The Dark Blue Jacket's Definitive History of the CBJ, Part XIVB; A Calder Cup is Raised in Cleveland

Ryan Craig Receives the Calder Cup on the Jumbotron

This history has jumped around a bit lately, driven inexorably by circumstances.  The loss of Richards at the beginning of the 2015-16 season, the ascent of Tortorella, and the startling beginning of 2016-17 have driven the narrative of this history.  However, it is time to step back during this first ever 5 day bye week, and look to events after the end of the 2015-16 season that have great foreshadowing on what we have seen this year, and will see in the near future.  The events I refer to are those surrounding the startling run by the Lake Erie Monsters, the new Cleveland AHL affiliate of the Blue Jackets, to a Calder Cup Championship.

The first hint of this was the announcement of the good news in the summer of 2015 that the Blue Jackets had established an affiliation with the Lake Erie Monsters.  Notwithstanding the fact that the team was rebranded to the Cleveland Monsters for the 2016-17 season; for the bulk of this post I will refer to them as the Lake Erie Monsters, as that is the name they bore when they won the Calder Cup.  Future editions will celebrate the exploits of the Cleveland Monsters.

In their first year as a CBJ affiliate, the Monsters had a very good season, one of the best ever for a Blue Jackets affiliate.  The Springfield Falcons had made the playoffs for two years as the Jackets affiliate, and the Monsters looked to be well on the way to accomplishing the feat again when the Blue Jackets goal tending problems reached down to stir the waters of the affiliate.

The Monsters had cruised through the year, solidly competing for a playoff position.  They had a number of good players.  Josh Anderson, TJ Tynan, Michael Chaput, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Dillon Heatherington, Dean Kukan, and of course Anton Forsberg and Joonas Korpisalo as the goal tending tandem.  Finally the goal tending situation at the parent club became so dire that both Forsberg and Korpisalo were called up to the Blue Jackets, stripping the Monsters of their primary goal tending tandem.  At that point you wondered if the Jackets were cashing in the Monster's season because of the Jackets woes. 

Enter Brad Thiessen, called up from the ECHL.  Brad responded in a big way, in 22 games played, he recorded a 12-4-4 record with a sparkling 1.95 GAA and 0.929 save percentage.  Events later on might push Brad aside, but his contribution was critical to keeping the Monsters in the playoff hunt late in the season.  Then, once Sergei Bobrovsky was returned to health, a strange sequence of events occurred in the goal tending ranks.  But Brad Thiessen's contribution to the Monsters' success in mid-season cannot be understated.

While Korpisalo was leading Jackets goal tenders with 16 wins in 31 games played, with a .920 save percentage and a 2.60 GAA, Anton Forsberg was returned to the Monsters once Bobrovsky healed.  In spite of the fact that he has yet to break through at the NHL level, Forsberg returned to the Monsters and was very solid down the stretch, ensuring that the Monsters were in the playoffs in the first year of their affiliation with the CBJ.

With the Monsters on the cusp of a playoff appearance, an event occurred that continues to shake the organization's foundations to this day.  That event was the ending of the University of Michigan's hockey season, coupled with some artful work by the front office types of the Blue Jackets, the Monsters, and hockey agents.  In a bit of work that demonstrated an acute knowledge of the NHL and AHL collective bargaining agreements, Zach Werenski agreed to a amateur try out agreement, which made him eligible for the AHL playoffs.  Shortly thereafter, the Jackets and Zach agreed to his entry level contract, and things began to get interesting.

Zach Werenski with the Calder Cup

When a player comes from the NCAA to the AHL, it is often a very big jump.  The NCAA plays far fewer games, and the competition is quite different.  And all sides agreed that Zach would start at the bottom of the barrel in the AHL, and the only things he would get he would earn.  Using that simplistic assessment tool, Zach was soon a top pairing defenseman on the Monsters, because in hind sight it is easy to see that he was that good.  Watching it as it happens, there is an odd commingling of hope, desire, and what you are really seeing that can cloud the picture.  In this case, the first two things did not cloud vision; the guy was really that good.  And from there, great events flowed.  Zach Werenski played a mere 7 games in the regular season, but scored a goal, prefacing a more prodigious output in the post season.

Having said all that, it's not like Wereneski was all the Monsters had.  Oliver Bjorkstrand and Josh Anderson had really good seasons, coming off strong campaigns in the Junior ranks, and the goal tending had been solid.  They were an accomplished AHL team.  The addition of Werenski was a catalyst to make them a truly great AHL team, as we shall see.

Going into the playoffs, the Monsters saw some changes.  Sweet relief to the Blue Jackets disastrous 2015-16 season had finally come with the end of the season.  Since Joonas Korpisalo had won the NHL job over Anton Forsberg, he was given the net for the playoffs in place of the red hot Forsberg.  Korpisalo did not disappoint, as he recorded a three game sweep of the Blackhawks AHL team, the Chicago Wolves.  About this time Lukas Sedlak was starting to catch fire, and start the process of scoring his 9 playoff goals.

The 3 game sweep of the Wolves propelled the Monsters into a second round series with the Grand Rapids Griffins, the affiliate of the Detroit Redwings.  The Monsters started quickly, winning the first three games.  In the fourth game, the Monsters rapidly scored 4 goals, yet Korpisalo inexplicably gave up 5 in the last period and OT to give the Monsters their first loss of the playoffs.  In game game 5, Korpisalo gave up two quick goals, and yielded the net to Anton Fosberg as the Monsters lost their second and last game of the 2015-16 AHL playoffs. 

Anton Forsberg in the final.

From that point, Anton Forsberg went on an incredible run, refusing to yield the net, and winning the next start against the Griffins, sweeping the Ontario (CA) Reign in 4 games, and in the Calder Cup final sweeping the Hershey Bears 4 -0, an incredible 9-0 run to the championship; refusing to yield the net to his friend who had taken it from him.  During this run, Lukas Sedlak scored many more goals than he did in the regular season, Josh Anderson carried the team at times, and Oliver Bjorkstrand was lethal.

In the final game of the 2015-16 AHL playoffs, in front of a sold out and rocking Quicken Loans Arena, the Monsters and the Bears went to overtime, before Oliver Bjorkstrand recovered and scored on a rebound from a Zach Werenski shot, and the Monsters were celebrating a Calder Cup Championship in front of yours truly.  What a moment, what a great game, and what a season by the Lake Erie Monsters.

In 2016-17 we have seen Zach Werenski bring many of the same things he brought to the Monsters to the Blue Jackets, and he has contributed to making history with the parent club with The Streak.  That Zac Wereneski is a special player is exemplified by the Calder Cup, and The Streak, but you have to have a strong supporting cast to accomplish great things.

The 2015-16 Lake Erie Monsters

The 2016-17 Cleveland Monsters were decimated by the Calder Cup Championship.  Many players were lost to pro contracts in other franchises, and the promotion of Josh Anderson, Zach Werenski, and Lukas Sedlak left holes in the lineup.  Likewise, Coach Jared Bednar scored an NHL coaching position from the performance of the team.  So 2016-17 is a season of reforming for the Monsters.  Yet the Monsters of 2015-16 brought a historic championship to Cleveland, the first in 40 years, before it was soon eclipsed by a motivated Cleveland Cavaliers NBA team.  Props to the Cavs in all ways, for beating the previous year's champion, yet there will always be a part of this writer who thinks that the Cavs watched the Monsters raise a Calder Cup, get a parade, and form an unshakeable resolve that they wanted that too.  The Cavs parade was richly deserved, something to behold, and indeed did honor to the parade that preceded them.  The Calder Cup Championship of the 2015-16 Lake Erie Monsters!

GO JACKETS!!

GO MONSTERS!!

The Dark Blue Jackets Definitive History of the CBJ: Part XIVA; #Unsustainabowl

The first stage has dropped away from the Atlas V Rocket that is the Columbus Blue Jackets.  We are in that odd space in time where we are waiting for the second stage to ignite, and the heights it will propel us to are still unknown.  But we got a heckuva lift from that first stage.

The engineers at CBJ central packed that sucker full of an undefeated December and an NHL record.  When you mix those two unstable compounds, well BOOM!

As our brains try to recover from the G forces they have been subjected to, we will come to realize that some losses are an inevitable part of that drifting time while we wait for the second stage to ignite.  Will adding a little Korpisalo be the ingredient we need?  This remains to be seen.

This part of the blog is intended to chronicle the journey of the Columbus Blue Jackets.  When last we left, we were trying to determine the significance of Joonas Korpisalo’s run in goal for the 2015-16 CBJ.  Ironically, at the mid-point of the 2016-17 season we are in the same position, but not the same place.  As I write this the Blue Jackets have fallen out of first place in the NHL for the first time since before Christmas.  This in itself is worthy of note. 

But this iteration of the Blue Jackets is intent on larger goals, while having also accomplished other things of historic significance.  It is indeed a rich time to be writing about Blue Jackets history.

 

A short list of the team’s accomplishments in the first half of the season is as follows:

A.      Second longest win streak in NHL history, 16 games.

B.      First time in major North American Sports where two professional teams with win streaks of 12 games or more have faced off against one another, when the Jackets played the Minnesota Wild.  The Jackets prevail in that New Year’s Eve game.  The previous best was two 11 game streaks playing each other in the NBA (as cited by the Columbus Dispatch).

C.      Undefeated in the month of December.

The things that flow from this success are many, including a prolonged run in first place overall in the NHL. 

Setting The Stage

Following the disastrous campaign of 2015-16 the consensus for the Blue Jackets was a near bottom finish in the NHL.  The view of the team was that they were hamstrung by bad contracts, and there was a vocal contingent of the media that was loudly trumpeting that John Tortorella would be the first coach fired in the 2016-17 season.  Instead, Torts is going to the All Star game because his team has the highest winning percentage in the league. 

The only move of substance prior to the beginning of training camp was the acquisition of free agent Sam Gagner for near the league minimum to help shore up the center position.  In addition, the team had several veterans, some with pretty good pedigrees on Player Try Out (PTO) agreements in camp.  This reinforced the view from the outside that this wasn’t a very good team. 

Instead of nearly washed up veterans making the team, the thing that emerged from Tortorella’s brutal (but advertised ahead of time) training camp was a cadre of young players pushing veterans down the depth chart, or out of the league.  The Jackets routinely looked slow and ineffective in preseason games because they were skating so hard in training camp.  Their preseason record was poor compared to last year, and it seemed as if some of the fatigue carried over into the first two games of the season.

The Start

The 2016-17 Blue Jackets started the season much like the 2015-16 CBJ, by coughing up a lead in the third period to lose the opener, this time to the Bruins instead of the Rangers.    After losing the second game to the Sharks, certain people, such as this writer, were in panic mode with the thought that a repeat of 2015-16 might be in the offing.  As a result of the schedule, the CBJ got their 5 day break early in the season after those two games.  John Tortorella used that time as a mini-training camp to solidify systems.  You can talk about systems all you want, but waiting at the end of the 5 day hiatus were the powerful Chicago Blackhawks, followed by a road trip to the West Coast.

 

Shockingly, the Blue Jackets beat the Blackhawks, 3-2, and headed out west.  First stop was Dallas, a preseason pick to have a fine season, but the CBJ jumped them, and Bobrovsky garnered his first shutout of the year in the 3-0 win.  Continuing west to play the LA Kings, a game which the CBJ lost in overtime to secure a point, the Jackets had back to back games against San Jose and Anaheim.  Losing to San Jose again, and thankfully closing out that season series, the CBJ beat Anaheim 4-0, erupting for 4 goals in the first period, and shutting them down to earn Bob his second shutout of the road trip.  This allowed the Jackets to come back from the west coast, and end October with a credible .500 record at 3 wins-3 losses and 1 OT loss (3-3-1), which gave them 7 points.  No need to compare points to the previous year, as the Jackets had not yet won a game in 2015-16 at this stage of the season.

As November rolled around, the Jackets continued to hover around the .500 mark, but with some unusual signs emerging.  They beat Dallas at home in the return game for that season series, sweeping the two games with Dallas.  One of the more unusual games played in Nationwide Arena was next, as the Blue Jackets faced a hot Montreal Canadiens team that was on a 9 game point streak.  The CBJ curb stomped the Habs, scoring 3 goals in the first period, 5 goals in the second period, and 2 goals in the third period to beat them 10-0.  In one of the strangest events I ever witnessed at a CBJ hockey game, late in the third period, with the Jackets leading 9-0, the crowd was chanting “We want 10, we want 10!!” so Josh Anderson obliged the home fans to set the final score. 

The next night the Jackets traveled to St. Louis, where they lost 2-1 in OT, then came back home and beat Anaheim in OT, before traveling to play Boston, where they lost their second game of the year to the Bruins , 5-2.  The Jackets then went on a small four game winning streak by beating St. Louis, Washington and the Rangers at home, and the Capitals again on the road (and really pissing off Barry Trotz), before falling to Colorado at home in overtime.  Calgary beat the Jackets 2-0 in the next game at home, before they traveled to Florida for the back to back with Tampa Bay and the Panthers.  The Jackets won the game against the Bolts, but lost to Florida in overtime the next night.  Then the Jackets came back home and beat Tampa Bay 5-1 to close out the month of November.  As a result of all of this good play, the Jackets went 9-2-3 in November, leaving them 12-5-4 overall, with 28 points. 

This is a very nice start for the CBJ, and positions them well for the remainder of the season.  The national media is disappointed that Tortorella has not yet been fired, and is quick to point out that the CBJ can obviously not sustain this type of performance, with their scorching hot powerplay and excellent save percentage by Bob combining to give them a PDO over 100 (PDO is adding shooting percentage to save percentage), which means the pundits think this is all an illusion that will horrifyingly crash down in flames. 

Tragically for the CBJ, there is ample historical precedent for the team to horrifyingly crash down in flames in December.  In this space I have called it the December swoon, one of the best examples being the 2009-10 CBJ, which despite a hot start lost 8 straight in December to ultimately cost Ken Hitchcock his job.  However, the 2016-17 CBJ opted for another strategy.  They stomped on the gas.

The Streak

Beginning with the last game of November, a 5-1 win over Tampa Bay, the Columbus Blue Jackets launched on a historic run of winning, the likes that this franchise has never seen, and the NHL has seen only once before.  My own observation at the beginning of this time was my take away from the Bolts game.  I thought the CBJ had their way with the Lightening, and I wanted to see how they would react to some adversity.   They got some of that pretty quickly, traveling out to Colorado, and surrendering a 2 goal first period lead in the second period before Boone Jenner won it in the third.  The next night they went to Phoenix, where the CBJ poured 60 shots at Mike Smith, the Coyotes goal tender, but had to come from behind to tie the game and send it to the shootout where Curtis McElhinney prevailed over the exhausted Smith.  Then the CBJ and the Yotes got together in Nationwide Arena two days later and the Jackets won a more convincing 4-1 game.

 

After a couple of day break, the Jackets traveled to Detroit and won 4-1, before returning home to beat the Islanders 6-2.  Then they had a road trip to Northwestern Canada, where they beat Edmonton 3-1, Calgary 4-1, and Vancouver in OT 4-3.  Sweeping a Western Canada road trip is no easy thing to do.  Then the Jackets returned home to Nationwide arena, and beat the LA Kings in a shootout to split the season series with the Kings, followed by a 7-1 thrashing of the Penguins, and eking out a 2-1 win against a Montreal team that was unhappy with their earlier treatment.  This got the CBJ to the Christmas Holiday break riding a 12 game winning streak, and allowed them to ascend to first place overall in the NHL standings, an unprecedented achievement for the franchise to date.

 

By mid-December some of the pundits predictions of doom had started to turn to grudging admiration of the Jackets by virtue of what they had earned.  After the Christmas holiday, the media recognition started to snowball into a huge circus. 

After Christmas, the Jackets beat Boston 4-3, then traveled to Winnipeg and beat the Jets 5-3.  This set the stage for another historic moment in this run, as the Blue Jackets brought their 14 game winning streak to Minnesota, to play the Wild on a New Years Eve clash of streaking teams.  The Wild brought their own streak of 12 consecutive wins to the game, making this a historic confrontation.  For the first time in North American major professional sports history, 2 teams with winning streaks of 12 or more games were going to play each other with their respective streaks on the line (as reported by the Columbus Dispatch). 

In the run-up to this game, the Minnesota Wild had received a roughly equal amount of criticism about their ability to sustain the level of performance they were showing.  Since both teams had been repeatedly told by national pundits that their performance was unsustainable, the New Year’s Eve matchup was dubbed “the unsustainabowl”, a clash of two teams that were not supposed to be where they were. 

In front of a playoff like atmosphere, the Jackets jumped out to a 3-1 lead, and ended up winning the game 4-2 to push their winning streak to 15 games, and to tie for the second longest winning streak in NHL history.

This win allowed the Jackets to also go UNDEFEATED in the month of December an amazing accomplishment, allowing them to finish the calendar year with 56 points, compared to the 72 points that they achieved in all of 2015-16. 

In their next game, the CBJ faced a talented young Edmonton Oilers team who vowed to break the Jackets streak.  The Blue Jackets won that home game 3-1 to give themselves sole possession of the second longest winning streak in NHL history.

Next, they would go to Washington to play the Capitals and see if they could tie the longest win streak in NHL history set by the 91-92 Penguins of Jaromir Jagr and Mario Lemieux.  Instead, it was Washington’s night, and they skated away with a 5-0 win to finally break the Blue Jackets winning streak.  But sole possession of the second longest winning streak in NHL History, 16 games, belongs to the Columbus Blue Jackets.  For the first time the franchise splashes its name across the record books in a significant and positive way.

Since that time, some of the stresses of the streak have emerged, and Bobrovsky has had to fight off a significant illness.  The team has been playing .500 hockey as they try to put The Streak behind them.  The media circus has packed its tents and gone elsewhere chasing news, and the team has to settle down to the task of securing advantageous position in the playoffs.

 

In addition, the team has finally gone down a path it thought it would have to walk much sooner in the year, and Curtis McElhinney was put on waivers after a late collapse against the New York Rangers, and Anton Forsberg was elevated to the NHL club.  CMac was claimed by Toronto, and has already won a game for them.

In the meantime, Forsberg had one shaky outing, and was sent down.  Korpisalo looks to be the guy with a leg up on the back up competition, and has gone 1-1 so far.  We need a winning backup down the stretch here.

 

So much has happened this year, putting this history off until the summer was just not an option.  And there will be much more of a story to tell, as a playoff run seems certain for this club, barring utter disaster.

Hope Is Not A Strategy

Before I wind this down, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of Jeff Little, a long time Jackets fan, and a gifted writer.  Jeff lately wrote for our colleagues over at The Cannon, and had amazing analytical ability on top of his gifts as a writer.  Jeff’s writing often shed light on the baffling twists and turns of the Blue Jackets early years, and it was he who coined the phrase “hope is not a strategy”. 

Jeff’s insight will be sorely missed, along with his wit and wisdom.  My only solace is that the Columbus Blue Jackets sat in first place in the NHL at the time of his passing, a phenomenon that must have been pleasing to him.  We will keep you in our minds and our hearts Jeff.

Interim Summation

So, we have had to delve into the history of the Blue Jackets at an unlikely point of the season, but the need to recap this first half was overwhelming.  There is a long journey yet ahead of these young Blue Jackets, and many miles to go before they sleep.  But it will be a lot of fun!!

GO JACKETS!!

GO MONSTERS!!

Part XIII: The Dark Blue Jacket's Definitive History of the CBJ; The Tortorella Tenure Begins

Brandon Saad

When I last left this space I had gone to my happy place, the All-Star Game.  It's time now to return to the harsh reality of the 2015-16 season.  A defensive corps that was adequate for the preseason suddenly showed up as deficient once the regular season started, and a CBJ squad that had high hopes suddenly found itself the proud possessors of an NHL record, and a new coach.  The NHL record, of course, is the worst start for any team except a Rangers team that had all of its players in the military fro WWII.  For the Blue Jackets, this represented an 0 for 8 debacle that killed the season before it ever got started.  Enter John Tortorella, a stark change from the soft spoken Todd Richards. 

I confess to a degree of trepidation when Tortorella was first named.  He had seemed to become increasingly volatile in his transition from the Rangers to the Canucks, culminating in a legendary foray into the opponents locker area between periods, a stunt that got him suspended.  Tortorella seems to have gotten the message from the league, and while still brutally honest in his assessments, has stayed away from anything too colorful.  I maintain that this is a really important assignment for John, and if he flames out with the CBJ, it will really hurt his coaching career.  On the other hand, there is a body of evidence that suggests that he is precisely the correct choice for this franchise at this time. 

Make no mistake, John has his sights set on returning to the promised land, and the 2016-17 season will likely only be a step in that direction.  But I think Torts has the perspective to see where he stands across the league, and coach his team accordingly.  Keep in mind he is the winningest US coach.  This is not an accident, and Columbus is a good place for this guy to return to the heights.  But this is the perspective of the season past, not the burning pain of watching our beloved CBJ cash in a season before Halloween.  I had thought that had gone out of style with Scott Arniel.  But those die were cast before Tortorella's arrival.

When Tortorella parachuted into the hostile territory of the CBJ in early October the team was already sporting an 0-7 record.  Once Torts started, they finished the month with 2 wins, 3 losses, and 0 overtime losses (2-3-0), to finish the month of October, 2015 with a record of 2-10-0 and a whopping 4 points in the standings to show for 12 games.  To redress a deficit like that, the team would have to pull off a serious winning streak, but they seemed incapable of stringing together the serious streaks that they had shown in previous years.  The defense and the goal tending were simply not up to the task.

November was better, and the team turned in an 8-5-0 record.  Good if you did it every month but not enough to allow you to be making any kind of a serious challenge to playoff position.  Problematically, a 4-7-3 December essentially drove a stake in the heart of any nascent thoughts of a comeback to the playoffs.  As 2015 turned to 2016, the CBJ were not yet mathematically eliminated, but we're pretty much done for the year in terms of the playoffs.  The rest of the way they went 20-18-5 (January to April), essentially a .500 record when you needed a much higher winning percentage if you wanted to climb back into the playoffs.

At this point, it was going to get a little bit hard to write about this season.  This isn't the first season I sat in the stands to watch the Jackets play out the string from January through April.  For me, it is still entertainment, in spite of the mind numbing frustration.  However, once 2015 came to a close, a series of events started to make 2016 much more interesting in spite of the known lack of playoff position. 

Ryan Johansen

On January 6, 2016, the CBJ world changed dramatically when the news broke that the Jackets had traded center Ryan Johansen to Nashville for defenseman Seth Jones.  I am one of those that view this trade as a pure hockey trade.  Quality for quality.  It is true that Nashville was dealing from a position of strength, but the needs of the two organizations overlapped nicely.  Jarmo had expressed confidence in his defense at the beginning of 2015-16, and was let down horribly by the inadequacies of the group, in scoring and in defense.  So he set about making dramatic changes.  Capitalizing on the hope brought on by the drafting of Zach Werenski the previous year, Jarmo added a young defenseman with a considerable upside in exchange for our best potential first line center.  This is a trade that CBJ fans will dissect for years to come, but at present I think it will help both clubs and both players.  That makes it a good hockey trade.

This trade, however, did not rocket the Jackets higher the standings.  A 5-5-2 record in January ensured that mediocrity was the best they could hope for this year, but a funny thing was happening for the team.  Bobrovsky had gone down with a groin injury in December, attempted to return in January, hurt himself again, and didn't return until March.  In the meantime, at the beginning of January, Curtis McElhinney was injured as well.  This left the team with two call ups from the AHL, Anton Forsberg and Joonas Korpisalo in the goal.  Forsberg did not fare well in the NHL in this call up, saving a story book ending for later in the season with the Lake Erie Monsters (now Cleveland Monsters).  In the meantime, Joonas Korpisalo began to gather himself as an NHL goal tender and helped stake the team to a 7-3-3 record in February. 

The return of Bobrovsky to health pushed Anton Forsberg down to the AHL affiliate Monsters, where he began to put together a streak of fine goal tending that will be described on another day.  Don't give up on this kid as an NHL goal tender.  Korpisalo, on the other hand, started to string together some very good games for a young netminder, and played some very solid hockey, even pushing Bobrovsky to the bench on occaision. 

March was a disappointment, as the team went 4-9-0 in March, to solidify a strong drafting position.  Unfortunately, in a maddening fashion unique to the Blue Jackets, with a generational player available in the first draft slot, the CBJ went 4-1-0 down the stretch in April against some teams in full on tank mode, but finishing with a win against defending Cup Champions, and at that time favorite to repeat, Chicago. 

So there we were, another season out of the playoffs.  The CBJ finished 34-40-8, so ~6 games below .500, when you started out 0-8.  Let's face it, if you start 0-8, and have plan C in the goal for an extended stretch of the season, as an NHL team you are in deep trouble, no matter how well plan C plays.  The flame out of plans A and B are going to cost you dearly.  For success going forward, the Jackets need to see a better performance in goal. 

That is not to say that this disastrous season lies only at Bob's knee pads.  The under performance was pretty wide spread, with a few exceptions.  Boone Jenner scored more than 30 goals, recovering from an injury filled sophomore campaign.  Brandon Saad, a surprise acquisition in the off season, set a personal best in goals and scoring, a very nice performance in the unfamiliar role of playing for a loser.  Cam Atkinson continued to grow his goal scoring totals.  But other than these players, most of the group had underwhelming seasons. 

Cam Atkinson and Brandon Saad finished tied for the team lead in scoring in 2015-16, with 53 points each.  Saad scored more goals, finishing with 31 goals and 22 assists for his 53 points, while Cam went 27-26-53.  These point totals are a sharp drop and a sharp contrast from the 73 and 71 points scored by Nick Foligno and Ryan Johansen respectively in the 2014-15 season.  The only commonality between the two seasons was that Scott Hartnell finished third in scoring, with 49 points (23-26-49) in 2015-16 vs 60 points in 2014-15.  Surprisingly, Boone Jenner finished 30-19-49 for a personal best season in the NHL, which got him rewarded with a new contract.  I don't know if this is a realistic expectation for Boone going forward, but if he repeats these numbers a couple of times it could be real trouble for the rest of the NHL.

Dubinsky finished a distant 5th in goals with 17, but added 31 assists for 48 points to finish 5th in scoring.  Alexander Wennberg finished 6th, and Nick Foligno finished 7th in scoring with 37 points, just about half of the points he scored the previous year.  To call it a tough year for Nick would be a massive understatement. 

Joonas Korpisalo

Highlighting a huge problem for the Blue Jackets in 2015-16, Joonas Korpisalo, a rookie, lead the goal tenders in wins (16), save percentage (.920) and goals against average (2.60) in 31 games.  Joonas was plan C (or D) coming into the season, and illustrates the collapse of the organization's plan for the goal tenders.  Sergei Bobrovsky only played 37 games, and Curtis McElhinney played in 12.  The performance by the first two does not meet expectations, even taking injury into account.  This position MUST have a better result in 2016-17.  

Not that the goal tenders got any help from the defensive corps, especially early on in the losing streak.  They seemed to be unable to take away time and space from other players.  For the most part, if you give any NHL forward the kind of space the Jackets were giving up early on, they have a real good chance of scoring, and a lot of them did.  This is just my personal observation, and perhaps subject to dispute, but there is no disputing that they started the season unable to play defense.  Jarmo Kekalainen, when asked about his defense before the season had expressed confidence.  That confidence was misplaced, and before the year was half over Jarmo was spending his most valuable asset in an attempt to shore up the defense.

Jack Johnson, Fedor Tyutin, Ryan Murray, David Savard, Justin Falk, Dalton Prout, Cody Goloubef all started slow.  At least Murray had the excuse of not having played for a year.  Tyutin and Falk are now gone, Tyutin having been bought out in the off season, and Falk signing a contract with another organization.  The overall impact of the poor play of this ground is that it will look substantially different when the 2016-17 season starts.  Seth Jones has come in from the Johansen trade, Zach Werenski has finished his college career and had a good start with excellent AHL experience (to be covered in a later post), and Ryan Murray seems to have shaken off the rust of the early part of he 2015-16 season.  Instead of Johnson and Savard as the top pairing, now we are looking at Seth Jones and Ryan Murray.  Zach Werenski will add slick puck moving and a hard shot that finds the net to another pair.  He will also learn some hard lessons at the hands of NHL veterans, the same process every rookie goes through. 

Organizationally, things look good in the future, as the pipeline of young talent seems to be producing, and a high draft position results in another wave of young talent coming into the development system.  The exploits of these youngsters at the Lake Erie, now Cleveland, Monsters will be discussed later, as I said. 

The 2015-16 season for the Columbus Blue Jackets could be summed up by saying expectations were shattered.  In what has been called their most disappointing season, they set an NHL record for futility, got their coach fired, and were out of the playoffs by Halloween.  Finishing with 76 points, a very underwhelming number, they have real work to do in 2016-17 to sniff the playoffs.  The pressure from the youngsters below is a real reason to think things might incrementally improve.

I find it rather ironic that this is Part XIII of this history.  The 2015-16 NHL season was a forgettable year for the Columbus Blue Jackets, and they certainly didn't have, or make much luck.  Some people thing 13 is a lucky number, some people don't.  It is hoped that the results of last year simmers in the guts of the players the way it does for Jarmo Kekalainen, and that they show a response in the upcoming year.  I think we all believed they were a better team than the result of last year.  Fortunately, we do not have long to wait for the new season, and a fresh beginning.  Thus, we can thankfully close the book on the 2015-16 season.

GO JACKETS!!

GO MONSTERS!!

Part XII: The Dark Blue Jacket's Definitive History of the CBJ, the All-Star Game

Nationwide Arena Looking Good at the All-Star Game

Nestled among the angst of an injury plagued 2014-15 NHL Campaign and a disastrously under-performing 2015-16 season, the Columbus Blue Jackets were a bright star for the NHL over a long weekend in January of 2015 when they hosted the NHL All-Star Game.  During that time Columbus gave the rest of the NHL a glimpse of the potential of the market.  Ironically, there were ripples put in motion that weekend that are still rocking the CBJ lifeboat today, a year and a half later. 

The game itself was a bit of a snoozer, in the third year of the pick-up game format that had the Captains picking their team for the game.  Alex Ovechkin campaigned loud for the last selection, and the car that went with it, as he intended to donate it to a charity.  As one might expect, Honda came through anyway to take care of the charity, so props to the sponsor for being supportive.  They needed to, because no one is dumb enough to pick Ovechkin last in a pick up game, I don't care who you are.  And give the NHL props for recognizing a snoozer when they see one, and changing up the format to a 3 on 3 tournament for the next All-Star Game in Nashville. 

Johansen at Skills Competition

However, the overwhelming theme for the weekend was that it was a really good time, and Columbus showed itself off really well.  The snow slide and the outdoor skating rink were embraced by the citizens of Columbus to such an extent that the outdoor rink returned to McPherson Commons last winter as well, much to the detriment of Coach John Tortorella's ribs, as he was taken out by a sprawling Rene Bourque. 

Given the injury riddled state of the Blue Jackets squad, and their poor record in late 2014, I was concerned that we wouldn't have anyone that the NHL would dare to name to the All-Star squad.  But Ryan Johansen, Nick Foligno and Sergei Bobrovsky were given the homer nod.  In a case of super scary foreshadowing, Bobrovsky got hurt immediately prior to the game and was unable to participate.  And Brian Elliot will always get a soft spot in my heart for climbing off his plane in the Caribbean, and turning around an coming back to Columbus to fill the spot.  I hope things go well for him in his new gig in Calgary.

The Flying-Vee Gets Underway

As things turned out, both Ryan Johansen and Nick Foligno were great ambassadors for our city and hockey club, yet the seeds were planted for future strife during this celebration.  Blue Jackets management was greatly impressed by how Foligno handled himself at this game, and cemented an inclination to make him their new Captain the following summer. Ryan Johansen was the star of the celebration for the home team, especially in the skills competition by wearing an OSU jersey celebrating Braxton Miller, and instigating a 'flying-vee' of movie fame.

Following an acrimonious contract negotiation with the club, the All-Star performance seemed a good result for Johansen, and he went on to have a very good year with the CBJ.  In hindsight we can see that this was the high water mark for Johansen with the organization, and before another year had passed he would be gone in a trade for an elite defenseman, Seth Jones.  In my opinion, the organization's resolve to name a Captain, Foligno, deepened the rift between the organization and Johansen.  During the exit interviews from the injury derailed 2014-15 season, several of the veterans, led by Foligno, called for a Captain to be named, while Johansen emphatically declaimed that there was no need for a Captain, and everything was just fine.  I believe this was the beginning of the end between the CBJ and Johansen.  In the clarity of hindsight it is easy to see that the disastrous start to the 2015-16 season, where Johansen was clearly not ready to perform, just cemented the rift.

And as we sit here, even today, the CBJ are negotiation with a center, Sam Gagner, in attempting to fill the void created by the trading of Johansen.  I know it is a long time since this game happened, and I likely should have tried to write this piece last summer, but it is easier to appreciate the impact of that weekend from this, more distant, perspective.

For a weekend, Columbus was a shining spot in the NHL, and the quality of the event was widely admired.  Yet the choices that flowed from that weekend have altered the course of the Columbus Blue Jackets, for better or worse.  As we sit hopefully anticipating the 2016-17 season, we anticipate that a young mobile defensive corps built around draft picks (Murray, Werenski, Goloubef) and the Johansen trade (Seth Jones) will take the ice.  This group will be much different from the defense that started the 2015-16 campaign in such record setting fashion (ugh!).  And in 2016-17, Bourque will be spelled Bjork, as Oliver Bjorkstrand should join the NHL club this year, with his game winning goal in the Calder Cup Championship in tow.

The 'let's see what these guys can do when they are healthy' approach for 2015-16 survived the preseason.  The record setting 'not so good' message was received prior to Halloween, and the team that takes the ice in 2016-17 should be quite different.  That should be entertaining.

The All-Star weekend was a really amazing, fun event, and we showcased our City and Team at that event.  But the flow of the history of the game has left that bright spot behind, and now we look to the future with hopeful eyes.  It should be interesting to see what it brings.

GO JACKETS!!!!

The Dark Blue Jacket's Definitive History of the CBJ, Part XI: A Requiem for Richards

Head Coach Todd Richards

It is fitting that Todd Richards's name be mentioned in the titles of this history; he is the winningest Coach in Blue Jackets history in terms of Blue Jackets games won, and represents an era in Blue Jackets hockey history.  My perception from my seat in the upper bowl is that Richards was responsible for stabilizing a situation where a hockey club was on the rocks, getting things turned around and taking the club to the highest heights it has ever seen.  With the inexorable spiral of a Greek tragedy the whole thing fell apart swallowed by a wave of injuries and expectations.

As of this writing, the Blue Jackets are the proud possessors of the most awful start since World War II, and are yet to win in the 2015-16 NHL season. Editor's note: They finally won!  Todd Richards has been relieved of his coaching duties, to be replaced by John Tortorella.  How did this come about?

CBJ M.A.S.H. Unit

 I last left this space in a state of exultation over the playoff performance of the 2013-14 CBJ, and how far we have come.  The offseason after the playoffs started strangely, with RJ Umberger asking to be traded.  Given the decline in his play, it seemed at the time that the CBJ might buy him out, but Jarmo Kekalainen pulled off an interesting trade when Philadelphia decided to move Scott Hartnell in spite of his no move clause.  So far this trade has tilted in the CBJ’s favor.  Sonny Milano was drafted, to further build the pipeline, along with Ryan Collins, Elvis Merzlikens, Blake Sibenaler, Julian Pelletier, Tyler Bird, and Olivier LeBlanc.  Blake Comeau and Derek MacKenzie were allowed to walk, and the shock waves of the loss of the latter still reverberate through the organization.  Brian Gibbons was signed as a free agent, and Jack Skille was picked up off waivers after signing with the Islanders.

Summer progresses, Cannonfest moves to Strongwater, and then some ugly news starts circulating about the condition of Nathan Horton’s back.  On top of that, Ryan Murray’s surgically repaired knee is not at all responding to therapy, soon the CBJ groin shredding factory would open for business.   The hits just kept coming in terms of injury news, and during the course of the season both Boone Jenner and Sergei Bobrovsky would suffer a broken hand by being struck by a puck in practice.  By the end of the 2014-15 season the Blue Jackets had lost a stunning total of 508 man games to injury, which is basically having 6 players out of a 23 man roster injured for every single game.

However the overriding issue as training camp approached was the fact that Ryan Johansen had not signed a contract for the 2014-2015 season.  This issue loomed over training camp like a cloud until October 6, when Johansen agreed to a 3 year contract.  The puck finally dropped on the 2014-15 season, and while the Jackets started out okay, the tide of injuries just kept riding.  By the end of October we had a first line, and a fourth line, and everything in between was a mess. 

October ended and the CBJ had a record of 4 wins – 6 losses – 0 overtime losses and a decimated squad with a backup goaltender preparing to face the November schedule.  It was in these dire times that one of Todd Richards’s best attributes shone through, the ability to maintain an even keel in spite of all the adversity.  At several times during the season this attribute was tested, as an inconsistent and beat up hockey club ripped off several impressive winning and losing streaks.  Richards’s ability to maintain an even keel, through winning and losing, allowed the players to gather themselves when the chips were down, and slowly turn things around.  These streaks reached a crescendo at the end of the season, when a finally healthy hockey club ripped off a torrid 16-2-1 stretch to end the season with a confidence formed of team self discovery cushioned by Richards’s calm demeanor.

As it so often happens, a strength can be a weakness as well, and faced with an inexplicable 0-7-0 start to the 2015-16 season, Richards was unable to generate the push on the players in response to the emergency because it was contrary to his nature.  In retrospect we will probably trivialize the nature of the emergency as a mere 8 games (~10%) in an 82 game season, but it appears that heroic efforts are in order for the rest of the way to sniff the playoffs.  In that regard, to the fans, it appears to be another season down the tubes 8 games into it (the new coach lost one of the games).  I’m not saying how this will end, but anyone who wanted to make the case that we were already out of the playoffs would have a pretty good argument.  So at this point in time, this particular 7 game losing streak (ultimately 8) assumed franchise rattling proportions.  Since Todd’s nature is to maintain an even keel in these times, it became apparent that another direction was needed, as rather than responding to the long leash, the team became more dysfunctional. 

It bears repeating that during that 7 game losing streak, Richards had two (2) practices to try to right the ship, while losing to a Toronto team that had 7 days off before they played the CBJ, and a Minnesota team that had a game every 4 days to start this season.  However, you can’t have a good Greek tragedy without some weird circumstance intervening to amp up the pressure, and the NHL schedule makers did their part. 

Todd Richards leaves the CBJ as the winningest CBJ coach in franchise history.  He finishes with a CBJ record of 127-112-21 after serving has head coach from January 9, 2012 until October 20, 2015.  He has recorded the only two playoff wins by a Blue Jackets head coach, but was dogged by slow starts in every one of the years he coached.  Blue Jackets hockey is not easy to play, and it is difficult to instantly ramp up from training camp, where you don’t want to play that way for fear of injury, to regular season form.  Indeed, his teams seemed to need their back against the wall before they could really play the way they needed to experience success. 

Todd Richards was the coach this franchise needed when he was hired.  He stabilized play, and got the team to be more defensively accountable.  He laid the foundation for future teams, and it is hoped that success will flow from this foundation.  It will be interesting to see where he lands after this, as I don’t believe he is done coaching by any stretch of the imagination.

2014-15 Summary

As noted above, October and the regular season started slowly, and went downhill from there with the injury news.  After starting October 4-2-0, the injury machine got rolling, and the CBJ lost the next 9 games after Bobrovsky went down with a broken hand and McElhinney came back too quickly after a concussion.  By the end of October, their record had sunk to 4-6-0 with more losing on the agenda.  Veterans Day rolled around in November, with a November record to that point of 0-4-1.  With 2 wins to mark the middle of the month, the CBJ proceeded to lose the next 6 games, to finish November 2-9-2 for an overall record of 6-15-2.

December rolled around, and the pendulum slowly swung back the other way.  December started with a win, a shootout win, another win, 2 overtime wins, and 2 shootout wins before an overtime loss ended their winning streak, but kept the point streak alive.  The Jackets ended December with a 10-2-1 record and an overall record of .500 at 16-16-3 at the end of the year.

January was mostly back and forth, win a few, lose a few, but with a 4 game losing streak tucked into the middle of it, all against Eastern Conference teams, and ended up January with a 5-8 record, losing ground on a .500 pace.  This left them 21-24-3 at the end of January.  February saw them continuing the trend of win a game or two, lose a game or two, until they ended up the month in the midst of a 5 game losing skid.  February’s record was 5-7-1, with an overall record of 26-31-4, losing ground on a .500 pace.

March rolled around, and the team began to get healthy, and began to play at a torrid pace.  Finishing off the 5 game skid in early March, the team went 11-2-0 the rest of the way in March, for an overall record for March of 12-3-0, climbing above .500 by the end of the month with a 37-35-4 record for the season to date.

In April, the team continued to play strong hockey, and finished 5-0-1 for the month of April.  The team’s overall record for the 2014-15 season was 42-35-5, good for 89 points, a very respectable showing by this franchise’s standards, but short of the point total necessary to make the playoffs. 

Beginning March 6, the CBJ ended the season on a 16-2-1 run, which is good hockey anywhere.  Unfortunately, this was counterbalanced by the 2-13-2 run from October 24 to November 29, which effectively put the playoffs out of reach. 

2014-15 Accomplishments

Nick Foligno lead all scorers for the year, with an amazing 31 goals-42 Assists-73 Points, with Ryan Johansen following close behind with 26-45-71, but Scott Hartnell finishing second in goals with 28.  The team had four 20 goal scorers, Foligno, Hartnell, Johansen and Atkinson.

Nick Foligno joined the ranks of CBJ 30 goal scorers, joining Ryan Johansen, Rick Nash, and Geoff Sanderson.  He also joined the ranks of 70 point scorers, with Ryan Johansen, Rick Nash, and Ray Whitney. 

Cam Atkinson turned in back to back 20 goal seasons, and Jack Johnson had a 40 point season, good for 3^rd all time among CBJ defensemen.   Scott Hartnell was a huge success in his first year in the Union Blue, going 28-32-60, and more importantly showing real chemistry with Alexander Wennberg and Marko Dano down the stretch. 

Sergei Bobrovsky, once healthy, became the first CBJ goal tender to record back to back 30 win seasons.  He went 30 wins – 17 losses – 3 SOL and recorded a 2.69 goals against average (GAA) and a save percentage of .918.

The most amazing non-accomplishment of the year was the total of 508 games lost to injury during the year, a franchise record. 

Major personnel moves were the trading of Nathan Horton and his uninsured contract to the Toronto Maple Leafs for David Clarkson, and the trading of fan favorite James Wisniewski to Anaheim for Rene Bourque and William ‘Wild Bill’ Karlsson, a player who plays a game very similar to Alexander Wennberg. 

With their middling position in a deep draft, the CBJ drafted Zach Werenski, a promising young defenseman, and continued to add defensive depth through the draft.  But the block buster trade of the offseason was the acquisition of Brandon Saad from the Chicago Blackhawks for Artem Anisimov and Marko Dano.  Saad, only 22 years old already has two Stanley Cup rings, though the price was high, as Dano had shown much promise.  There were other parts to the trade, but I have gone on long enough. Editors note:  Yes, there was an All-Star Game.  I will produce and addendum regarding that event.

As a final ending to this period, during the off season Nick Foligno was named Captain to the CBJ for the 2015-16 season end beyond.

So ends Todd Richard’s role in this history, and the John Tortorella era has begun.  It should be interesting to see where this leads.

GO JACKETS!!

Part X: The Dark Blue Jacket's Definitive History of the CBJ; Best Yet

Before 2013-14 Game 3

I can feel it coming in the air tonight, Oh Lord……

And I’ve been waiting for this moment for all my life, Oh Lord….

And with those sounds, playoff hockey returned again to Nationwide Arena in the 2013-14 NHL season.  An NHL season that saw the Columbus Blue Jackets rise from a slow start, claw back into the race, and finish in the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference to face the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Falling to Pittsburgh in six games, the Columbus Blue Jackets recorded their first playoff wins, both at home, and on the road.  The incredible finish of Game 4 supplants the previous Game 4 against Detroit as ‘the Moment’ in Blue Jackets History.  A crowd that came to the Arena determined to battle to the end was rewarded with a Penguins miscue leading to a tying goal in the waning seconds of the game, and the overtime winner early in the first overtime period.  These events lead to a rafter shaking thunder that appeared as awesome on TV (check the YouTube clips) as it was to experience live. 

It is to be hoped that these stirring events end up being no more than one of John Davidson’s proverbial bricks in the foundation of CBJ events.  This would mean that the team has gone on to reach a higher level of achievement.  But before we reflect on those possibilities, we must put this one to bed, so to speak.

The Run Up to the Season

Two high priced players on the Blue Jackets had surgery over the summer between the abbreviated 2012-13 season and the 2013-14 season.  Marian Gaborik had surgery to fix a previous repair to a groin injury, and the big off season acquisition, Nathan Horton, had surgery to repair a shoulder injured in the Stanley Cup Final when playing with the Bruins.  Big questions coming into training camp were Boone Jenner and Ryan Murray.  Would they make the team this year, or spend the year in the AHL?  More importantly, would the team be able to replicate the incredible cohesiveness from the late season run in 2012-13? 

Part IX: The Dark Blue Jacket's Definitive History of the CBJ; Blow the Whistle Craig

Today, I learned from the DBJ that Craig Patrick had departed the Columbus Blue Jackets organization.  After some checking, and with the news now conveniently posted by the Columbus Dispatch here, I was able to confirm his move.  It is very difficult for most fans to appreciate just what he brought to this organization, but this is a very good move by the Buffalo organization, and it is a harbinger of good things to come over there in the snow belt.

The Dispatch article called him a steadying presence, which is fair.  I think Craig Patrick opened Scott Howson's eyes to a number of things that enabled Howson to lay the foundation for the current team.  With John Davidson's arrival, there was competition for what Craig Patrick can bring to the table, which is a credit to both men.  JD and Patrick go way back, so while not a point of conflict, I think it is fair to say that Craig Patrick will do his best work at this point in his life in situations where there is a dearth of hockey knowledge, and his enormous perspective is at it's most valuable.  It was certainly that way when he came to the Columbus Blue Jackets, though I think it is fair to say that there has been a dramatic turnaround in the hockey operations department in terms of pure hockey knowledge.  So this move makes sense, and I wish him only the best in his new endeavors.

I think that unless you were among the hundred or so season ticket holders who heard him speak when he first joined the organization, as I reported in this post, that it was difficult to appreciate the weight his word would have behind closed doors.  Also, based on an anecdote he told about Phil Esposito, I wrote this post about leadership.  Having just re-read that post, I realize in retrospect that Patrick found the leadership situation wanting.  And, as with Phil Esposito's team, the Columbus Blue Jackets weren't going to be able to do anything while Rick Nash was still here.  Sometimes you have to take a step back to take a step forward. Sometimes you just have to turn the page.  Patrick's perspective would be critical in the next steps.  Even as the organization was able to stabilize itself financially, by taking on a significant minority partner and with a better lease deal on Nationwide Arena, the stage was set for changing player personnel as well.

I think Patrick's contribution to the situation was the ability to think of Nash and Carter as assets for the organization, not just immovable fixtures.  And I think he helped Howson immeasurably in early 2012 as

Part VIII: The Dark Blue Jacket's Definitive History of the CBJ; Completus Occidentali

@Skrauts photo of the end of the season celebration

When we last left this history, the 2012-13 season was hanging in the balance due to a labor impasse, I still had my original arthritic knees,  and the Columbus Blue Jackets were firmly and definitely ‘THE LAST PLACE TEAM’ (emphasis not added) in the minds of the hockey intelligentsia.  By the time the dust settled after an abbreviated 2012-13 season, the CBJ players and coaches had treated the fans to one of the best story lines in all of hockey, coming a mere point short of making the playoffs after a furious charge through the western conference.  One wonders if in future segments of this history whether we will look back at the courage and tenacity of this year’s roster as a turning point in the franchise’s fortunes.

Labor Peace

At long last, after months of tooth grinding frustration by fans, the NHL and the NHLPA agreed to a collective bargaining agreement in early January.  The new agreement called for an abbreviated 2012-13 season of 48 games following a one week training camp.  This arrangement did not bode well for the CBJ, as the short training camp would not allow much time for the sweeping roster changes to jell.  But labor peace brought a more seismic change to the Blue Jackets.  The 2012-13 season was to be the last that the CBJ would play in the Western Conference.  In 2013-14 the CBJ would be playing in the Eastern Conference.  In their division would be Pittsburgh, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington and Carolina.  Out of the proverbial frying pan of the Central Division of the Western Conference into the fire of the Leaders, er, uh, Legends, er, uh, Atlantic, oh, okay, Division D of the Eastern Conference (yet to be officially named).  This is a huge benefit to the CBJ fans, for who the number of away games that start at 7 PM will go up drastically as opposed to the 10 and 10:30 PM starts.  In that regard, we will have no more of those than the rest of the league, as the 2012-14 season calls for a home and away with every team in the league.  In addition, our fellow Atlantic Division (estimated name) teams are much more natural rivals then most of our current Western Conference brethren.  Of course if you want to be a rival, you have to be more than a door mat, which leads us to the 2012-13 season.

Part VII: The Dark Blue Jacket's Definitive History of the CBJ, Turning the Page

James Wisniewski - Moving the CBJ into the Future?

As we sit, the 2012-13 NHL Season hangs in the balance.  Negotiations between the league and the NHLPA continue in an effort to save a shortened season.  This is a good time to pause and reflect on our beloved Columbus Blue Jackets, where they are, and where they may be going.  In looking back through this series, I last discussed the history of this NHL franchise in the context of recently departed coach Ken Hitchcock.  Since then, Hitch has gone on and won the Jack Adams Coach of the Year award he so richly deserves.

On the home front, so much has happened that it seems an eternity since Hitch left.  And thus it seems appropriate to start 2013 with an update to  this series and the multitude of things that have happened since the end of the 2010-11 season.

2011-12 A New Hope

The off-season between 2010-11 and 2011-12 was seemingly a stunning success for the CBJ.  For a period of 24 hours in the period prior to the 2011 NHL Entry Draft it looked as if Scott Howson had pulled off the trade of the decade when he sent Jake Voracek and a number 1 pick to Philadelphia for former All-Star center Jeff Carter.  During this euphoric day, it seemed as if the CBJ had upgraded it's number 1 center position immensely, and had given Captain Rick Nash the skilled running mate that would unleash his amazing potential.  Then in a shocking 'Wait.....What????' moment, the Flyers traded Carter's compadre Mike Richards to the LA Kings, and Carter reacted to news of the trade by going into hiding, leaving fans wondering how well Howson had kicked the tires on this sports car.  Ultimately, a hastily assembled diplomatic mission by Howson and Nash got Carter to come out of his hole for a bit, but the cynics who saw this as foreshadowing of bad things were dead on right with their reasoning.

In rapid succession, immediately prior to the deadline for the beginning of Free Agency, the CBJ traded for the rights to James Wisniewski, by far the best puck moving defenseman (and right shot!!) on the market.  This trade gave the CBJ a period of time to attempt to reach a contract agreement with Wiz.  That effort was successful, and James became a Blue Jacket, thus hugely upgrading the offensive potential of our defensive corps.

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

Hitchcock working the Blue Jackets bench.

Hitchcock Retrospective


Now that Ken Hitchcock has accepted a job with the St. Louis Blues, it is time to take a look at the legacy Hitch left for the Columbus Blue Jackets organization.  First and foremost, Hitch remains the winningest coach in franchise history, a status that is unlikely to be threatened any time soon.  In addition, he left the legacy of the only playoff appearance in franchise history.  


While we might have debated this issue in August, in the crystal clarity of hindsight, it now appears that the CBJ are past the high point that was the Hitchcock era, and must now rebuild to find those heights again.  As a glass half full kind of guy, I don't think we are that far off from being there again.  On the other hand, there are some real lessons lying out there in the retrospective, that I am not sure we have learned as an organization yet.


As a disclaimer, I am going to note that at the time, I agreed with most of the moves I am going to dissect as potentially wrong later in the post.  I am looking with 20-20 hindsight, and could not perceive these things at the time.  Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it (Santayana).  As a fan, I don't want to repeat the past, in spite of the evidence in front of our eyes in 2011-12.

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!)

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.

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

The MacLeanian Epoch - The Ice Age and the Later Deludian Period

After the lockout the CBJ unveiled a new logo.

The NHL 2004-05 season was lost to the lockout, otherwise known in this tale as the Ice Age.  Nothing moved, and the Arena District was a ghost town.  The Ice Age has a large impact on this history, because similar to the younger of two brothers, the expansion Columbus Blue Jackets were always trying to catch up to our more established brethren.  As the CBJ started trending towards larger, and more physical players to effectively compete in the pre-lockout NHL, the approach to the calling of the existing rules was changed dramatically after the lockout, emphasizing speed and skill.  From a talent perspective, the CBJ was caught on the wrong foot, and we went out of the lockout with a team ill-equipped to handle the speed of the new NHL.

The Later Deludian Period thus has that theme.  Even after the lockout it seemed as if we were still molding a team to play in the pre-lockout NHL.  Perhaps Doug didn't quite believe the NHL when they said, holding, hooking and obstruction were now going to be called.  They had said the same thing several years prior to the lockout, but the referees had quickly reverted to the older style.  So perhaps his skepticism had a sound basis.

A word about the 'older style'.  From watching many of those games, it seemed clear to me that the officials believed that you had to have the talent, strength and personal fortitude to overcome the opposition if you were to succeed in the pre-lockout NHL.  And, the referees did not feel at all obligated to help you achieve respectability if you happened to lack any of those factors.  It was your job to prove you belonged, not their job to help you.  Thus, the established NHL teams often seemed to get the benefit of the doubt on the officiating side.

Coming into the 2005-06, post lockout season, the roster again had some significant additions and subtractions.