Could Jack Johnson Be the Blue Jackets Rod Langway?

In 1982 the Washington Capitals were coming off yet another season where they failed to make the NHL postseason. The organization had been in existence for eight years and had yet to make the playoffs even once. This was at a time 16 of the league's 21 teams went to the postseason. The Capitals organization lacked leadership both off and on the ice and there was serious talk of relocating the struggling franchise. The Summer of 1982 helped turn things around for the Capitals, mostly due to two significant, gutsy moves. First the Capitals hired a young David Poile to fill their general manager opening. Poile was a former standout player at Northeastern University who joined the Atlanta Flames as an administrative assistant shortly after graduating and worked his way up to assistant general manager. Blue Jackets fans probably know Poile better as the man who has been the general manager of the Nashville Predators since their inception. Poile wasted no time making over the team and swung a huge trade within weeks of being hired. The Capitals sent team captain Ryan Walter and Rick Green to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Rod Langway, Brian Engblom, Doug Jarvis, and Craig Loughlin. The trade was instrumental in changing the face of the organization. Poile had this to say:

"This trade makes the Capitals competitive," David Poile, Washington's new general manager, said at a news conference at Capital Centre. "We've added four quality players. For the first time in Capitals history, we have a defense."

Sound familiar? How about this quote from Langway:

"Washington got a great deal. Here I know I'll have a chance to bloom."

My favorite quote belongs to Engblom, who was in the Blue Jackets television booth as a color analyst after his playing career ended before moving to OLN and now NBC Sports Network:

"Winning and losing are kind of trends," Engblom said. "You've got to break one to get into the other. It's time for the Capitals to break a trend."

This trade meant everything to the organization. They shipped out two very good players who went on to have success in Montreal (yes, both teams came out well in the trade) and received back the foundation they built their team on, namely defense. Langway was named captain before he had even played a game in a Capitals sweater. It didn't hurt that the team had also just drafted a young defenseman by the name of Scott Stevens who would make an impact as an 18 year-old rookie. The Capitals made the playoffs for the first time the next season, and didn't miss them again for another fourteen years. Although the team has still never hoisted the Stanley Cup, the Capitals shed their poor image and losing tradition in just one season.

I am not comparing Jack Johnson the player to Rod Langway, or Ryan Murray to Scott Stevens or Scott Howson to David Poile. Johnson's defense would have to improve quite a bit to reach Langway's level at his worst, Murray hasn't stepped foot on NHL ice yet, and Howson... tries hard. My point is the parallels are there. The Blue Jackets have a poor image around the league and the only way to turn that around is to start winning games. The team is ready to ship out its captain Rick Nash, and the players they bring in from that trade should help form the core of this team. This trade could be the turning point of this franchise, and right now it's on Scott Howson to get the best deal he can get. I was concerned the way this was dragging out until I read Elliote Friedman's must-read 30 Thoughts column today where he had this to say about the situation:

9. Have always believed Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson's best opportunity to deal Rick Nash will be after Parise's decision. Think some other teams hoped their first-round picks would really appeal to Columbus, but that wasn't the case. My guess is that Nash and Bobby Ryan, if Anaheim wants to do it, get dealt after Parise signs. If Pittsburgh doesn't get Parise, Nash makes sense -- assuming it has what the Blue Jackets want.

 I'm glad to see that Howson didn't value first-round picks in this draft. It was a shallow draft outside the top three, and neither the Oilers nor the Canadiens would have been potential trading partners for Nash. It seems Howson is hedging on either the Rangers or Penguins (or both) missing out on Zach Parise and then feeling pressure to up their firepower, thus overpaying for Nash. It's a sound strategy, unless the opposing team's GMs don't bite or they get their fix somewhere else, like Anaheim. I don't think this team can start training camp with Rick Nash as the captain and expect things to go smoothly, so Howson better hope his patience pays off. If it does the organization could reap the benefit for years to come and gain some respectability in the process. If not, the results could be messy.

DBJ's 5 Thoughts on Game 20: Calgary

Curtis Sanford Third Jersey Pads

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT - The Dark Blue Jacket, in its long commitment to public service would like to warn the public that Curtis Sanford's Third Jersey Pads have some real WOW!! factor.  We would not want anyone to be un-prepared for this.  And now, back to our regularly scheduled program, the Dark Blue Jacket's 5 thoughts on tonight's 4-1 win by the Columbus Blue Jackets over the Calgary Flames.

1. The Eraser - The CBJ are not a dramatically better team than they were four games ago.  But Curtis Sanford erased many of those mistakes with a great deal of aplomb.  I really liked the way Sanford controlled the pace of the game, and shut things down by gloving the puck when things got too hairy.  Well done Curtis! You are instilling a confidence in the team that is palpable.  I saw mistakes by veteran centers (Carter) and young defensemen (Nikitin) erased by Sanford.  It is now time to start the Masterson discussion.  Please pardon me for a moment while I rant.

HEY BLUEJACKETS!  LETESTU, NIKITIN, AND MARTINEK ARE ALL BLUE JACKETS NOW!  HOW ABOUT SENDING NHL.COM PICTURES OF THEM IN BLUE JACKETS JERSEYS!!

Rant complete.  Thank you for your patience.

The other thoughts after the jump.

DBJ's 24 hours of Rick Nash

The Jackets' captain is on the hot seat
this time around

It seems like everywhere I've looked for the last day or so, I've seen nothing but Rick Nash.  

It's the strangest thing, akin to that time when I was thinking of buying a certain type of car and - BOOM! - all I see out on the road are cars of that make and model.  They surely were out there before I got the itch, but my senses were heightened to notice them, I suppose.  Same goes for Nash; ever since he and his first linemates Jeff Carter and R. J. Umberger played perhaps the worst hockey I've seen from a first line this season, if not for months or years, against Minnesota the other night, I've been ruminating over Nash and the Columbus Blue Jackets' locker room leadership role in The Lost Season of 2011-12.

Here are the posts I've been reading - some directly related to Nash, some a tad less so, but all discussing critical issues related to the Columbus Blue Jackets that Nash should be impacting:

• Who will step up? at Heart of a Jacket
• Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown? at The Cannon
• Jackets' captain Rick Nash feeling the pressure at NHL.com
• Jackets try to stay confident despite bad start at NHL.com
• My issues with Rick Nash: Minnesota version at Carry the Flag

I'm not going to cite chapter and verse out of these pieces - they're all well written, each in their own way - but I'll try to synthesize what I'm reading in the hopes that it might add a little to the discussion.

They Must Learn to Hate Losing More Than Anything

- Ken Hitchcock, Former Coach of the CBJ 

Old logo, to keep it step with the rest of things!

In the waning days of his coaching stint with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Ken Hitchcock uttered the title phrase regarding his players, many of whom remain the core players of today's team.

After a solid start, best in franchise history, his team had imploded in December, and spiraled out of control.  The fans were calling for the coaches head.  Sound familiar?

Remember folks.  We're not talking about Wiz, Carter, or Prospal.  We are talking about Nash, Umberger, Vermette and Brassard here.  The core players.  And this is what the Hall of Fame coach uttered about his players, as he viewed the handwriting on the wall for his coaching job - These players must learn to hate losing more than anything else.

There are real reasons why the core of this team has not learned this lesson.  But it this team is ever going to have the long term success they want to have, they have to learn to hate losing with a burning passion.  We are in the middle of that learning process right now, and it really doesn't matter how many games they lose, or whether or not we make the playoffs this year.  It matters that the core of this team learn to hate losing more than anything.  Because that is the pre-requisite for becoming a successful franchise.

The Opener - Nashville 3, CBJ 2

Hopes for an Undefeated Season Crushed

Radek Martinek on the opening drape

What's that you say? No team has ever gone undefeated in the modern NHL?  Not even the Redwings, or the Penguins?  Oh.  Well that's not so bad then.

Ok, on a more serious note, on the the re-cap.  The Nashville Predators rolled into town with a solid team that went deep in the playoffs last year.  The Preds are built on solid defense and outstanding goal tending, and we saw a healthy dose of that last night as the Predators beat the Blue Jackets 3-2.

The game was really pretty equal in many respects.  The new look CBJ has really upgraded the forward position, but our defense without Wiz remains a work in progress.  The contrast between the teams was pretty stark.  The CBJ are still adjusting to all the new faces, which is normal.  The Preds looked like a team that was used to playing with one another.  On paper our forwards are better than theirs, but their defense is better than ours.  At the end of the day, the winning goal was scored on a defensive gaffe that allowed a Nashville shooter, Matt Halischuk fire an unchecked shot from the top of Steve Mason's crease with 39 seconds gone in the third period.  That ended up being the deciding goal.

The bubble defensemen

Because reviewing the preseason performance of the Columbus Blue Jackets bubble-perched forwards was so much fun, and my template was already set up, I figured it was easy to toss together the CBJ bubble blue-liners.

The training camp numbers are nowhere near as large
as on opening day of camp, and the competition is that much
more intense for the last few roster spots.

The same caveat applies to the defense as to the forwards: Statistics should be a significant factor, but not the only factor, in judging the preseason performance of a player. There are a host of other issues that come into play when building a roster beyond the boxscores.  (Never mind that the advanced statistics movement in hockey is widely acknowledged to have taken off with the development of the Corsi rating, something tailor-made to compensate for inadequate boxscore data on defensemen.)  Still, it's foolish to overlook the publicly available stats altogether, as they can tell us stories as well.

With no further ado, here are what I see as Blue Jackets defensemen on the bubble for the opening day roster (note that I've got an update at the bottom of this post, but humor me as I share my completed work in this fluid environment):



Again, the individual player statistics are available by clicking their names at the bottom of the spreadsheet.  Also, the disparity in games played make the per-game statistics useful.  With that out of the way, let's look inside the numbers, shall we?

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.

One year ago

Roughly one year ago, Rick Nash took out an ad in the Columbus Dispatch and gave us this:

As we stand of the cusp of the offseason, it might be worth asking: What's he going to say this time around?

Game 74/Phoenix: My Take

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

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

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

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

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

End scene - and a preview of the second act

I was going to use some heroic shot of Rusty, but this
just tickled my fancy. (Photo from buylisthomes.com)

Act 1, Scene 10

Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson officially closed the door on the first act of the Columbus Blue Jackets franchise in the midst of its 10th Anniversary season in trading "The Original Blue Jacket," defenseman Rusty Klesla, to the Phoenix Coyotes.

With that, Klesla's name and image now can finally retire to the glass cases around Nationwide Arena that celebrate past players like Odelein, Sanderson, Knutsen and Dineen (We can't forget Dineen!); team ownership and historic events in franchise history.  While he was a serviceable defenseman, he had ongoing injury issues in recent seasons that made his reliability questionable and greatly impacted his productivity.

Game 61/Nashville: My Take

The Columbus Blue Jackets started the last significant western road trip of the season this afternoon in Nashville and the host Predators beat the CBJ, 3-2, in regulation.

There are 82 games in the season...there are 82 games in the season...there are 82 games in the season...

Now that I have that blood pressure-lowering Moment of Zen out of the way, let's proceed.  In my opinion, this game was lost on two plays:

The first is the easy one.  Derek Mackenzie followed up on an R.J. Umberger shot by slamming the puck in at the corner of the net for an apparent goal.  Or was it?




[Special thanks to @RyanReal for his letting me know about the television feed.  While it's choppy, it gets the point across pretty clearly.]

Game 60/Phoenix: My Take

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

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

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

Game 57/Los Angeles: My Take

The streaking Columbus Blue Jackets welcomed the streaking Los Angeles Kings to Nationwide Arena tonight and, in the first playoff-caliber game in a long while, lost in the shootout to the Kings, 4-3.

I'm a tad under the weather and will keep this short.  Perhaps Gallos, who was on hand, could add some thoughts in the comments.  Everyone else, you're welcome to contribute as well.

• Rick Nash is a man possessed.  He is pulling every string possible to will this team to win.  Tonight, it wasn't enough.  Other nights, it will be.  All I can say to the rest of the NHL is "He's Rick Nash - and you're not."  
• R.J. Umberger left the ice injured (a knee/leg on knee/leg hit), came back, and threw his body around like he was the only Blue Jacket on the ice.  Whereas Nash was flying high based upon skill, Umberger was on sheer will and guts.  Helluva combination.

Game 56/Dallas: My Take

The Columbus Blue Jackets paid ethically and perhaps legally-challenged coach Marc Crawford and his Dallas Stars a visit on Sunday afternoon and walked away with a 2-1 win in front of a half-empty arena.

As the saying goes, it wasn't even that close.  The Blue Jackets looked remarkably poised through most of the game, and the Stars honestly didn't look like they had their legs.

Steve Mason was on his game, stopping 29 of 30.  I need to do a home/away comparison on Mase because it seems as if he plays a simpler game on the road - like most of the team.  Simple isn't bad, though, when you're Steve Mason.  It's generally quite good.  Like today.

Oh yeah, Rick Nash had one of his "I'm Rick Nash and you're not" goals:

Game 53/Pittsburgh: My Take

The Columbus Blue Jackets paid their first regular season visit to the shiny new CONSOL Energy Center and didn't bother to wipe their feet with a 4-1 victory over the host Pittsburgh Penguins.

Pens fans will suggest that their missing superstar players, Sidney Crosby (concussion) and Evgeni Malkin (knee), played a major factor in the loss.  It's possible.  But the rest of the NHL doesn't care, nor did they tie up $17.4 million in cap space on two players like Ray Shero did.  Losing both of these players at the same time is armegeddon for Pittsburgh, and that's sad for the Pens because the rest of the league has a stack full of IOU's to collect upon with the league's Golden Children.

But enough about the opposition.  This is a Blue Jackets blog, and we're going to talk about the winners of tonight's game.

(Somewhat) Tanned, rested and ready for the second half

My two week "All-Star Break" has ended, and I'm back in the States after a great, long vacation with Mrs. DBJ, the Dark Blue Toddler and DBT's grandparents.  As you can see, the CBJ ball cap (with a stylishly pre-weathered bill) has seen a little bit of fading from the sun at 20° 37' 0" N / 87° 4' 0" W.  It was great, however, to see the many other hockey fans down so close to the equator.  There were tons of Canadians out there, worshiping the sun during the day and watching CBC and TSN hockey of their favorite teams all night long at the open-air sports bars under palapa roofs.

Two week vacations are a gift from God.  If you ever can figure out a way to combine both the money and vacation time from your jobs, I highly recommend such a break.  It's soul-cleansing.  On a one-week vacation, you're travelling for two days and don't really start mentally "unpacking" from The Real World for a couple of days, so that means you only really get two - perhaps three - days of true relaxation.  In a two-week vacation, you can add a whole seven days to the decompressed time.  And it's really good...I find that you don't dread returning home after a two-week vacation like you do after a one-week vacation.

But enough of this self-indulgent crap.  You come here to read about the Columbus Blue Jackets, not my ruminations on how long one needs to air out the mental dirty laundry.  So let's catch up on what happened while I was away...

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."

Game 37/Toronto: My Take

Making their once every two years pilgrimage to the Air Canada Centre on Thursday night, the Columbus Blue Jackets emerged victorious against the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2, in regulation for their second straight win.

At risk of being a buzz-kill, this was a matchup of two 13th place teams.  I appreciate that 13th in the West means you're almost qualifying for the playoffs (by virtue of being 4 points out of 8th) whereas 13th in the East means...well, you're not very good.  But this was most definitely a "should win" if not a "must win" (to get back in the playoff hunt, you start by picking off the weaker teams).  And they won, two points for the good guys, bumping the CBJ up to 11th by the end of the evening with a 19-15-3 record (41 points).

Game 30/Vancouver: My Take

In a strange scheduling move that had the Columbus Blue Jackets leaving Alberta (Calgary) to play in Vancouver only to return to Alberta (Edmonton) the following night, the Columbus Blue Jackets played an overall solid game against one of the top teams in the National Hockey League's Western Conference before falling to the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2 in overtime at The Arena That Likely Will Be Renamed Within Six Months.

Regretfully, the game being played in Vancouver meant a 10PM Eastern start - and I was out of caffeinated products (No, I was not going to brew a pot of coffee for the CBJ.  A man's gotta set limits.).  I struggled mightily yet still fell asleep after the hard-fought first period and awoke with about 4:30 left in regulation.  Hence, my recap is incomplete.

I was able to watch the game on NHL's GameCenter Live service (Thank you, CBJ, for lifting the local blackout as Fox Sports Ohio inexplicably chose not to broadcast the game.  82 in 10, baby!), so I "rewound" the game to check out the Sestito and Brassard goals.  Both were solid and deserve mention.

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.