again, it rings true.  Those plucky Blue Jackets just don't seem to realize that they're supposed to lose their way through these West Coast trips, that it's the Los Angeleses and San Joses and Vancouvers who are supposed to threaten the Detroit/Chicago (but certainly not the rest of the Central Division) hegemony in the West.  This crystallized for me in the final 1-2 seconds of the game, where Corey Perry realized that his team was going to lose to Columbus and, in a fit of exasperation, hauled off and sucker-punched Antoine Vermette.

Hockey players are human, too

Perhaps it's the extended break between games, or maybe there's another reason, but today saw a couple really strong human interest pieces related to the Columbus Blue Jackets.  I tend to avoid pointing out specific pieces as "must reads" (or would they be better as "should reads"?), but you just don't get this subject matter every day.

• Capital Style: Married to the Game.  Scott Howson, Antoine Vermette and Mathieu Garon's wives discuss life as hockey spouses.  These are some very impressive women.  Mighty tolerant, too, considering the odd hours their husbands keep. 
• Columbus Dispatch: Unwelcome solitude.  Tom Reed takes some time over at the oft-quiet Ice Haus rink to see how injured players deal with being on the team - but not really on the team.  (Poor Ethan Moreau!)  If you don't get it, you'll understand once you read the article.  

Two really good articles, and definitely worth your time if your interest in the CBJ goes beyond what happens from the initial puck drop to the announcement of three stars.

Changing the culture - Inside and out

It's been a fascinating twenty-four hours in Columbus Blue Jackets land.

One day ago, the CBJ were facing the prospect of hosting the Western Conference-leading St. Louis Blues, who sported a gaudy 9-1-1 record.  The Jackets were not in a bad position per se, with an 8-5 record and an eight seed in the West, but they came off a disappointment against Minnesota that was punctuated by a deflating third period.  

Scott Howson and Scott Arniel appear to understand that the keys to
a consistent winning program don't entirely lie in X's and O's.
(Photo from the Columbus Blue Jackets)

The feeling of loathing permeated the fanbase.  Me included.  I mean, look at these quotes, from both Twitter and blogs:

• I predict a stressful game tonight.
  
• I'm still keeping some painkillers close at hand for tonight's game regardless.
  
• I must admit, going into last nights Blue Jackets game, I didn’t have a good feeling about our chances against the Blues. Over the last several years, we’ve been punked every which way but loose by that team. Now, they were coming into Nationwide with the best record in the Western Conference, riding a 7 game winning streak, and Halak was in goal.
  
• I'm man enough to admit it: This game had me scared. I honestly thought that that CBJ were going to come out and, like so many times before, melt in the face of the challenge of a big game.
  
• There weren't a lot of folks around the league who gave the Blue Jackets much of a chance in this one. Hell, there weren't a lot of folks in Columbus who gave them much of chance either (and certainly not the two guys sitting behind me on my flight to Chicago this morning). I'm not going to tell you that I did. I would classify my pregame mood as somewhat concerned.

Game 5/Anaheim: My take

(Yeah, I went there with the graphic.  It was either that or George Parros' mustache.)

In an oddly satisfying game, a banged-up Columbus Blue Jackets squad beat a banged-up Anaheim Ducks squad, 3-1, in regulation.  The CBJ could reasonably be expected to beat the Ducks.  The JacketsBlog called it a "must win," an assertion with which I initially agreed until The Hockey Writers' Jeff Little tempered the language to be a "should win."  "Should win" -- I like that.

The CBJ should have won tonight's game, and they did.

Games 1-2: My Take

Game 1: San Jose Sharks 3, Columbus Blue Jackets 2
Game 2: CBJ 3, Sharks 2 (OT)

Is is OK to say, "Thank God, it's over," in relation to the Columbus Blue Jackets' NHL Premiere games in Stockholm against the San Jose Sharks?

I never had a good feeling about this whole trip.  Too much travel (and jet lag), a screwy preseason schedule to accommodate playing in Europe, so many potential distractions, inability to move/claim players easily...in my mind, opening the season this way was a recipe for disaster.

To be fair, the team wisely used the time as a chance to do some team bonding and apparently made the most of it.  (And, like most CBJ fans, I got a kick out of how Mike Commodore was apparently goofing around with Derick Brassard all throughout the trip.)  And perhaps the most valuable aspect of the trip was the international exposure that Columbus received.  It seems as if the local sports folks got that - for the sake of central Ohio's economy, let's pray that the local economic development folks did, too.

As for the games, the CBJ largely looked like a team that was learning a new system -- against one of the top teams in the league.  Oh, we were?  Huh.  Who knew?

Watching games with mobile young'uns running around as I was means that you get bits and pieces and often miss a spot here and there.  But as I saw it, that was the Jackets play on the ice...bits and pieces of solid execution and a few spots where they were lost in the Lutfisk.

Time to step up: End of training camp

After the Columbus Blue Jackets' 4-3 win over the (hapless) Atlanta Thrashers on Saturday night, the team boarded a 757-200 at Port Columbus airport and made the flight to Stockholm, Sweden to open the 2010-2011 National Hockey League regular season against the San Jose Sharks.  And with that, training camp and the pre-season functionally ended.

Sure, the CBJ will play an exhibition game on Tuesday at 1PM EST against the Malmo Redhawks, but it's hard to consider that game as an NHL-caliber pre-season game and thus won't be counted in my statistical analysis.  The game could have merit related to individual performances, player injuries (getting hurt, coming back from injury) or chemistry developments, not to mention the rumored yellow and red jerseys.  But let's keep it in perspective - it's not NHL competition, and it's not an NHL game.

I did a mid-preseason review after the first four games, and let's continue it with the last 4.  It's a mixed bag, to be sure, but I think I can offer some spots for optimism.

OFFENSE

Team	Total Shots	Total Goals	Conversion %	Shots/Game	Goals/Game
10-11 CBJ - Full Preseason	247	25	10.12%	30.88	3.13
10-11 CBJ - Preseason games 5-8	112	13	11.61%	28.00	3.25
10-11 CBJ - Preseason games 1-4	135	12	8.89%	33.75	3.00
09-10 CBJ	2,338	214	9.15%	28.51	2.61
08-09 CBJ	2,490	217	8.71%	30.37	2.65
09-10 Washington Capitals	2,693	313	11.62%	32.84	3.82
09-10 Pittsburgh Penguins	2,688	249	9.26%	32.78	3.04
09-10 Phoenix Coyotes	2,502	211	8.43%	30.51	2.57

The obvious area for excitement is the conversion percentage - the percentage of shots that become goals. The Columbus Blue Jackets started the preseason with a conversion rate that, while not horrible, wasn't going to set the hockey world's hair on fire.  In the back half of the preseason, however, the conversion percentage hopped up a few points and rivaled the percentage of the most prolific scoring team in the NHL last season, the Washington Capitals.

Post-Minnesota thoughts (Plus 2 more)

So the Columbus Blue Jackets squeegied the Xcel Energy Center ice with the Minnesota Wild last night in what appeared to be, more or less, a battle of NHL-caliber rosters.  Surely not as exciting as the scrubs pulling out the shootout win at Nationwide this past week, but one has to remember that this is a town that revels in the glory of a (mind-numbingly boring) 70-3 Ohio State football win over MAC cellar-dwellers East Nowhere State.  So a wire-to-wire dismantling is good for the fine folks of Columbus.  Kinda cleanses the pores, if you will.

As for the game performance, I was like everyone else and had to listen live on radio.  (And I have Insight for my cable now, meaning I didn't get to watch the replay on NHL Network because...Insight doesn't carry NHL Network.  Sigh.)  My impressions, like nearly all of those who have offered online commentary of the game, thus is filtered through the eyes and words of George Matthews and Bob McElligott.  Fortunately for CBJ fans, George and Bob are pretty good at calling a game - especially once one gets used to George's awesome play-by-play quirks.  (But Bob really doesn't need to do John Madden impressions.)  I've found that I more or less agree with a lot of what they're saying, so let's take their impressions as gospel.

Sounds to me like the Sammy Pahlsson-anchored third line will be shifting from a liability to a strength this season.  Pahlsson has his game on, perhaps spurred the addition of Ethan Moreau.  Moreau also appears  to be playing well (despite my lousy call from the other Minnesota game).  Both guys had goals and assists.  This bodes well going into the regular season, but coach Scott Arniel hopefully will take caution with whomever he pairs with those two as to augment - and not break up - the chemistry that is growing.

Our bubble boys can beat Minnesota's starters

Let's get the personal stuff out of the way - this was the first actual game to which I brought the Dark Blue Toddler.  Luckily, the tickets were dirt cheap and the section (209) was pretty much empty above us in row J, so he was able to munch on Cheerios, drink milk, crawl around the (widow-maker) stairs and run back and forth across the aisles.  Oh, and eat my fries.  He lasted almost two entire periods, not bad for a 16-month-old.

And, once we bailed out, the Columbus Blue Jackets started scoring.

A Jackets team made up of a small handful of starters and a whole bunch of players on the bubble won, 3-2 over a Minnesota Wild team that was comprised of their NHL-level lineup as they had made most all of their cuts already.  That's profound, something in which the CBJ can be pleased.  Or the Wild can be downright scared.  Take your pick.

Tom Sestito's closing argument as to why he should
make the Columbus Blue Jackets roster.

As I mentioned, I was chasing my son all over section 209, so my thoughts are admittedly incomplete and based largely upon quick glances as opposed to any detailed study of what I saw.  But here's my take:

• The Blue Jackets looked really ragged, which stands to reason as the roster was assembled with green-handled scissors and scotch tape in order to accommodate all of the players sitting on the roster bubble.  This was a night of forced chemistry, of proving to the coaches and management that you can perform in this new, Scott Arniel puck possession system.
• Alternatively, you can prove that you can offer other services to the team.  Mike Blunden and Tom Sestito ended up taking this route, getting in fights.  Blunden laid the beat down on his victim, and Sestito won in an impassioned decision.  By the way, Dark Blue Toddler enjoyed cheering with the fans over the fights...not that he understood what was going on.
• There's not a lot you can tell about a team on "last chance night," so I'll keep my profound statements about the team and their adaption to this new system to a minimum.
  

Time to step up: Ethan Moreau

• Left wing
• 34 years old, 15th year in National Hockey League
• $2,000,000 cap hit 
• 3.4% of Columbus Blue Jackets salary cap
• Contract expires at end of this season
• 2009-2010 numbers (in Edmonton): 76 games played, 9 goals, 9 assists, 18 points, -18, 62 penalty minutes, 14:24 avg. time on ice

I'll just come out and admit it.  I know nothing meaningful about Ethan Moreau.  I had Center Ice last year and didn't spend much time at all watching the dreadful Edmonton Oilers.  I preferred to watch competitive hockey.  

(Really, to say that Edmonton was bad last year does a disservice to poor-performing teams.  Heck, even the Blue Jackets went 3-1-0 against Edmonton last year, and we landed in 14th place in the conference!  But I digress...)

You can read Moreau's stats as well as I can, but that doesn't tell you a lot beyond the fact that his plus-minus would have taken the green jacket for the CBJ last season but, on the "Who, us, defense?" Oilers team that he captained, he actually was one of the stronger performers.  (As a point of comparison, Patrick O'Sullivan was a -35.  Gulp.)

He's not super-expensive as a projected veteran third-liner.  And if it doesn't work out this year, he's an unrestricted free agent and both sides are free to walk away.  

So why did Scott Howson pick up Ethan Moreau when he doesn't fill any particularly pressing need at forward?  That's right, kids, leadership.  Moreau is yet another grizzled veteran/former captain brought in to right the ship of state in the locker room.  Just like Chris Clark.  And Michael Peca before that.  But this isn't the time to gripe about leadership or personnel matters - I've got Rick Nash and Scott Howson pieces to come.  Point is, Moreau clearly is projected to play a "character" role in the locker room this season.  And, speak of the devil, Nash is pretty pleased about Moreau's joining the squad:

"(Moreau) is going to be huge in the dressing room. The leadership and experience he has earned being captain for all these years with be a big boost to our young guys."