The Scientific Method

The Captain?

Last year, our President of Hockey Operations, John Davidson, and our General Manager, Jarmo Kekalainen often stated the opinion that the Columbus Blue Jackets had plenty of leadership in the locker room, and that naming a Captain was premature.  Let me be clear, I do not doubt their judgement in that.  For last year.  But for this year, I wonder.

There is a funny thing about science.  You have those hypotheses that you are able to advance prior to your experiment.  Those are called by a funny Latin term, a priori.  Those that you are unable to formulate after you have conducted your experiment are called by a funny Latin term, a posteriori.  See what happens when your parents pay for an education?

Scientific method calls for you first to identify a null hypothesis.  This, in laymen's terms, means you are an opinionated schitt head person who doesn't know what you are doing.  So, for the purposes of our current discussion, I postulate a null hypothesis that the Columbus Blue Jackets do not need a captain.  That the current leadership in the room is adequate to get the job done.

Scientific method also calls for you to articulate an alternative hypothesis.  This, in laymen's terms, means you are an opinionated schitt head person who actually knows what they are talking about.  For the purposes of our current discussion, I postulate an alternative hypothesis that the Columbus Blue Jackets should name Brandon Dubinsky their Captain, and that he will drag them into the battle whether they will or no.

As my first piece of evidence, I offer the goal scored by the Winnipeg Jets 9 seconds into tonight's contest.  Since we only score 2 goals per game, I suggest that giving one up in the first moments of the game is not such a good thing.  I postulate that Dubinsky will not tolerate that.  Therefore, he should be named captain.

In order to test my hypothesis, the CBJ's record after Dubinsky returns should be carefully scrutinized.  The record BD (before Dubinsky) and AD (after Dubinsky) should be evaluated by every fancy stat the league has available to see if he makes a measurable difference.

My a priori alternative hypothesis is that Brandon Dubninsky makes a measurable difference in CBJ performance as measured in the win column.  If the data supports such a notion, he should be made Captain.  End of discussion.

GO JACKETS!!