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

The Hitchcock Restoration

A Columbus Blue Jackets Civil War Logo

Ken Hitchcock was coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets from November 22, 2006 to February 3, 2010.  He is the winningest coach in Blue Jackets history, compiling a record of 285 G, 126W, 123L, and 36OTL.  Depending on how you fall out on your view of the shootout, he is the only coach in CBJ history to have a winning record.

In my last post I made the assertion that although many names had changed, the talent level of the team plateaued at about the 2003-04 level.  As evidence for that, I point to Ken Hitchcock's coaching record.  Prior to coming to Columbus, as a head coach he had never coached a team in the NHL for the entire year and not made the playoffs.  That is, until he coached the 2007-08 CBJ squad.

Don't get me wrong.  I think he was kind of fond of that team, because he believed that the team had maxxed out.  That they had given him everything that they had.  But it wasn't enough, they simply lacked the talent to be a playoff team.  But I am jumping ahead.

Ken Hitchcock's coaching career for the CBJ served as a bridge between two General Managers, Doug MacLean and Scott Howson.  As such, Coach Hitchcock holds a very important place in CBJ history.

On the Cooke cheap shot

I neglected to mention Matt Cooke's hit on Fedor Tyutin in last night's game recap.  Apparently I was the only person in North America to do so.  Never one to shy away from the big topics, however, I'll dive in (belatedly) and offer my $.02.

First, why didn't I mention it?  Two things:

1. I was distracted at the time - taking care of the Dark Blue Toddler - and did not see Cooke leave his feet.  If I had seen it, I probably would have boiled over as well.
2. More pertinent to my thinking, however, is that Tyutin got back up.  Tyutin not only got up but kept playing, finishing both the shift and the game.  That suggested to me that the hit wasn't THAT bad. Strapping Young Russian Bear, he is.

I know my logic is a tad twisted and seemingly rewards the drama queens among the NHL elite, but that's how I looked at it at the moment.  Honestly, I was more concerned that Derick Brassard was going to pop his shoulder out again in the post-hit scrum between Brassard and Cooke.  The perils of distracted hockey viewing...

As for the hit itself, I think the photo above says it all. Cooke launched himself off the ice and into Tyutin's numbers.  You don't do that.  You especially don't do that when you have The Taint as an NHL cheap-shotter.  

Game 42/Los Angeles: My Take

The Columbus Blue Jackets started off the second half of the 2010-11 campaign with a 6-4 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center.

I gave in to fatigue after the end of the second period - these 10:30PM starts are just brutal - so my catching up after waking up tells me that there may have actually been two games last night.

For the first half, the main highlight was wunderkind forward Matt Calvert's first goal.  While not exactly a Davidgian "Goal Scorer's Goal," it offers proof that keeping your nose for the puck yields benefits.  Wisdom for the entire squad from the mouths of babes...




Past that, there really was nothing meaningful to discuss.  The Kings - who themselves are reeling through a slump - pretty much had their way with the CBJ.  And Mathieu Garon proved that while he's a good backup goaltender, he can't carry the load with a couple "goals he'd like to have back."

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 36/Minnesota: My Take

The Columbus Blue Jackets finally shed their notorious "third jersey curse" last night with a 4-3 shootout win over the Minnesota Wild in front of 14,454 fans.

I'm going to temper my enthusiasm a bit with this win.  After all, it's two teams at the back of the "Western Conference" pack struggling to keep from falling further behind the pack.  But it was two badly-needed points, and we can't overlook that important fact.

Scratches last night were Rusty Klesla, Jake Voracek and Derek Dorsett.  Interesting collection in the press box. Rusty is leading the team in plus/minus, Voracek is one of the few consistent top-two liners and Dorsett is perhaps the CBJ's prototypical "energy" player.  One could surmise that the roster shuffle was somehow related to the one-on-one meetings that coach Scott Arniel had with a number of CBJ players over the course of the day.  Whether the Chris Clarks and Mike Commodores of the world lobbied their way onto the ice, or whether the aforementioned trio talked their way off the gametime roster, I have no idea.  Or, perhaps, it had no impact whatsoever.

One guy who came down from the press box with a vengeance was Fedor Tyutin.  Almost seven minutes into the third period, Tyutin made a rocket shot from the point that no one saw coming:



He also was huge on another late rush opportunity. For someone who many thought was totally incompatible with this puck possession style of play, Tyutin may still have some rough edges...but he's picking it up as the season moves along.

Who stays? Who goes?

Interesting little tidbit from the Dispatch guys today on Twitter:

[The Columbus Blue Jackets] said the magic words to MacKenzie and Wilson: "Get a place." On 2-way contracts, but told they'll be staying w #CBJ.

First, and let's not minimize this, let's congratulate Derek Mackenzie and Kyle Wilson.  Both guys are former AHL lifers who have busted their tails off to stick in the NHL and, for both guys, it's the first times in their careers that they will actually do so.  I waxed (reasonably) eloquent about Wilson after his shootout winner on Monday night, and my "Time to Step Up" piece on MacKenzie says all I need to say on him.  Presuming that the two guys perform at an NHL level, more power to them.  It's great to see merit getting rewarded, something that both Scott Arniel and Scott Howson are doing despite the strange world of the NHL collective bargaining agreement, with issues involving waivers, one-way/two-way contracts, salary caps, etc.

Pleasantries aside, let's get to the heart of the matter.  Why is the front office telling these two guys to plan on sticking around for the season at this specific moment?

Game 26/Dallas: My Take

The slumping Columbus Blue Jackets welcomed the streaking Dallas Stars into Nationwide Arena on Monday night and overcame the Stars, 3-2, in a post-overtime shootout.

This was my second regular season game in my ticket package, so my review of the night's events will take on a different tone from having actually been in attendance.  As much as I'd like you to think that a recap based off of TV is the same as one based off the in-arena experience, it isn't.  So enjoy it when you can!

Mrs. DBJ and I bundled up and headed down to Nationwide very mindful of the Buffalo and Pittsburgh debacles.  Our mood heading in was, "Please, don't let it be that bad."  Yeah, the Kool-Aid is back in the fridge and likely will stay there for a while.

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.

Time to step up: Fedor Tyutin

• Defenseman
• 27 years old, 7th year in National Hockey League
• $2,843,750 cap hit 
• 4.8% of Columbus Blue Jackets salary cap
• Contract expires at end of 2011-2012
• 2009-2010 numbers: 80 games played, 6 goals, 26 assists, 32 points, -7, 49 penalty minutes, 22:31 avg. time on ice

Less fatigue means more shutdown play from Fedor Tyutin

How can my 2009-2010 Columbus Blue Jackets Most Valuable Player step up in 2010-2011?

Simple.  Play less.

It seems counterintuitive to say that the way your best player can be better is to play less, but remember what I said:

He took the hard assignments on a near-permanent basis (perhaps most notably playing a significant role in shutting down Alexander Ovechkin in the closing days of the season) and logged minutes at a pace that surely put him past the point of fatigue. That fatigue led to his making the occasional painful mistake that would elicit howls from the CBJ faithful. But can you blame him when he's playing nearly a third of every game? At least he was healthy enough to be in a position to take blame!

So here's my logic: Fewer minutes = less fatigue = more effective.

The Dark Blue Jacket's 2009-2010 CBJ Most Valuable Player: Fedor Tyutin

In a year of incredible frustration and disappointment for the Columbus Blue Jackets, it was strangely easy for me to pick out a Most Valuable Player for 2009-2010.  My choice for MVP is defenseman Fedor Tyutin.  

There's always a discussion about what the MVP really means.  Is the MVP the best player on the team?  If so, that would be the Most Outstanding Player - an award in some tournaments.  For the Blue Jackets, the MOP is Rick Nash, hands down.  He's the straw that stirs the drink in Columbus, scoring goals and setting up the ones he doesn't put in the back of the net himself.  He's the Gold Medal Olympian, the Captain, the Face of the Franchise.  He's Captain Columbus - and he had a decent year considering the mess that his team had to suffer through.  He still scored 33 goals, 34 assists and 67 points over 76 games.  None too shabby.

But this isn't a blog about the Most Outstanding Player.  It's about the Most Valuable Player.  It's about the player whose presence, whose participation was simply invaluable to the Columbus Blue Jackets this season. And that player was Fedor Tyutin.

Game 70/Edmonton Oilers: Happier Thoughts

Here are your highlight's from last night's 5-3 win against the Edmonton Oilers:

Although this game wasn't on Fox Sports Ohio or Versus, maybe you caught the CenterIce feed. If not, the Dispatch always has excellent game wrap-ups that give details of how the goals were scored and such.Check out the one for last night's game here (honestly, I prefer the ones not written by Arace, but I'll take what I can get).

The worst part of the game last night was that Hejda was injured after playing only four shifts. He apparently sprained his right knee and will likely be out for the rest of the season. Because of Hejda's injury, Paetsch switched from playing LW to D. He somehow managed to finish the night an impressive -3. Brassard, Pahlsson, Umberger, and Voracek were tied at -1. Paetsch bounced around pairings and made me worry every time he was on the ice. [Update: Apparently Paetsch was also frustrated with his play. I didn't notice is but one #CBJ twitter says that he broke his stick after an Oilers goal. Lots of stick smashing going on: after the empty netter, Ryan Whitney smacked his stick against the glass.]

The most exciting part of the game (for me) was that Marc Methot got his second goal of the season. As leeauer on twitter says... "you don't leave Marc Methot uncovered"! With his goal the Jackets were up 3-1, but then goal scoring went back and forth between the two teams. With 12:15 left, I admit, I was worried that "Jackets time" would begin and somehow the Oilers would come out on top. I am pleased that that didn't happen.

All sorts of significant/notable milestones were reached last night, including Fedor Tyutin, who has now played in 400 games. He also tied his career high for assists with 25, the number he had last year in 82 games. Last year he had 34 points and right now he has 30, so look for him to set a record there, too. Derek Dorsett had the first multi-point game of his career last night with his two assists, on the fourth and fifth goals, scored respectively by Huselius and Vermette. Those two men had a heck of a night last night. Vermette now has 55 points after getting three last night with his empty-net goal and two assists. His previous season high was 53 during the 2007-2008 season when he was with the Ottawa Senators. He had 5 shots on goal and won 16 of 26 faceoffs. Huselius had a four point night with one goal and three assists, four shots on goal, and finished +3.

Jared Boll fought Theo Peckham, and even though Boll went to the ice first, he definitely won that fight. Thankfully Boll seems to be okay despite smacking the back of his head against the ice.

I do feel a bit bad for Oilers goaltender Devan Dubnyk, who is 0-8-2 in his NHL career. He is huge though! 6'6". But the Blue Jackets did bring his goals-against average down!

Thanks to Dispatch Writer Aaron Portzline who found out who the hard hat winner was for last night's game. Mike Commodore received the hat, who protected Mason's net when Mason himself couldn't. Also, Garon got the hard hat after the 2-1 win over the Thrashers on 3/11 and Vermette got it after the 5-2 win against the Ducks on the 9th. Here's the video of Commodore's sweet moves in case you don't feel like watching the entire highlight reel above!

Next up: the Minnesota Wild on Friday. Yours truly will be in Nashville on Saturday for the Blue Jackets game, so be sure to check back here for a report on how that went, or at least some photos!

Methot goal photo: Jamie Sabau/NHLI via Getty Images

Photos of Boll and Huselius: AP Photo/Jay LaPrete

10 Thoughts about Game 34: Minnesota*

1. Despite only the crowd in the arena actually watching the game (with the rest of us proles listening on radio, hence the asterisk next to this game), the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild appeared to play an NHL-regulation hockey game.  Minnesota won, 2-1.

1a. The loss drops the CBJ to 14-14-6, still at 34 points and now in 13th place in the Western Conference.  That's 5 points below playoff contention and 3 points above the conference cellar.  Not a lot of room for error.

1b. Here are your highlights....oh, no video.  Hmmm.  In it's place, let's pause and review some of the basic rules of hockey:

10 Thoughts about Game 11: Phoenix

1. The 6-4 Columbus Blue Jackets hosted the 6-4 Phoenix Coyotes last night at Nationwide Arena and played roughly 25-30 minutes of reasonably solid hockey.  The rest of the game made my nephew's squirt league look like NHL All-Stars. The Jackets lost, 4-1.

1a. It's been a tale of two seasons.  The Jackets built on the lessons learned in the brief playoff run last year and went 5-1.  They then lost Jan Hejda, lost their perspective and started sliding, going 1-4 over this most recent stretch.  With Pittsburgh and Washington, arguably the best two teams in a weak Eastern Conference, on the docket for Friday and Sunday, a 1-6 streak is very possible.

2. Contrary to a healthy portion of the CBJ fan base, I do not blame Steve Mason.  Let's analyze those goals, shall we?  (Seems fitting that the NHL posted the Coyotes feed...)

• Goal 1 (video time: 1:35) - Hanzal grabs a rebound while rushing the crease.   Mase was on his knees and made the initial low block.  The short rebound went right in front of him, and he opened his legs up to grab the puck.  Hanzal dropped it in the slightly-ajar five-hole.  
• Goal 2 (video time: 1:55) - Puck was shot wide, but Tyutin's skate ricocheted it back in behind Mason.  Not Mase's fault as he was in line with the shooter. 
• Goal 3 (video time: 3:35) - Michalek uses the power play activity on the other side of the ice to his advantage, gets a pass from another 'yote, and drops it in behind Mason.  I think that was glove side high, which Mase left wide open.  Note that the shorthanded CBJ defense bit just like Mason did, offering no backside protection.
• Goal 4 (video time: 3:55) - Mase got schooled by Lang.  Mase squared up, the angle was relatively challenging for Lang, and Lang blew the puck past Mason.  Given Mason's apparent state of mind, I'm going to guess that he mentally had punched the clock on the night.  

In my estimation, Mase was uniquely responsible for goals 1 and 4.  Goal 2 was a dumb fluke, and goal 3 was a defensive failing on the penalty kill.  With a 2-1 game, however, Mase's spirits would have been higher...and the Jackets sure had enough nice looks at LaBarbara to salvage a point if not win it outright.

2a.  If we take goaltending guru Dave Rook at his word and believe that Mason is technically sound, then the team needs to focus on the grey matter between Mason's ears and the defense that plays in front of him.  Is Mason going to win the Vezina Trophy this year?  Most likely not.  Will he be the cause for a team meltdown?  Without some help, it'll sure seem like it.

2b. I sincerely hope that Mason has shelved the idea of playing in the Olympics for Team Canada and is focussed on getting his game turned around.

3. On a team with fewer and fewer players who are positive in the +/- on the season, the Jackets had to send defenseman Mathieu Roy back to Syracuse because they risked exposing him to waivers if they kept him around too much longer.  This was a shame, as Roy was a reasonably solid d-man and would have been helpful.  

3a. This move also signals that Jan Hejda is coming back to the team soon, and that won't happen quickly enough.  The CBJ need that +8 on the season, with his settling influence, back in the lineup BADLY.

4. Kristian Huselius is a riddle wrapped in an enigma, but it's pretty clear that he doesn't have the chops to play Hitch-hockey.  That's a damning statement when you consider that he's the team's second-highest paid player with a cap hit of $4.75 million, eating up just under 10 percent of the Jackets' salary money for the year.  10 percent of the team's money going to player who plays as erratic as Juice?  Not wise.  

4a. As a counterpoint, Antoine Vermette, with a $2.7265 million cap hit, is really playing quite well.  He's driving to the net, working well with his linemates - especially Jake Voracek - and is around the scoring chances more often than not.  

5. Jared Boll made his obligatory appearance and got in a fight with a guy who had a longer wingspan.  Boll literally couldn't connect on nearly any of his punches, "lost" (if you really want to call it a fight), got a 5 minute major and was on the ice for a whopping 3:34 during the entire game.  Someone remind me why he's on the roster?

6. Derick Brassard started getting out of his funk - finally!  He netted a power play goal and got the CBJ out in front first for the first time in seven games.  He also had his motor running for much of the game, notching 10:20 in ice time and warranting a promotion back up to the top 2 lines.  Good to see on a whole number of levels.  I like his competitive spirit.

7. Anton Stralman put in another solid night, with 15:36 minutes on ice, a couple shots and both power play and penalty kill service.   And he comes across as eerily unflappable.  Methinks we have another Hejda in the making.

7a. Another D-Man, Fedor Tyutin, must be getting tired.  He was the Jackets' high minute player last night with 18:54 on ice, took 3 shots and only had a -1 on the night.  Almost makes the ricocheted goal excusable.  

8. I'm still not convinced that the team is missing anything significant with regards to skill or system.  More and more, I think that this is a matter of team maturity.  There is significant playoff/Stanley Cup experience on the team, but there's an even more significant number of young, young players on the squad.  Until the young players begin to realize that they need to play the system to win - and that might be subjugating themselves and their talents to play in that system - it just won't happen for the CBJ.  

8a. Even more importantly, there appears to be a lack of player leadership.  We all know that Rick Nash is the strong, silent type of captain, one who leads by example on the ice, right?  Well, leading by example last night equaled 3 shots and 2 minutes in the sin bin for 15 and a half minutes of play.  That's not good enough - he was virtually invisible!  He should expect more of himself, and he should DEMAND more of his teammates. 

8b. I won't call it a crisis in player leadership, but I won't place the blame on the coaches for what we saw last night.  Hitch has pulled rabbit after rabbit out of his hat to get this team moving in the right direction, and it's the players' responsibilities to do their part as well.  It's just not happening right now.  

8c. Do you think that Michael Peca would come back for cheap - say, Jared Boll's $743,333?

8d. To their credit, alternate captains R.J. Umberger and Mike Commodore both tried to get the team going.  Commodore ran Hanzal after the early goal (and got penalized), and Umberger picked a fight in the crease with one of the 'yotes.  There is veteran play, but are the youngsters catching on?  The lack of fight in the team after the Jason Chimera hit in Los Angeles was downright scary.  Where's the fire?  

9. I usually don't talk much about the other guys, but Jason LaBarbara was incredible out there last night.  As mentioned earlier, the Jackets had a handful of quality shots - all but one turned away by the Phoenix backup.    As we CBJ fans know what good goaltending is and haven't seen it on our side in a while, it's only fair to offer compliments where we see it from the other side.  

10. Recycling a post from just under a month ago, It's All About Desire.  For some strange reason, I think I'll be going back to this well a few times over the next month or two...

Next up, a Malkin-less, 10-2-0 Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night.  I am on record with friends in predicting that the Pens will drop between 7 and 9 goals on the Jackets on the presumption that the Jackets won't get the Hitchcock gospel.  With Malkin out, I'm predicting between 6 and 8.  I'm not being an alarmist, but I sure am being a realist.  This is one tough team against which systemic damage can get repaired.