Game 77/Tampa Bay: My Take

The Columbus Blue Jackets did their darndest to prove to the NHL that they were worse than the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team that was only 3 points ahead of them in the NHL's Race To The Top Draft Seed (aka The Taylor Hall/Tyler Seguin/Cam Fowler Sweepstakes).  And, for 40 minutes, they did a pretty good job.  Things loosened up in the 3rd period, Tampa lost their composure, and the Jackets couldn't continue laying low.  CBJ win, 3-2.

But Tampa Head Coach Rick Tocchet called the game as it was:

“It was kind of – I shouldn’t say – a boring game,” Lightning coach Rick Tocchet said.

I won't disagree. OK, there was one exception.



Note that R.J. Umberger was at the bottom of that pile of humanity and squeezed the puck out to Rick Nash. Wow.  That's some tenacity out of R.J.

But was it a case of losing by winning?  Did the win jeopardize the CBJ's draft position, or is winning more important at this point?  This warrants further discussion.

The Backup Team: Phoenix Comes Calling

With the Columbus Blue Jackets not making the playoffs this year, our postseason loyalties are being wooed by the rest of the league.  It has started in Phoenix with three solid rationales and one genuine clunker:

First, everyone loves the underdog. That's exactly what we were for most of the year. People still aren't giving us the biggest chance. Right now it's just a lot of "This is a great story" stuff with the thought that it'll be over soon. Well I think that's unlikely.

Second, we play some pretty exciting hockey. We like to win quite a bit. When we do it's always because of a different guy or a different play than the night before. Sure Ilya Bryzgalov stands on his head at times, but even on nights when he doesn't we'll find someone to go out there and win for us.

Game 76/Chicago: My Take

A tired Columbus Blue Jackets team blew into the Windy City and handed the Chicago Blackhawks their lunch for the second time in a week, this time winning by a score of 4-2.

I have a few disjointed thoughts on this game, so bear with me.

First, Rick Nash is one fascinating captain.  The Dispatch's Aaron Portzline relates the story of the final goal:

A nice touch by the captain late in the game. On a two-on-one with Voracek in the dying seconds, Nash passed the puck to Voracek and then curled way out of the play, leaving Voracek no choice but to score into the empty net. Nash said he wanted Voracek to score the goal because he deserved it, given the way he played. "After I passed it, I was screaming at him to shoot it," Nash said. "He played great. He deserved it." Voracek, when pressed on the matter, admitted he would have passed the puck to Nash if given the chance.

Are the young Blue Jackets intimidated by Rick Nash? Have they been brow-beat into dishing off to their "elders" rather than looking for the shot themselves? If that's the case, there's a lot of attitudinal reprogramming of young minds to work on. Kudos to Nash for recognizing the need to celebrate the team's youth and build some confidence in his junior woodchucks.

Next, the Jackets are 6-2-2 in the last 10 games.  The way in which they got there is fascinating.  They thump one of the top teams in the Western Conference twice in a week, yet they lay an egg in the middle against the struggling Islanders.  (Aren't teams supposed to play like crap on the second game of a two-night string?)  Clearly, the team can now get "up" for big games.  But can they win the games that they're supposed to win?  The ones the allow them to collect points like candy-filled eggs at one of the Dark Blue Onesie's Easter egg hunts?  And what does this say about Interim Head Coach Claude Noel?  Not sure right now...need to think more on that.

Game 75/New York Islanders: My Take

The quick and dirty analysis of this game tells us that the New York Islanders, who are making one last-ditch effort to fight for their playoff lives (winning two in a row, but 8 points behind the 8th place team in the East), wanted it more.  The Columbus Blue Jackets, eliminated the night earlier, are (hopefully!) playing for next year.  It showed on both counts as the (in my opinion) superior Blue Jackets team lost in overtime to the Isles, 4-3.

What I have a hard time reconciling is the Jackets outburst at the beginnings of the second and third periods.  R.J. Umberger scored 51 seconds into the second period.  Rick Nash scored 33 seconds into the third, with Grant Clitsome scoring just over 30 seconds later.  So they come blasting out of the gate - does that mean Claude Noel's intermission talks in the locker room are having an effect? - and then sit on their heels.  Makes no sense.

(Keep in mind that Mike Commodore scored in the first 30 seconds of Game 74 against Chicago, and Antoine Vermette scored 1:39 into the third period of that game.  Again, quick starts.)

Ah well, the Jackets got the overtime loser point and currently have the 7th seed in the draft.  Dare we wish for the Boys in Union Blue to tank the rest of the way to get a better chance at a top seed without giving up Nikita Filatov in a trade?

It Ends Now.

Or, more accurately, it ended last night. Per The Dispatch's Tom Reed:

#cbj Blue Jackets arer [sic] officially eliminated from the playoffs with Detroit win.

So the Columbus Blue Jackets are now officially playing out the string.

Game 74/Chicago: My Take

If you EVER think to yourself, "That DBJ - what a jerk. Always getting on the Blue Jackets' case. Never finding the positives. Yadda yadda yadda..." --- All I can say is: Watch these highlights.

The story of the 2009-2010 Columbus Blue Jackets is the frustration of wasted potential. The CBJ could have been the equivalent of the Colorado Avalanche, a young team that pulls it together to run through the league like a hot knife through butter and into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Instead, we saw too many young players regress...and that catastrophically bad December.

This team has talent. They have skill. They CAN win. They can drop 8 on the number one team in the Western Conference.

So excuse me if I am frustrated. It's games like this that make me dream about what could have been this year...

And now, a special message from NBC Sports

Classic.

Goodbye, Syracuse

I was going to leave the whole "Columbus Blue Jackets parts ways with its farm team" story alone largely because the Syracuse Crunch have not been of much consequence to the fortunes of the CBJ this season.  Whether that's because of the Jackets' less-than stellar drafting, Jackets Assistant GM Chris MacFarland's eye for minor league talent - he's the one responsible for stocking the team's AHL affiliate, I understand - or because of the coaching that just has not developed many NHL-caliber players, I don't really care.  Point is, Columbus has been doing their thing, Syracuse has been doing their thing, and ne'er the twain shall meet.

(One big exception: The Crunch did a bang-up job promoting the AHL and themselves in their Outdoor Classic.  I can't praise the Crunch ownership and management for pulling that off, especially for putting together the Dark Blue Jacket Television Broadcasting Dream Team in Bob McElligott and Danny Gare.)

The Syracuse Post-Standard has a Syracuse Crunch hockey blog that is staffed by the paper's Crunch beat writer, Lindsay Kramer.  Since I started reading that blog (was it in 2008?), it's been clear to me that Kramer has not been thrilled with how Columbus has handled the Crunch.  I'm not going to cite chapter and verse; you've got the blog link, go poke around and see for yourself.

Putting money where your mouth is

According to Puck Rakers (and following up on a question from yours truly in this week's Puck Rakers chat), the Columbus Blue Jackets hit their NHL revenue sharing target and are in line for a tidy little check from the league for up to $10 million dollars.

Aaron Portzline explains the two criteria:

This marks the second straight season in which the Blue Jackets have met the two thresholds to qualify: an average attendance of 14,000 or more (the Jackets average in excess of 15,000) and a revenue growth rate ahead of the NHL average.

You can say a lot of things about Columbus, but you can't say that we don't support the Blue Jackets. Not only do we get the arena hopping in a year when we haven't had much to celebrate since - what, October? - we buy concessions, pay for parking, buy swag and (at the corporate level) purchase sponsorships at a pace that allows the Jackets to hit their revenue sharing targets.

So, yeah, we're doing our part as a community.

Portzline also tells us that CBJ President Mike Priest is going to reinvest the revenue sharing into hockey operations, not into cutting the arena lease-driven operating deficit.  That is a very wise move, both on the practical level (more money for salaries, coaching, scouting, etc.) and on the public relations level.  The team is reinvesting in itself with the largesse that we as a community helped make happen.

Wouldn't it be something else to see the Jackets land a star-level player with a signing bonus made possible by the revenue sharing?  Perhaps that top pair D-man or an all-star caliber center?

Moves like this cement my feeling that while the Jackets aren't a perfect NHL team, they're doing the right things to become better every day.

Game 73/New Jersey: My Take

One team was in 4th place in the conference, fighting for playoff position and the division lead.

The other team was in 15th place in the conference, sorting out April tee times.

Guess which team won, 6-3?  It wasn't the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Jackets played a lackluster game - especially on defense - committing too many stupid penalties that led to the New Jersey Devils capitalizing.  It's as if they just sat there and watched the Jackets implode.

Mason wasn't great, but he had little help and, by the back half of the 2nd period, dwindling confidence.

A pathetic performance by the Jackets.  I hope Scott Howson put aside his scouting to see that mess, take notes and base his housecleaning on what he saw.