Game 38/Ottawa: My Take

The Columbus Blue Jackets closed out 2010 with an overtime win over the Ottawa Senators, 4-3, at Nationwide Arena.

• Friday night.
• Big home crowd - 17,652 attendees.
• Wearing 3rd jerseys.
• Steve Mason in goal.
• Jackets win.
• 2 points in the standings.

Can any more jinxes go down in one night?

NEXT UP: Sunday night in Nashville.  I don't care what the Preds' record - overall or recent - is.  It's a big game for the CBJ.

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).

My Top 11 DBJ posts of 2010

You all had your shot, so now I'm taking mine!  With almost 400 posts to reflect upon over the past year, I enjoyed spending an afternoon and reflecting on this blog and how it's grown over the months and seasons.  Beyond that, simply reliving the memories of a wild 12 months in the life of the Columbus Blue Jackets was a treat.  (I can see why people do these end-of-year retrospectives...)

The style and form of the blog content has changed over the years, too.  I used to write "10 Thoughts" for every game and eventually realized that a "My Take" approach where I jotted down whatever came to mind was a lot more practical.  I've also done some longer-form pieces, mini-series following themes and a little goofiness with graphics manipulation.

In no particular order, here are my 11 favorite posts (or series of posts) offered up over the past year.  It's a slightly different batch than what you chose, but these are the ones of which I'm most proud.  Because this one goes to 11!

I'm not sure I'll ever come up with
a better graphic manipulation than this.

1. Rosebud - As far back as January, we could tell that something was in the air with the Columbus Blue Jackets.  This post tried to figure out exactly what that was.  And if you look at the conclusions, I'm not sure it was that far off the mark.
2. Channeling Barry Trotz - Mike Priest suggested he wanted a team dynamic like Nashville, so I got some help from Nashville Predators bloggers to learn more about what makes their team tick in this  five-part (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) series.
3. The season that had to happen: My thoughts on the CBJ, 2009-2010 - The season wrap-up...somewhat painful to write yet oddly cathartic.
4. The CBJ coaching search - 29 posts covering the landscape from early short list scratches to a rather detailed investigation of the finalists (remember the DBJ Coaching Challenge?) and the obligatory post-mortem.  What a ride it was (even if the Jackets didn't hire Kevin Dineen).
5. A modest proposal: 82 in 10 - It didn't quite get the effect that I wanted, but we DO have more CBJ games on TV and in HD than ever before.
6. My CannonFest post, or "A funny thing happened on the way to the cookout" - We came. We saw. We ate wings. We talked CBJ hockey.
7. Time to step up: DBJ's 2010-2011 Columbus Blue Jackets season preview - Player by player, coach by coach, even a couple front office gents. Without question, the most exhausting series I've done thus far.
8. "Must Win" v. "Should Win" - DBJ's perspective - One of those posts that I keep going back to...if only to keep sane amid the day-to-day insanity that is following a team through an 82-game season.
9. Changing the culture - Inside and out - Additional ruminations on perhaps the Greatest CBJ Game Ever.
10. The Hangover - Never thought it would linger this long. Yow.
11. About the Pittsburgh game and ticket sales - Dissecting the WTF moment of the year for the CBJ. Well, perhaps outside of the Dorsett non-goal against Dallas.

Sestito returns to Springfield

Gone but not forgotten - Tommy Sestito left his mark...
literally...on the NHL in his nine games with Columbus.

The Columbus Blue Jackets gave the AHL Springfield Falcons a huge (literally) Christmas present in the person of 6'5", 228-pound forward Tommy Sestito, who apparently was the odd man out in a roster squeeze that resulted from the imminent return of Derek MacKenzie from injured reserve.

In nine games with the Blue Jackets, Sestito tallied 2 goals and 2 assists for 4 points.  Looking at the perspective of the scoring-anemic CBJ, those four points are nothing to sneeze at.  Sestito not only used his size to barrel his way through the defense, but he also appeared to be the "missing link" in the power play, setting up shop in the crease with such force that even the vaunted Roberto Luongo started complaining.  One of the long-envied aspects of the Detroit Red Wings' game is the ability of Tomas Holmstrom to control the crease and make goalies' lives miserable.  For nine games, it looked like we might have our own such player.

Your Top 10 DBJ posts of 2010

It's that time of year when we look back and (somewhat) fondly recall those moments over the past 12 months that touched our lives in ways that we can no longer remember without being reminded.  (Or in the case of this post, the blog posts that got the most traffic.)

DBJ's One Shining Moment of
graphic manipulation excellence!

Thus, with no further ado, I present you with the Top 10 most popular Dark Blue Jacket blog posts - ranked in order of traffic volume (per Google Analytics), with a little commentary from yours truly:

1. Is this a Blue Jackets third jersey preview? - From August, my first take on the possible new third jersey design.  Also known as the first time I humiliated myself on my blog in the name of team identity marketing.
2. The Blue Jackets' 10th Anniversary Patch - May brought us a leak of the 10th Anniversary logo.  Kinda sharp, and indicative of the power of the Inter-Tubes to share information quickly.
3. Do we FINALLY have a new 3rd jersey leak? - Yup, I stuck my neck out there again in late October and you gladly watched the egg fly on my face.  Or maybe you just wanted to see what the new jersey looked like.  
4. Who is this Guy Boucher? - Oh, him.  Well...at the time, we really thought he was a serious candidate back in May...and not just using Columbus as a means to get a job elsewhere.
5. DBJ's last stab at the CBJ third jersey - This pre-Thanksgiving attempt was surprisingly close thanks to the intelligence gathering of others, but didn't quite get the prediction right.  Cue the rotten vegetable tossers!

Why is Scott Howson not in THN's "100 People of Power"?

I received my digital copy of The Hockey News' January 17, 2011 edition - the "100 People of Power and Influence" issue - and was surprised to see that Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson was nowhere to be found on the list.

When teams start panicking in April because they are sitting
on the playoff bubble with a bunch of shootout wins, they have
one man to thank.  And that man apparently is not one of the
100 top people of power in the world of hockey.

Let's look past his work with Columbus (because we understand that CBJ business largely is not of interest to the hockey world) and instead consider his larger impact on the National Hockey League.  Howson has been shrewdly maneuvering to increase the importance of actual hockey play in the standings and, as a result, decrease the importance of shootouts.  First, he proposed that shootout winners only get 1.5 points instead of 2 points.  That concept didn't gain the GMs' approval.

Howson didn't pound his fist and stomp his feet like Brian Burke (THN ranking: 11), who has been flailing around since 2006 to change the rules such that teams can trade salary cap dollars and is getting nowhere fast.  No, Howson did what he does so well...he learned from the experience and changed his stance to make progress toward his goal.  And guess what?  It worked.

Now, because of Scott Howson, shootout wins will not count when breaking ties in the standings.  He proposed the idea in March, and it received full approval in August.  This is an important change in the way the game is played - it forces coaches whose teams are questionable playoff qualifiers to "go for it" when they may have sat back and waited for the shootout in years past.

The boiling point

When Doug MacLean was frog-marched out of Columbus, one of the many grievances aired about him was his oft-frantic approach to personnel moves.  I won't admit to a first-hand knowledge of MacLean's foibles as I started following the Columbus Blue Jackets when he had one foot out the door - right before Ken Hitchcock was hired.  Regardless, the terms "circus huckster" and other all-hype/no-results slurs have been tossed his way.  And it appears that trades like that for Sergei Federov were at least in part based upon desperation, not just for improving the team.  And the results were not strong, to put it gently.

[UPDATE: I just read this blog piece about the rebuilding of the NFL's Detroit Lions.  Read this paragraph, substitute Doug MacLean for Matt Millen, and I think you get a sense of where I'm coming from:

Under former GM Matt Millen, the franchise wasted roster spots on blown draft picks and lemon free-agent acquisitions. And, under the multiple coaching changes, never appeared to establish any scheme. As Millen's pokes and prods turned into desperate risks and frantic prayers, the transient, ambiguous roster fed an incessant identity crisis. One that was defined only by failure.

Does that make sense?]

Enter Scott Howson.  Our very own personnel Ice Man (or Ninja GM, depending on the jargon you use) has dropped the organizational blood pressure considerably in Columbus.  He often is loathe to make any moves at all, but he most certainly does not get rolled over when he does.  Consider Antoine Vermette for Pascal Leclaire.  Who won that trade?  Or Tyutin/Backman for Zherdev/Fritsche?

Perhaps the penultimate demonstration of the patience on Howson's part was this entire past offseason.  Staring a disastrous 2009-10 season in the rearview mirror, complete with the firing of likely Hall of Famer Ken Hitchcock and replacing him with Claude Noel, one would think that Howson would take advantage of the drop-off after the 2008-09 playoff year to move some players out, bring some in and improve the roster.

Think again.  The two major roster moves that Howson made were: 1) Claim Ethan Moreau off of waivers, and 2)  Re-sign Steve Mason.  Other than that, Howson essentially said that he liked his roster, and that while he'd like to upgrade the defense, he'd be comfortable taking this squad into the season.  And, yes, he overhauled the coaching staff.

So here we are, the week after Christmas.  Despite what still is the best CBJ start ever, the Jackets are struggling mightily to extricate themselves from a slide that has seen them win a whopping four games (including overtime/shootout winners) since Thanksgiving.  As I've written all over this blog, the Blue Jackets have demonstrated since their dismantling at the hands of the Red Wings that they are incapable of reliably beating any good NHL hockey club with this roster.  It's probably past time to start making moves to get the CBJ out of 12th place in the Western Conference and back into playoff contention.

What we love about Howson - his ability to keep his hand close to the vest until he gets a deal he knows will at least be an even trade if not a win...his willingness to stand pat rather than stir the pot up - is precisely what drives us crazy at times like this.  

Game 36/Minnesota: My Take

The Columbus Blue Jackets finally shed their notorious "third jersey curse" last night with a 4-3 shootout win over the Minnesota Wild in front of 14,454 fans.

I'm going to temper my enthusiasm a bit with this win.  After all, it's two teams at the back of the "Western Conference" pack struggling to keep from falling further behind the pack.  But it was two badly-needed points, and we can't overlook that important fact.

Scratches last night were Rusty Klesla, Jake Voracek and Derek Dorsett.  Interesting collection in the press box. Rusty is leading the team in plus/minus, Voracek is one of the few consistent top-two liners and Dorsett is perhaps the CBJ's prototypical "energy" player.  One could surmise that the roster shuffle was somehow related to the one-on-one meetings that coach Scott Arniel had with a number of CBJ players over the course of the day.  Whether the Chris Clarks and Mike Commodores of the world lobbied their way onto the ice, or whether the aforementioned trio talked their way off the gametime roster, I have no idea.  Or, perhaps, it had no impact whatsoever.

One guy who came down from the press box with a vengeance was Fedor Tyutin.  Almost seven minutes into the third period, Tyutin made a rocket shot from the point that no one saw coming:



He also was huge on another late rush opportunity. For someone who many thought was totally incompatible with this puck possession style of play, Tyutin may still have some rough edges...but he's picking it up as the season moves along.

Holiday Greetings from DBJ, Part V

Let's conclude our holiday trip through the Canadian National Film Board vaults with "Just Another Job," a half-hour documentary on the birth of the Quebec Nordiques in the World Hockey Association.

Strip back the haircuts, the clothes and the groovy music, and you will see a team and organization that was experiencing many of the same feelings about starting up that could have been felt in Columbus.  Well, minus Rocket Richard as the (very temporary) head coach.  (Bruce Boudreau, he is not...)

Enjoy!  Here's to a great 2011!!

Game 35/Chicago: My Take

The Columbus Blue Jackets returned from their two-day Christmas break and avoided a shutout with a late goal in the third period while losing to the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-1, at the United Center.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, the Blue Jackets were playing for undisputed control of the National Hockey League's Western Conference.  Over Christmas weekend, they're in 12th place in the West (only four points out of eighth, though).  Despite my suggestion of hope, it's pretty clear that The Collapse is on.

Sure, there are similarities to last year's implosion (which cost Ken Hitchcock his job).  This year's collapse, however, has been accomplished with no crushing injuries and a new coach who seemed to embrace the loose, fast-moving play of the early part of the season.  Thus, we can't say "Here we go again" with a straight face.  We can, however, say, "Not again..." because such a statement is only a reflection of game outcomes and standings - and not the underlying reasons for the failure.

Regardless, we can only hope that CBJ GM learned from last year's disaster (and his attempts to address it).  Because something has got to change lest yet another season fall out of reach before New Year's.