Game 81 Post Mortem: Columbus at Nashville - Fun With Links Edition

The Blue Jackets traveled to Nashville to play the Predators on fan appreciation night at Bridgestone Arena. At least I think that's what it's called nowadays. The home team, and most notably Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne put on quite the show, and the capacity 17,113 fans showed their appreciation. Often. Tomorrow night is fan appreciation night in Columbus, and it should be interesting to see how many fans show up, and just how appreciative they are.

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

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

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

PART 1 – FORWARDS

Chris Clark

RW #71

Age: 35 Ht: 6'0” Wt: 196 lbs.

Acquired: Via trade with Washington Capitals

Current Salary: $2,633,333

Status After Season: Unrestricted Free Agent (UFA)

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

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

The Frozen Four begins tonight!

(Can you tell the Columbus Blue Jackets are out of the playoff hunt?  Yet another digression before the season is done...)

One of the unique aspects of hockey as compared to my other favorite sport, football, is the talent development system.  In football there is NCAA team sport and then the National Football League (with unaffiliated "minor leagues" like the United Football League as well).  Hockey, on the other hand, has a whole sequence of minor and junior hockey levels, which can take a youngster from ages 1 (yes, ONE) through 20.  Above and beyond that, you have minor professional hockey like the ECHL, the CHL and the AHL.

Then there's college hockey.  College hockey apparently is not as big a deal in Canada, where Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) hockey seems to be treated more like a club-level activity.  You can't make that statement about the 58 schools fielding teams in NCAA Division I Men's Hockey, though, as these kids are pretty darned serious about their games...and their grades.  The back and forth recruiting (poaching?) between the major junior leagues and the NCAA is really something, which should give readers a level of understanding of the quality of some NCAA programs.

There are some legit players coming out of the NCAA.  Columbus and Blue Jackets fans only have to look up the street from Nationwide Arena to see the Ohio State hockey program, which was the home of the CBJ's R.J. Umberger and the Canucks' Ryan Kessler for a spell.  In addition, D-1 programs based in Ohio can be found at Miami University and Bowling Green State University.  Beyond that, CBJ fans also probably have noticed that Boston College's Can Atkinson (nominee for the Hobey Baker Award, the NCAA's "hockey Heisman") and RPI's Allen York both just signed contracts with the Blue Jackets within the past couple of weeks and are already playing big minutes with the AHL Springfield Falcons.

And whereas the Major Junior leagues have their Memorial Cup tournament to crown a champion, the NCAA has The Frozen Four.  And The Frozen Four starts tonight in St. Paul, Minnesota!

Game 80/Dallas: My Take

The Columbus Blue Jackets opened up their final road trip of the season with a 3-0 loss against the Dallas Stars.

Disclosure: I didn't watch the game.  The Notre Dame (my alma mater) women's hoops team was playing for the NCAA national championship, and Mrs. DBJ and I watched that instead.  While the outcome was not that for which I had hoped, I gather it was a much more competitive game than the CBJ-Stars game.

As for the Blue Jackets, I DID follow the game on Twitter...and here's my take from what I observed...

Someone's gotta do it: DBJ's crowdsourced ballot for the 2011 NHL Awards

Click on the shield to nominate NHL players for
end of the season awards

If you haven't gathered, there's been a bit of a flareup in the hockey writing community.  The Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA), the group of media types who get to cover the beats for their respective NHL teams, has seen a number of members and "chapters" (presumably a chapter is geographically-related, meaning that a given chapter will cluster around a given team), boycotting their NHL-granted privilege of voting for the 2011 NHL awards.

This all stems out of the excommunication of blogger Chris Botta by the New York Islanders.  I could write a whole other post on the Botta expulsion from the Islanders' locker room, but instead I'll just let you click on the above link and Google around.  Suffice to say that it's never a good idea to go to war with those who buy ink by the barrel...even worse when those with whom you are warring are sports writers.

So the PHWA has their knickers in a knot over Botta, and some chapters (largely in/around New York, as the media guys circle the wagon to protect their own) are unilaterally withdrawing from the NHL Awards balloting.  As we learned this morning, the boycott now includes the PHWA's Columbus chapter...which essentially means that the Dispatch writing team joined in.

But who will speak for Columbus with these all-important (tongue firmly in cheek) awards?  I submit that if the Professional Hockey Writers don't want to do it, then the ticket-buying public should.

So let's get started.

How bad was it - really?

The time for post-season reviews is close upon us, and it's time to put this season in perspective. You can bet that the Columbus Blue Jackets management has already started this, seeing as the likes of AHLers Kubalik, Mayorov and Leneveu are now getting playing time in Columbus. It's all about post-mortems, player evaluations and trying to ascertain what assets are worth keeping and which can be moved out in the hoped for offseason improvements in Columbus.

A graphic that, sadly, I never got to use this season.
I'm sure you understand.

One element of any review has to be an answer to the question of "How bad was it - really?"  While a number of different factors will come into play on a host of forthcoming evaluations (here and elsewhere), I'll suggest that the pentultimate determinant of the answer to the question comes in the standings.  Goals, save percentages, plus/minus, salary cap hits, corsi numbers, average time on ice, et al surely have their place and demand scrutiny, but it's all about winning in the end.  Doesn't matter how you win..just matters that you win in the hopes of making a playoff run and winning a championship.

Thus, I'll suggest that it comes down to points, differentials between those points and what it takes to qualify, final position in the conference.  I also think that the number of days remaining in the season after the team was mathematically eliminated from the playoffs is a worthwhile number to consider, because that gives a perspective on how many "worthless" (from a playoff chase point of view) games the CBJ fans had to endure.

Game 79/St. Louis: Gallos' Take

Draft Pick Preserved/ Post Partum Depression

I was talking to Mrs. G on the drive home from the game, wondering how to characterize the game.  Her phrase was 'post partum depression' and its as good a synopsis as I can come up with.  What we had were two teams that were out of it.  Neither really had their mojo going.  One of them was a bigger team with more goonish tendencies (and I don't really mean that negatively, at least this time).  The bigger, goonier team prevailed, 6-1.  They outshot the home team, they appeared to be more aggressive than the home team, and they certainly had better goal tending than the home team.

LeNeveu sees his first action as a Columbus Blue
Jacket.

There are those who would assert that a good defense obviates the need for excellent goal tending (e.g. the Detroit Redwings).  Lacking the certified first round hall of fame ballot defenseman of the Redwings, the CBJ had better get pretty good goal tending.  Giving up rebounds which were not cleared by our defense ultimately did in Mathieu Garon this eveing, as it did David LeNeveu, making his CBJ debut.  Garon was pulled after the second period and was replaced by LeNeveu.  LeNeveu made some good stops, but couldn't stop a 2 on 1 in which he served the rebound to the shooter to give up his first goal as a CBJ net minder.  This was preceeded by several pretty solid stops.

This is not to say that Jaroslav Halak didn't give up rebounds.  He did, leaving several juicy ones up the slot, that the Blues defense cleared without interference from the CBJ.  Thus, it was a team effort.  Less than sterling goal tending, hampered by less than sterling defense, hampered by an inability to put significant pressure on the other team's tender.  Quickly putting my math skills together, that equals a 6-1 loss.

Detroit's Rule Book, Jake & Brass, Nash money for Richards?

Puck Rakers are reporting that Jan Hedja has been suspended for two games for the elbowing minor he took in the Chicago game.  Further, recently the NHL declined to add further discipline by on this hit by Todd Bertuzzi, conveniently shown on Puck Daddy, even though he was ejected from the game.  This is just further proof that there is a Detroit Redwings rule book and a 'rest of the NHL, particularly the Blue Jackets' rule book.  Click here to add your critical 'you're just whining because you are out of the playoffs' comment.

A good example of this is well before the lock out.  I was at a CBJ v Detroit game back when Sergei Federov was still a Redwing.  Sergei took a penalty he didn't like, and whacked the puck clear across the rink, I mean from near the bench to the penalty boxes, and the refs darn near had to drag him to the box, but no 'delay' or 'unsportsmanlike' penalty for the mighty Federov.  Double D (Derek Dorsett) smacks a puck off the near board and goes to the box, and he gets hit with the 'T'.  Double D ought to know better.  But that's a penalty in the rule book that applies to us, not the one that applies to Detroit.

And I was watching a Redwings v Chicago game about a week ago, and sure enough, what passes for hooking, holding, and interference in the rest of the league is 'just a hockey play' at the Joe. 

The point to all of this is not that we need to be as good as the other teams to compete in this league, we need to be better.

Game 78/Chicago: My Take

Playing their fourth game in six nights, the host Columbus Blue Jackets took the defending Stanley Cup champion (and current Western Conference 8th seed) all the way to the shootout before succumbing, 4-3, at Nationwide Arena.

Perhaps it was the fact that the Blue Jackets got eliminated from the playoffs last night.  The pressure - and, to a degree, the frustration - was missing.  I hear a lot of "Sit back!  Enjoy the game for what it is!" from other fans...and when there's nothing to play for beyond the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs (which are over a year away), why not enjoy?

And with both Rick Nash and Steve Mason on the shelf nursing injuries, the Blue Jackets (somewhat surprisingly) pulled one of the more entertaining and, more importantly, competitive games of 2011 out of their sleeves.  I had a darned good time watching it on TV.

Eliminated.

OK, so I just wanted to use this graphic again.  There's some delicious dark humor to it, dontcha think?

While we're here, though, let's take a moment to reflect on the season that started so unbelievably strong, crumbled like dry breadcrumbs only to show signs of life before running out of steam about 5-6 weeks too early.