Better On Ice

the beat goes on

2008-11-20T23:52:00.002-05:00

Now the Flames, after giving up 6 goals in 3 of their last 5 games, decide that they can play defense against the Avs.

They have looked downright '04 like with the way theyhave shut the Avs down. I was biting my nails and pulling out my (chest) hair (funny on a couple levels if you know me) in the 4-1 win on Tuesday. In case you didn;t wath, the Flames directed 90+ shots at the Avs net in a 60 minute game. 51 were on net, 25 were blocked and the rest missed. This is not including the three posts they hit. After 1, 1-0 Avs, after 2, 1-1. The Flames finally got a goal with about 7 minutes left, got an empty netter by Iginla and a PP goal by Boyd, in that order, in the lat minute to make Budaj's night look way worse than it was, which is to say the best performance I hve seen by a goalie this year.

Tonight a, 1-0, shut down road game.

Shades of '04...... until the next BIG slump.

New year, same team

2008-11-09T21:13:00.002-05:00

Okay, it has been 15 and most of an ugly 16th game and I think it is safe to say that despite the changes the Flames made, the results are no different than last year.

To review, this team started 1-3-1 and Miikka Kiprusoff was at his early season craptacular best, his GAA hovering over 4.00 and his save percentage well below the .900 level. The Flames then rattle off 6 straight wins, most of them in dominating fashion. Kiprusoff's numbers were down in pre-lockout territory during this stretch. As I write, barring a miracle of gigantic proportion (down 5-1 with 6 minutes left to the Hawks), the Flames will have lost 4 of their last 5 and their record a very familiar 8-7-1. Not good enough to be considered anything but an annoyance, not bad enough for them to be completely witten off, and frustating as all hell for the fans.

I'd like to note that I am not of the opinion that Kiprusoff is the main reason the Flames win or lose most games, rather his numbers are reflective of how the team in front of him plays. For example, anyone who did not watch this game tonight would think Kiprusoff had a bad game, yet he has made amny spectacular saves and the Hawks could really have 10 goals. The Flames have been THAT bad.

On nights when things are going well, the Flames truly look like they can be serious Cup contenders. Nights like these last two, you wonder how they even win games.

I do not believe that the talent level is lacking, in fact I would argue that on paper there are not many teams in the NHL that can compare man for man. So what does that leave? It has been 3 plus seasons since the Flames magical run in 2004, when they won games on effort and strong team defense. Every year since then, this team has gotten more offensively talented and seems to have forgotten more and more what made them a team that was a controversial non reviewed goal away from being Stanley Cup champions.

Keep in mind this team has seen three head coaches during this time. Darryl Sutter coached them following the lockout. He felt he had lost the team, so he promoted Jim Playfair to take over. That did not work, so he brought in his old buddy Mike Keenan and the results have been similar. What has stayed the same are the assistant coaches. How has it not occurred that maybe it's time to scrap the guys who the players get most of the messages from? Mike Keenan is more of a motivational/head game coach, not much in the way of X' and O's. Instead they listen to Rich Preston, Jim Playfair and company. Is that really enough to coax the effort needed from this team to play consistantly?

I think the Flames are running out of options and if that doesn't work, you either clean house in the front office, GM + Head Coach, or you make a BIG time roster shake-up.

What the hell is going on?

2008-10-27T22:42:00.004-04:00

So I sat through "Zherdev fest" on Friday where the Jackets played one solid period then let the Rags beat them to every loose puck and couldn't win a battle in the corner at all.

On to Minnesota where we let the referees decide the game...and the referees and the NHL are never going to take Columbus's side in Minnesota. Between Wes Walz and goal...no goal after inconclusive evidence, we have to have a two goal lead in the last minute to get a win up there.

Then tonight. Beat the shit out of the Ducklings all over the ice for 50 minutes, then just give up and lose 3-2 at home. Home in front of about 8,000 fans...nobody showed up. You need wins, points, and fans and decide to play part of a game. The best players on the ice were rookies...Brassard, Vorachek, and Methot. The veterans gave up. We paid Commodore a huge contract to be a leader and teach the team to win tough games. Um, money well spent so far...

This is beyond annoying. This team should be pissed off after what happened in Minny, but they weren't. They don't care, and we're not even 10 games into the season. I can't wait for the rest of the season if this is how it's going to go...

WTF happened to the Jackets defense??

2008-10-19T11:56:00.002-04:00

You can't tell me Ron Hainsey and Dick Tarnstrom were the difference between responsible defense and giving up 21 goals in the first 5 games, including 3 shorties. Team defense was the strength of the team a year ago, but it appears to be the biggest weakness of the team right now. There seems to be a lot of scrambling and losing track of people in our own zone. Too much overplaying? Overcompensating? WTF is going with these guys.

In the meantime, our goalies are looking like crap. I'm sure there are many fans looking at the boxscores and ready to hang the goalies. Some of it is warranted, but 21 goals through 5 games points to way more than goaltending.

What blows is we're finally scoring some goals, almost a goal per game better than a year ago. But, in giving up waaaaay more than a goal a game than we did a year ago, all that offense is buried underneath the shitty defense.

Hitch is known for his defense, and I'm confident he'll get it turned around, but when? How much longer do we watch Klesla and Tyutin struggle in our end? Maybe it's time to put Klesla and Hejda back together, they excelled late last season. Let Commodore and Tyutin make things happen as a pair.

The upside is Kris Russell looks to have matured nicely. The kid is playing great, not tenative at all, and is moving the puck like a 10 year veteran. But, again, overshadowed by all the gaffes his teammates are making.

Hitch has a couple days to get things moving in the right direction before the Canucks are here, followed by the league leading Rangers and a certain Russian kid I'm sure will be ready to put on a show on Friday.

And so the season is under way...

2008-10-18T19:17:00.003-04:00

OK, I'm a bit late to the party. We were in Florida for a week, so I didn't see any of the Jackets first three games. I read all I could on my phone, but that's not the same as watching. So, my first look was last night at home vs. the Preds. Some quick thoughts...

- Holy shit, where is all this offense coming from? I like it, keep it up.

- What the...where'd our defense go? I'm sure it will get there - it's what Hitch does - but would the Fedor Tyutin from the preseason please report to the regular season?

So, we're 2-2, have played some iffy defense, and have taken down Dallas and Nashville. Not bad, but I'm greedy, I want more. Kindly take down the Preds again tonight, boys, and I'll be happier.

Speaking of last night's game, Freddy Modin was an animal last night. I know Nasher's two goals, and captain status, pretty much gave him the #1 star, but Modin was outstanding and maybe should have gotten it himself. He was a one man wrecking crew in the Preds zone last night, hope to see more of that as the season goes along.

Charity Event in London Ontario

2008-08-07T22:42:00.002-04:00

The recent London Knights alumni had a skills competition and 4 on 4 game here tonight. Why am I telling you about it you ask? Well, Rick Nash and Marc Methot of the Blue Jackets and Brandon Prust of the Flames were involved.

Here's a list of the 25 players who were there, and their current affiliations, just to show you the kind players that the Knights seem to always find and develop:

Rick Nash - CBJ
Corey Perry - Anaheim
Patrick Kane - Chicago
Sam Gagner - Edmonton
Chris Kelly - Ottawa
Dan Girardi - NYR
Dennis Wideman - Boston
Brandon Prust - Calgary
Kyle Quincey - Detroit
Marc Methot - Ottawa
Chris Kelly - Ottawa
Krys Barch - Dallas
Dan Jancevski - Dallas
David Bolland - Chicago
Rob Schremp - Edmonton
Adam Dennis - Buffalo
Bryan Rodney - Carolina
Alex Henry - Montreal
Gerald Coleman - Anaheim
Danny Syvret - Philadelphia
Dylan Hunter - Buffalo
Drew Larman - Florida
Rob Drummond - signed with Lake Erie, is property of Colorado
Trevor Kell - drafted by Chicago, playing in the ECHL
A.J. Perry - free agent, been to 3 NHL camps, played in Memorial Cup this past year )Corey's brother)

The night started off with a skills competition. Rick Nash was captaining Team White and raced in the relay race. Basically just a sprint down the ice and through pylons on the way back. Nas has great agility but as we all know he is not the fastest skater. He didn't hurt his team as they won.

Nash looks even bigger. The guy is ripped.

Marc Methot was involved in the hardest shot and finished around 4th or 5th. Dan Girardi won with a shot at 150km/h or just over 93MPH. Dennis Wideman was 2nd.

Brandon Prust looked faster than I've ever seen him in the relay, bodes well since he signed a two year, one way deal with the Flames. He also scored two beauties in the 4 on 4.

The 4 on 4 game was about what you'd expect. Team Black won 16-8 in two 30 minute non stop time periods. Nash played hard for the first period, but "played D" the rest of the night, basically floating around and pretending to care about stopping the oncoming 3 on 1.

Some other notes:

- former Wild captain (who hasn't been a Wild captain) Alex Henry scored two of his teams 3 goals (the goalies were awesome), including one after captain Rick Nash chose him to go first in sudden death, LOL.

- Rob Schremp still has awesome moves but still will never be more than a tease. I called this long before he was drafted in junior. A few things I noticed. Every player came out and stretched out and looked like they were preparing for hockey, Schremp was off in one zone practising his lacrosse move. He took slapshots from the hash marks in the 4 on 4 which I'm sure the goalies loved. He's still a hotdog. So glad the Flames did not draft this clown.

- I wish Patrick Kane and Sam Gagner could have played one more year together in London, or at least end up on the same team sometime in their career. These two are unbelievable together. Sam Gagner, as much as I'll hate it, Gagner is going to be a star.

- Danny Syvret should get a shot in Philly. The guy just knows how to play. Not sure why he didn't get much of a shot in Mulletville (Edmonton).

- Wings fans should enjoy Kyle Quincey for years to come.

- Adam Dennis was outstanding in net, Gerald Coleman, not so much. Who is Buffalo's back-up? Dennis may get a shot this year.

- Chris Kelly is fast! I honestly never realized that he has played 243 games in the NHL already. Wow.

- I miss hockey

The dust has cleared...

2008-07-11T11:39:00.002-04:00

Well, I think the dust has cleared...

The moves by GM Scott Howson have been pretty well noted, but a quick recap...

Added R.J. Umberger, Mike Commodore, Christian Bachman, Fedor Tyutin, and Kristian Huselius. Gone are Gilbert Brule, Danny Fritsche, and the enigmatic Nikki Zherdev. Still around are Mike Peca and Hitch.

My opinion is we are definitely a stronger club, especially on the back end. Down the middle we're better than we were a year ago, even if R.J. has to move up to play on the top line with Nash, and most likely Huselius.

What the moves didn't really do for me was get me excited about how many goals we're going to score. I still feel we're a player or two short in the scoring department, and shipping off Zherdev put a big blow to that goal total. Especially considering the move netted two mid-range defensemen.

On the blue line, Howson didn't net the big, numer one, puck-moving, power-play-quarter-backing defenseman. We lost Hainsey, who wasn't that guy - and in my opinion iffy in our own zone at best - but didn't really add a guy who put the puck on net like Ronny. Overall the blue line is upgraded, and should be getting the puck out of our zone. Nashville pulled the whole "overhaul the blueline" thing a few years ago, and it worked pretty well for them. And they found Kimmo Timmonen in the process.

Even though we didn't get the big #1 d-man, and are still a scorer short, I still can't help but get exicted about the upcoming season. First off, I'm a fan, so there's always some hope in the offseason.

First of all I'm excited for this season because Howson and Hitch seem to be building an actual team rather a collection of individuals. One by one, Howson's moves make you scratch your head, especially the Zherdev one. But, the overall result is going to be a stronger defensive team, and a team more committed to playing the system Hitchcock has in place. So, while there is much dissention on message boards, we don't know how the team will fare on the ice this fall at all. This is the most change any of us have seen to the line up since we participated in the expansion draft.

Secondly, we look to have two or three rookies coming in that aren't being rushed, that have the playmaking ability that made them top draft picks, and won't have the deer in the headlights look on their face all season. Brassard looks to be a lock at center at this point, and it's three years after he was drafted, so he's got some seasoning. He's also got about 15 more pounds on him since we saw him in January. Add Voracek to the mix, and possibly even Filatov, and could the Jackets be this year's version of the Kane and Toews show in Chicago last year? From a fan stand point, it's about our turn, isn't it?

The slow time of the offseason is almost upon us, so things will drag. But once again, for the umpteenth summer in a row, I'm again looking forward to what happens on the ice in September.

Big Night for the Jackets

2008-06-20T18:18:00.003-04:00

One year ago today, I was downtown at the R-Bar getting ready to go into a packed Nationwide Arena and watch brand new GM Scott Howson stride to the podium. It was the beginning of the change that we're all thirsting for in Columbus.

Now, a year later, Scott has positioned himself nicely to make a big change. Two first round picks to work with, and maybe even a couple of players to move. Tomorrow is here for us, and barring big moves on July 1, tonight could be the single biggest day in Columbus NHL history since Bettman stood downtown and awarded us the franchise.

Personally, I'm more excited for this draft than I was the one a year ago. So much could change for us tonight. Stay tuned in Jacketland!

So Long, Mr, Mac

2008-04-26T23:39:00.002-04:00

The NHL, and more specifically the Blue Jackets, lost a great member of their family yesterday with the passing of John H. McConnell. As every Jacket fan knows, without Mr. Mac there are no Blue Jackets. The number of standing ovations he received pales in comparison to what he did for Columbus, though he would always shrug off the compliments. These are the types of things you can read in the Dispatch and elsewhere.

For my blog I can recount the one time I met Mr. McConnell.

It was March of 2001, the Jackets were working their way through their inaugural season and were in Tampa to play the Lightning. Wendy and I had timed a trip south to spend a week with my dad so we could take in a Jackets road game. When walking into the game, we happened to see John H. and his son John P. walking in to the arena. They weren't too close to us, but did see us and pointed at our jerseys and waved at us.

When we took our seats, we noticed that the visiting owners box was right at the top of our section. Between the first and second period, we walked up and Wendy said, "I have to say hi to Mr. McConnell." And so she did. She stopped and introduced herself, but as soon as she finished he thanked us for traveling "all this way" to see the Jackets on the road. He was genuinely happy to see fans of his team on the road, and proceeded to talk to my wife for a few more minutes. It was an amazing experience, and one that confirms all the things you've read or will read in the paper over coming days.

You will be missed, Mr. Mac.

Battle for 6th

2008-03-31T20:07:00.003-04:00

First of all, losing games against your top two hated rivals on back to back nights where you had a chance to: a) basically sew up the division and; b)basically kill those rivals' playoff hopes, does not bide well for your playoff chances.

With the division all but out of Calgary's hands due to them crapping the bed against their two biggest rivals, the race is on to finish 6th and face the almost assuredly Minnesota's (2 points for them or the Flames missing two, and only point for them or the Avs missing one gets it done). As I stated last week, the Flames match up best against them, and at this point are the only team I think that Calgary stands a chancde of advancing against in the first round. However, if that does happen and the Flames advance, all bets are off for two reasons. One is that this team plays much better when they are confident and winnign a series does that for a team. Second, and almost as important is that since 1986 any time the Flames have won a first round series, they have gone to the Stanley Cup finals. Granted that's only 3 times, but still impressive nonetheless.

Flames playoff preferences

2008-03-26T00:21:00.002-04:00

I held off on posting this, as the dogfight in the NW divison has made me, however, with a big come form behind victory tonight over Vancouver, the Flames would have to completely fall on their face, and get some help to miss the playoffs. Without further ado, here is my preferred order of opponents and why.

1. Win the division. Home ice advantage is the biggest reason, obviously. The Saddledome is loud and the Flames have almost always been a far better home team than road team. It took a while this season but since January have only lost twice in regulation on home ice. Plus they would likely play the NW division #2 providing Dallas doesn't continue their free fall.

2. Finish 6th. This loses home ice advantage, but damn near assures they will play the NW Divison champ. I would take my chances against any NW Divison rather than play any other Western Conference team with a realistic shot at the playoffs. In order of who I'd like to see most, it goes, Minnesota (Flames dominate them easily), Edmonton (still young, and may run out of gas should they make it), Vancouver (series could go either way, but Flames have more depth and scoring), Colorado (they have the Flames number, the refs seem to side witht he Avs, I know they don't really, and Sakic, save the last two games, lights the Flames up).

3. At this point 7th is almost assuredly San Jose. The Flames match up well against them and it will come down to intangibles. Thornton hasn't really done much in the playoffs, and San Jose always seems to be missing something on what should be an elite squad.

4. The only way I see the Flames facing Dallas is if they take the division and the free-falling Stars get passed by Minnesota (or Vancouver, but that seems less likely after tonight) and finishes 6th. Dallas, despite losing a lot lately, scares me. Turco beats the Flames in his sleep and the Stars can batton down the hatches with the best of them when they need to. Also, this would be the least entertaining of any possible match-up. See last year''s series against Vancouver for reference.

5. 8th and playing Detroit. I know the Wings made the Flames look silly last playoffs, and only the play of Kiprusoff saved the Flames any kind of face. I see a tougher, more veteran Flames team, even if they are incosistent, giving Detroit a better run this time around should it occur. The Wings still scare the bejesus out of me, since when they are on, it doesn't matter how hard you hit them, they find a way. However, it says here that Detroit will not even make the finals for the same reason as years past. They just aren't tough enough to enudre three Western Conference teams who know that they will eventually wear down when you pound them game in, game out.

6. Calagry does not match up well against Anaheim at all. That little prick Corey Perry (who I was a fan of when he played here in London) gets under the whole teams' skin. Getzlaf scores and creates chances like they are going out of style against the Flames. The Michelin man, oops I mean J.S. Giguere, is dam n near unbeatable against the Flames most nights, though when they do get to him, as they did two years ago, at least Bryzgalov isn't there to pick up the pieces. Chris Pronger is a complete douche, but he is one of the few d-men in the league who I could see shutting down Iginla for a series. If that happens, good night Irene. The should be MVP of the league carries the Flames.

I think that about covers it. Just so you know, I am not proof reading this so deal with it. I am on my 6th rye and Coke and it's 12:40....6:00am will come early.

What ever happened to interference?

2008-03-26T00:12:00.002-04:00

I'm not talking about the kind where a guy taps the puck carrier on the hip with his stick and gets a penalty. We see a couple of those every game! I'm talking the good old fashioned kind that Gary Bettman and the NHL wanted to get rid of, the kind where the puck carrier chips the puck by and gets held up by the defender thus allowing his partner to gather the puck. It is not called anymore unless your name is Anders Eriksson and you are stupid enough to throw the guys to the ice while impeding his progress.

Shouldn't the tap be let go and the actual interference that effects the play be the one called?

The end is upon us...

2008-02-23T19:26:00.003-05:00

Since Day 1 of the Columbus Blue Jackets, David Vyborny has ranked as my favorite Jacket. Nasher has moved into that slot, but V-man has always been right there. I still proudly wear my first season #9 to games, complete with signature on the back.

But...

I think tonight in Montreal has a very good chance of being the end of the Vyborny era in Columbus. Given his play this season, the fickle fan would say, "About time!!" However, this guy holds a number of records for the Jackets, and shouldn't be allowed to just leave without some kind of acknowledgment.

David has definitely faded into the background this season, and that's too bad. From scoring the second goal in Jackets history to his turnaround backhander against the Broons last season, he's been a staple of Jackets hockey since the beginning. First to show, last to go...

So, if this is David's last game as a Jacket, this fan will pull for him wherever he lands. He's quietly amassed a pretty good resume here, and captained his native Czech team more than once. Even with only three goals this season, you will be missed, David.

The 5 things the Flames need to win the Cup!

2008-02-08T23:31:00.001-05:00

I will preface this by saying if they get three of these, they have a great chance. They get four, odds on favourite, all five and you can hand them the Cup. Of course, this is true for many team sin the parity striken NHL. Anyway, here we go:

1) Better PP - I don't know if there is a worse team on the 5 on 3 than the Flames. I can't remember the last time that they scored on the 5 on 3. Not sure what the problem is, even on 5 on 4 for that matter. They have Aucoin and Phaneuf on the point, then your choice of Langkow or Conroy at C, Iginla or Nolan at RW and Huselius or Tanguay on LW. WTF? This team should light it up on the PP. Nope, they suck.

2) Better PK - Same deal here, on paper, they have a solid if not top defensive core, yet they rarel play like that. They have spped up front with Lombardi, Moss or Boyd. They have veteran defensive guys like Yelle, Primeau and Nilson. They have others who have played well on the PK in their career like Warrener, Nolan and Conroy, yet the only PK'er that has been good consistantly this year is Tanguay, in a position that he would rather not have.

3) A #1 centre - This is not a knock on Langkow as he is probably in the top 15, if not at least the top 20 as a #1 C, but he is better at, and likely better suited at, #2 centre. In fact, he would be the best #2 centre in the league, IMO. So, get Sundin, get Jokinen, get Hossa and make Iginla or Hossa play centre.

4) Better 1st periods - I am not a mathmatician anymore, I was good at it in University, but I have drank those brain cells away but being -12 or -13 in the season thus far amounts to many 1st periods down or tied against an opponent. Yes the Flames are a pretty good comeback team, dman near .500 when trailing after the 1st (which is amazing) but it happes far too often. This will not work in the playoffs when goals are harder to come by, the penalties are fewer and the play tightens up.

5) Kipper starts winning the odd game himself - You used to be able to count on Miikka winning a game or 4 a month. If Kipper were to steal a game a series or even 3 games on a run, I would take Calgary's chances to win very seriously.

This team is good to very good, but too streaky to really get anywhere. They need more consistency. I really believe that getting one front line C can fix 3 to 4 of these problems. The Flames have a small window here before their top guys get too old, or the cap goes down and they end up in financial hell, to win and satisfy the rabid Calgary fans and the expectations that seem to follow this sometimes great, sometimes well below mediocore team.

DOOOOWN the stretch they come

2008-02-02T12:57:00.000-05:00

In the days following Nasher getting hosed out of being the MVP of the All-Star Game, a number of things have transpired for the Jackets...

- "We're still in it!" has been through the press a number of times. Prior to dropping two straight to teams we're "in it" with, the Jackets were sitting 9th in a virtual tie.

- Jody Shelley got moved to the Sharks.

- Dick Tarnstrom was acquired for the blue line at the cost of Glencross.

- Pascal Leclaire looked human in Nashville.

The Jackets are still in it, more in it than they've been in their brief history. However, the two points looming against the Wild in Nationwide tonight are getting bigger as the game approaches. Can't afford to drop 3 games, or you'll be fighting to get back in it rather than staying in it. No Modin and no Feds won't help, but the rest of the boys in blue have showed they can step up and play in the absence of some of the vets.

Moving of Jody kind of came as a surprise. Him being scratched often wasn't a big surprise, but him not on the roster is a surprise. The guy meant a lot to the team and the community, so hopefully he returns when his NHL days are done. For now, he'll likely get a shot at some playoff games and provide the Sharks with some "punch." Best of luck to the big guy, and hopefully he gets enough games to earn his retirement package from the union.

The acquisition of Tarnstrom yesterday was a bit of a head scratcher. Again, not shocking, just didn't really see it coming. Glenncross, while fun to watch, is AnyNHLer on the 3rd line. He's solid, but not a standout. He'll fit in nicely in Edmonton, maybe even give the sagging Oilers a lift. Tarnstrom brings some puck moving, power play ability to the blue line for the Jackets. The question now: Is a blue liner on the move for the Jackets? Stay tuned.

Leclaire had a real downer against the Preds, but a few of his teammates joined him. Seriously, can we just put a beating on the Preds already? We'd ice the Western Conference All-Stars in Jacket jerseys against the Preds, and the Preds would get every bounce, call, and goal in the game. I'm sick of losing to these guys, especially now that they're no longer head and shoulders better than we are.

With 29 games remaining, the Jackets sit 2 points out of 8th place. Not unattainable by any stretch, but the wins are going to have to come to keep pace. Especially when you consider that the two losses this week are now ahead of us in the standings.

Can't take the All-Star fiasco

2008-01-27T14:00:00.000-05:00

I was watching...and not really enjoying...the skills competition last night, when they cut to an interview with Scott Neidermeyer. Scott told us during that interview that the All-Star weekend is, "a nice break in the middle of the season." Um, Scott, you've played 19 whole games. You didn't even start playing until the middle of the season, you need a break already? Maybe you shouldn't have un-retired if you're that worn out by this point.

Toss in Leclaire-gate, and is the point of the All-Star game to showcase the games' current stars, or the stars the NHL thinks should be stars? Neidermeyer getting added after Zubov went down is supposed to be rewarding him for his career as an all-star. OK, then why not take Sergei Fedorov? Mike Modano? Mats Sundin? Rob Blake? I mean, is it this season's all-stars or isn't it?

I understand it's an exhibition, and one that's gotten less entertaining over recent years. It's more of a pond-hockey-embarass-the-goalies type event than a "game." I'm fine with that aspect, but let's at least reward the guys who have survived and excelled the first half of the grind that is the NHL season.

There are two guys getting much needed rest right now rather than hamming it up in Atlanta which they're first half outputs say they should be doing: Brian Rafalski and Pascal Leclaire. Rafalski doesn't really need the rest to propel the Wings into the playoffs, but the days off could help Leclaire push the Jackets into the top 8.

Oh, yeah, the skills competition from last night, I only have one thing to comment on: Artistic merit has zero place in hockey. The rest of the skills comp went downhill from there.

Trade winds blowing

2008-01-20T11:47:00.000-05:00

The Calgary Flames are in a unique position in that they believe they have a Stanley Cup contender this year, but they are in a position to remain a good team for years to come. Kiprusoff, Iginla and Regehr are all locked up, at a discount, for the next 5 years. That is great, but they have glue guys such as Langkow, and to a lesser extent Conroy, coming up for unrestricted free agency. Kristian Huselius, who has been Iginla's best sidekick this season, is also up for UFA and is due a big raise. This is all without mentioning that satring all-star defenseman Dion Phaneuf is a restricted free agent at the end of the year and will no doubt be looking for at least a 5 year, likely towards a 10 year, contract.

So what to do? Well, right now, the Flames have enough cap space to bring anybody in to help with this year. The media up here is almost trying to talk the Flames into trading for Sundin. A line of Iginla, Huselius and Sundin would be near unstoppable. The Flames are also rumoured to be following Peter Forsberg's situation closely, though I can't see him choosing Calgary over Colorado, Nashville, Vancouver or (gulp) Detroit. If either of these guys are picked up, look for Sutter to add a depth d-man, a la Adam Foote (if the Jackets are out) and call the team ready to go for a run.

Whether they do this or something else, one thing that has become evident is that Tanguay is as good as gone. He makes $5 million a season and is a second line, 2nd PP and PK guy with the Flames. Don't get me worng, there is nothing wrong with his play, but that money is needed to sign more important pieces mentioned earlier. Montreal seems to be the most common link here, but look for Sutter, if he trades Tanguay, to trade for an upcoming UFA that he will have very little chance, or need to resign. Sergei Federov, a prospect and a pick anyone?

Stay tuned.

P.S. My apologies for not posting after Canada's big win over the U.S. I did however leave Tim a nice voicemail of the Team canada juniors singing the national anthem. I am sure he had tears in his eyes.

Nash's red mouthpiece not an issue...

2008-01-18T10:54:00.000-05:00

As noted last night, the signature red mouthpiece was missing from Ricky's mouth. Apparently, it wasn't the source of his mojo....

http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/hockey/comments/rick_nash_how_do_you_do/

My patience has worn thin...

2008-01-17T22:13:00.000-05:00

While the Jackets are playing well, I'm running out of patience for Malhotra and Chimera.

This post is coming mid-second period where I've seen Malhotra not see a wide open Dan Fritsche for a probable scoring chance. Or, worse, he saw him and didn't make the effin' pass. That was followed not long after by Chimera trying to chip the puck up the boards and failing to get it by the d-man, but he then just gave up on the play. Then a mere seconds later Manny has the chance to clear the puck by getting his body in front of it and...WHIFF!

Rumor has it the Rags want one or both of these guys...take them. Please.

Also of note from tonight's game, Nash doesn't have his signature red mouthpiece in. Maybe it's been a few games for him with the clear one, but I just noticed it tonight.

Canada v. US recap...US version

2008-01-04T17:18:00.001-05:00

Zukes has said he will give the Canadian side, so while I'm holding my breath for that I'll write up my thoughts...

I thought Mason in net and the Canadian defense clearing the few rebounds he gave up were the key. The US had a lot of firepower, but they were getting no second chance shots. Every time the US would get a decent scoring opportunity, it was swept to the corner before it was a serious threat. No traffic in and around the goalie at that level spells bad things for you on the scoreboard...4-1 bad.

The other thing I noticed, was that once the Canadians went on top, they just wanted it more. As the game wore on, that came through all over the ice. Not that the US kids didn't want it, but they hadn't trailed very much in the tournament so far, so getting behind and staying behind took its toll. Snapping the shutout was a moral victory at best, but moral victories at the World Juniors doesn't win you gold medals.

So, once again on the the bronze medal game for the US kids. They'll play Russia, a team the handled pretty well last week in a 3-2 victory. Can they do it again and get the bronze? We'll find out in the morning. (10am Eastern on the NHL Network.)

New favorite play-by-play phrase...

2008-01-02T23:07:00.001-05:00

With the Jackets out west and FSN Ohio not wanting to put Rimer and Gare on a plane, I'm watching the Ducks feed on FSN West.

During a power play for the Jackets, Klesa moved in and got a good shot off that sailed high, which prompted the play-by-play announcer to say:

"And Klesla gets a good shot off as he walks all the way into the ladies tees!"

It probably sounded funnier than it reads, but I hadn't heard that one before and got a good laugh out of it.

Karma's a funny thing...

2008-01-01T11:41:00.000-05:00

As I left the house last night, I grabbed a white Jackets hat off the coat rack by the door and commented to Wendy, "I hope somebody gets a hat trick tonight so I can get rid of this thing." Since the Jackets hadn't had a hatter at home since before the lockout, I figured on coming home with my most recently purchased and least favorite Jackets hat.

Then Rick Nash netted his second of the evening, a power play goal off a rebound. A rather Nashesque goal. With only 3 minutes left and a one goal lead following that goal, myself and about 16,000 other people figured we'd see Nasher on the ice with an empty net.

Unlike two nights earlier when Zherdev passed to Beech for the EN goal, thus passing up a hat trick of his own, Nash had nobody to pass to. His one option was to shoot it, setting off a flurry of hats from the stands. From my perch in 209 I took my hat off, looked at Wendy and said, "Honey, I get rid of this thing!" With that I launched it towards the ice.

Physics and wind resistance pretty much ensure I'm not going to get it to the ice, so we in the upper bowl rely on the kindness and hockey mindedness of others to get our hats to the ice. I followed it as it progressed towards the ice. It took three more throws, and it got to the second row. Then the guy in the second row picked it up, looked it over, and tucked it under his arm.

That's right, a hat destined for Rick Nash, or more specifically the hat bin in the concourse, was picked up by some cheap-ass in the second row, looked over, and determined to be a good find. On New Year's Eve, no less. If you're supposed to eat pork and sauerkraut on New Year's Day for good luck, what's stealing a hat trick hat got to do for the upcoming year?

The obvious hygiene concern of putting another, unknown person's hat on your head aside, that's just beyond poor hockey etiquette. The hockey gods will not look on this favorably, and hopefully they make the little scrote that kept Nash's hat pay and pay dearly...

NYE at Nationwide

2007-12-31T13:34:00.000-05:00

It's New Year's Eve which means the Jackets have a home game tonight, and there's plenty of "What happened last year?" articles and stories to partake. May as well add one of my own...the Jackets year in review.

Rapid fire style...

- Season ends on a high note, Hitch coaches just under .500 as coach, Norrena becomes first winning goalie in franchise history.

- Doug MacLean is fired.

- Repeat: Doug MacLean is fired.

- Hope is restored.

- Scott Howson hired as GM.

- Columbus hosts draft, the capacity crowd gives John H. McConnell a 5 minute standing ovation.

- Doug MacLean remains fired.

- Hitchcock opens training camp with the team in the best condition its ever been in.

- Rick Nash is confirmed to be a monster.

- Team has hottest start ever, the fans celebrate October rather than praying for it to end.

- Howson's budget minded acquisitions of Jan Hejda, Jiri Novotny, and Michael Peca pay dividends to the team. Later, Howson acquisition Chris Beech is called up and eventually rises to the first line.

- Nikolai Zherdev emerges as a dominant force on the ice rather than the pouting force we'd seen in previous years.

- Team lapses from hot start, but remains in the hunt when Santa delivers toys around the globe.

- Nikolai Zherdev makes Carolina defense look silly in a two goal, two assist effort on Dec 29.

And that brings us to this evenings game with the Oilers...the last game of the year. A year that saw as much change in Columbus since Bettman stood at a podium in '97 and said we were getting a team. A complete turnover in the front office has provided a new direction, and they offered no empty promises other than we'd be, "a hard team to play against." So far, so good...

Win or lose tonight, the Jackets will enter '08 above the .500 mark. A win at home combined with Detroit knocking off the Blews would have the Jackets sitting 9th heading into the new year. Not too bad for a team that's typically looking forward to golfing by now.

If '08 brings similar changes, then Jacketland might be celebrating their first playoff trip in a few months...

London to Columbus to Watch the Flames

2007-12-13T20:43:00.001-05:00

With my upcoming visit to Columbus on Tuesday to see the Flames, I figured that I would give the readers a glimpse into the visiting team that night.

First off, I have been going through a ton lately and just have little time to post my thought(s) about the Flames. It has nothing to do with their 4-10 November, as evidenced by the fact that I have done little in their 3-0-2 December either. I have in the last month, changed jobs, had my heart procedure and had a baby who every 2nd or 3rd night forgets that he's supposed to sleep.

The Flames were losing games in November for a variety of reasons. At least they tried to keep it interesting by finding a new way almost every loss. Some games it was blown leads, some they just were so snake-bitten in the scoring department (much like my man Sea) that it hurt to watch. Other times it was a complete lack of effort. Other times it was a sloppy mistake changing the momentum.

There were two constants in the losing. Subpar goaltending and subpar special teams. That will kill you in the NHL, no matter the level of talent you have on paper.

Let's face it, on paper the Flames have a ton of talent, but so far they have not lived up to that.

In December thus far, we have seen Vezina like goaltending from Kiprusoff and it has turned the team around...a little. They are still nowhere near contention. This type of play will move them up the standings and into a playoff spot, but any hopes of any type of playoff run lie with improving the PP and PK.Stanley Cup winning teams are almost always top ten in both the PP and PK.

Here's a little break-down of the Flames players thus far this season:

Playing below capability

Miikka Kiprusoff - He is starting to turn it around, but his numbers tell the story. No SO. 2.78 (down from over 3 a couple weeks ago) and a .895 save % (up from the 880's a couple weeks ago).

Rhett Warrener - has lost a step and is not the hitter that he used to be. Now strictly an average 5 or 6 d-man. Used to be a top 5 or 6 d-man who was capable of playing as a 4.

Mark Smith - has improved recently but has little offense as his 1 assist in 21 games would show. He is now carrying the puck a little more and is dropping the mitts with all the middle weights on an almost nightly basis.

Marcus Nilson - Gotta love the effort this guy puts in, especially since he's usually got a nagging injury. However, he is slowing down and is barely chipping in offensively. Still decent as a PK'er.

Stephane Yelle - see above.

Craig Conroy - I guess if you revert back to thinking of Conroy as a 3rd line defensive player, he is doing well. Howvere, he is still playing top 6 minutes and is not producing with only 12 points in 31 games. Still a leader and still a defensively sound player.

David Moss - was playing well other than scoring as that goalpost in OT in game 6 of the Wings series last year seems to haunt him. Better numbers were expected. Now injured.

Playing about as you'd expect:

Curtis McElhinney - hasn't seen much action but has been solid as a rookie backup.

David Hale - not sure why this guy has been sat out as often as he was when Eriksson was struggling. Would be a solid #6 on any team and fits that bill nicely here. Only one assist on the year but offense is not his forte.

Eric Godard - surprisingly can hold down a semi regular shift which is more than can be said for many enforcers. Rarely loses a fight. Still takes untimely penalties.

Dustin Boyd - all over the ice, creates a lot of chances. Offense will come.

Eric Nystrom - has a lot of his dad in him. Hopefully will turn into at least half the player that his old man was. Hits, fights, kills penalties. Not a lot of offense but really none is expected. A young Yelle without the faceoff prowess but tougher.

Anders Eriksson - would have been in the catagory above if I had done this 10 games ago, but he has turned around with more ice time. Weird. Has been dependable and even plays a decent #2 PP QB.

Robyn Regehr - pretty much bang on what you'd expect. One of the best defensive d-men in the game.

Owen Nolan - has struggled to score at times, but has been an agitator, generates chances, hits and works hard.

Adrian Aucoin - been consistent even if his scoring from the start of the year has been slowing down.

Matthew Lombardi - would have better numbers if played with Iginla and Huselius/Tanguay like he should be. Fast, fast and more fast from this guy. Dangerous on the PK. Still improving.

Dion Phaneuf - hits a little less which is good and bad. He picks his spots a little better but his hits sometimes change a game so a few more may be needed. His scoring is down, but that's mostly because teams key on him at the point now. His improvement will need to be in the playoffs where he has been medicore at best, injuries may have been a concern there though.

Alex Tanguay - shoot the fu^&$%g puck. This guy turns down more scoring opprtunities than a lot of guys get. He is creative though and is almost a point per game. Expect that to pick up as the Flames break out of their team wide scoring slump.

Kristian Huselius - started off on fire, slumped, now is getting confidence back. When his game is on, he can QB the PP from the half boards. Has some of the best one on one moves I have ever seen. Surprisingly effective when used on the PK.

Daymond Langkow - this was tough because he does more than the average person would expect from him, however since I have come to expect this guy to be the second best, and best on some nights, player on this team, he is right where you'd expect. With an improved percentage on faceoffs can literally do anything asked of him.

Playing above expectations:

Cory Sarich - I expected a #4 d-man and got a guy that is one of the best 3's in the league. The only thing that makes him a 3 and not a 2 is the lack of offense. Other than a game against Detroit where Datsyuk burned him twice, as consistent defensively as they get.

Jarome Iginla - should get consideration for the Hart if the Flames make the playoffs. On pace to break his point record for a season.

Not enough games to merit a ranking:

Wayne Primeau - only played 6 games

Tim Ramholt - one game

The apocalypse is upon us...

2007-12-12T21:44:00.000-05:00

The Jackets have defeated the Avs two straight games. Never mind that it took 6 years for the Jackets to manage two wins over the Avs at all...

So, down go the Avs a second straight game. This game was played like most of the games in October: hit, hit, hit, forecheck, hit a little more, play solid in your own zone. It was good to see the team get back to that.

In the middle of the hit, hit, hit portion of the game was Jared Boll...there's a shocker. Boller netted the game winner, too, and for his efforts he was given the #1 star of the game. Couldn't have been given to a harder working player tonight. Actually, I'm not sure Boll has taken a shift off since August.

There has been a troubling thing come out of the last two games: The total disappearance of Jason Chimera. He had a couple shifts where his feet got him into the play, but that's it. His head and hands just don't seem to be in it. This is a guy that the Jackets count on to be a leader on the ice and in the room, and of late he's been invisible on the ice.

So, off to Boston for the Jackets. Following that, they come home to play the Flamers. Zukes...the ONE TIME CONTRIBUTOR to Better On Ice...is making the drive down for the game. We anticipate watching hockey and drinking beer...not necessarily in that order...

Same old Central?

2007-11-25T22:34:00.000-05:00

It seems that somebody poked the Central division with a stick this year and has awakened a few teams...notably all of them not named "Detroit Red Wings." And while those teams have come to life, the teams named "Detroit Red Wings" sit atop the Western conference. So much for the theory that the Wings feast only on the poor sisters of the Central to rack up their playoff points. What's more, the Wings are currently the only team in the division with a losing record within the division.

Team	Record v. Central
Chicago	7-4-1
St. Louis	6-5-0
Nashville	5-2-2
Columbus	5-4-2
Detroit	4-5-2

"So what?" you say...well, against the rest of the West the teams in the Central are a collective 29-16-3, with 7 of those 16 losses belonging to Nashville. So, throw the Preds out, and the other four are 25-9-3 against the rest of the West.

Yeah, it's early, but we're almost to the quarter pole, and it's a noticeable trend. If it continues, there will be 3 or more teams from the Central playing in mid-April.

Something's rotten in Minny...

2007-11-23T23:47:00.000-05:00

No big secret that I'm not a fan of the Wild. They being the sweethearts of the NHL's class of 2000 and all. (Jackets haven't helped their own cause much, though.) Ugly unis that everybody think look nice, the little run to the playoffs in thier third year, and the never ending stream, "Jacques Lemaire's shit doesn't stink," articles that pour out of the media. The Jackets have had their successes against the Wild, but for every win there's a Wes Walz pants goal that makes you want to punch something wearing a Christmas colored hockey jersey.

Then came today's game...

The Jackets dominated. They out hit, out skated, out worked, out hustled, and out scored the Wild. The Jackets laid a full-on beat down on the cammo and Christmas colored clad warriors from southern Minnesota. Then when the going got tough and Minny tried to climb back into it, they didn't turn to their vaunted speed, or their big play guys, or even the Lemaire Plan we've heard so much about the last 7 years. Nope, the Wild did none of that, instead they attempted to turn the game into a World Cup soccer match. After a couple of the attempts at drawing a penalty, I half expected the stretcher bearer to come out just like FIFA requires.

Honestly, dropping that easy...Boogaard of all players went down like lawn chair in a stiff breeze...is embarrassing to the sport. Sadly, the refs bought into a few of them, including the aforementioned Boogaard double gainer with a twist. Fedorov got to sit for tripping when Wild Player tripped over the net trying to crash between it and Feds. Yup, the Jackets were the beneficiaries of a quick whistle, but Karma's a funny thing...

But then came the ultimate in homerisms out of the good folks in St. Paul. Allow me to run down the three stars from today's game. Keep in mind while reading these that the final score was 4-0 in favor of Columbus.

1. Rick Nash
2. Pascal Leclaire
3. Brian Rolston

Ignoring for a moment that the goalie getting a shut-out isn't the first start...Brian Rolston?? For what?? Leading the Wild in ice time and shots? That's noble, but you GOT SHUT OUT!! It wasn't a 1-0 goaliefest, it was a 4-0 kick in the junk. Peca and Nash had two point afternoons in addition to the big fat goose egg Leclaire pinned on the Wild, and the media in St. Paul saw fit to reward not Peca, but Rolston with a star of the game.

The writers from the State of Hockey just turned the puck over in their defensive end...kind of like the Wild did this afternoon.

Repeatedly.

Giving Thanks

2007-11-22T10:13:00.000-05:00

I'm sure that title won't be used anywhere on a blog today...

Yeah, last night sucked. The Jackets threw their biggest stinker of the season out there on Thanksgiving-eve to turn more stomachs than today's overeating will provide. They barely went through the motions. I hate to use the, "It's a long season," excuse here, but it is. However, recent trends are making you wonder if the hot start was the fluke rather than the current down time being the fluke. We'll have an answer to that by Christmas, probably.

But for today, there are a few things to be thankful for here in Jacketland.

Most importantly here I sit on Thanksgiving day and the Jackets aren't mathematically eliminated from the playoff race. The current string of bad play has bumped the Jackets to last in the Central, or tied for third depending on if your cup is half full or half empty. In the conference chart, the Jackets show up at 11th, tied with the same Preds and Blews that they are in the division, one point out of playoffs. For all intents and purposes, the Men of the Neon Bug are hanging in there. (Need to step up and take charge again, though.)

Next up on the thankful list is that Hitchcock has the guys believing in themselves and playing as a team. No more of guys taking themselves out of position and end up leaving gaping holes all over the defense. They believe in themselves, and that will carry them further than any Jacket team before them.

On the backend, Pascal Leclaire has given us plenty to be thankful for, too. Of late he's coming back to earth a bit, but, hey...it's a long season. (Sorry.) Beyond his play, I'm pretty thankful that he's still healthy, as I'm sure he and his teammates are too.

Other random thankfulness things for Thanksgiving day:

Rick Nash - [pick your own reason here, he's given a few hundred to choose from]
The emergence of Zherdev.
The fun of watching Jared Boll run into things.
The pairing of Foote and Hejda shutting down most opponents.

But, still at the top of that list is that the Jackets are still in the thick of things, and ship off to Minny tomorrow night to see if they can take another step forward. Hopefully they do...and then the rest of Columbus takes notice and we can be thankful for a full barn again.

4 game skid

2007-11-12T23:39:00.000-05:00

I'm not exactly ready to throw in the towel on the season after watching the Jackets drop four straight and earn one point out of the current run through the Central. However, I can't help but share a little concern with how they're going about it...

In Chicago: No fire at all, Blackhawks controlled the play for most of the game.

In Detroit: Detroit threw the classroom doors open and laid a beatdown on the Jackets.

In Nashville: Salvaged a point, but were lucky to get that point.

Home v. Nashville: "We secretly replaced the 07-08 Jackets with the 03-04 model...let's see if they notice."

The total lack of energy in all these games is what's disturbing. And it's not even the opponent getting the first goal and taking the wind out of our sails...there's no breeze available when the puck drops.

Early on, the Jackets were all over whoever the opponent was right away. The forecheck would be all over the place, turnovers were created, and scoring chances and goals resulted.

The last four games have been the opposite. The forecheck is coming from a few guys - notably Glencross and Chimera - but not everybody. There's no backcheck to speak of when just a few days ago we had guys streaking through the middle to get back in the play. Now we're seeing a lot of, "One of those guys will pick him up," type play.

Tonight against the Preds, however, an oldie but goodie reared its ugly head again...the no-look, "Oh, I hope somebody is there," chip pass. Usually, no, nobody was there...well, nobody with a Jackets jersey on, at least. The Preds and the occasional linesman were there, though. Biggest offenders were on the blue line, and Kris Russell reminded us all he was a rookie tonight with the no-look passes.

Special mention to Rusty Klesla on the evening for "Best impersonation of a turnstile by an NHL defenseman in a leading role."

Better on ice expansion...

2007-11-06T20:20:00.000-05:00

As with the NHL, we saw fit to expand here at Better on Ice. I'm sure the debate will rage on if we expanded too much and diluted the talent, or if we expanded to poor markets. I think we can address those issues now.

Talent dilution...um, well, probably not. I'd like to think I had talent to dilute, but I think the first two additions to the blog will add a little something. Zukes has already made himself known, and Sea should follow soon.

It is possible we expanded to the wrong markets...afterall I'm adding a Flames fan who lives in London and a Canucks fan who lives in Calgary. So, clearly we have some market identification issues.

But, the reasoning behind the expansion was to get some more voices on here. Some non-Blue Jacket voices at that. Get a little more overall hockey going, and I'm sure some good natured ribbing about the Flames and Canucks looking up the standings at the Jackets.

Welcome to me!

2007-11-05T21:41:00.001-05:00

Tim has invited me, his Canadian, beer swilling, hockey-loving, Calgary Flame fan buddy to contribute to his blog. I'm sure there will be more of an introduction and a little more about myself in future posts, but let's get right to the meat.

The Flames play their biggest rival this Thursday, and no it is not the Edmonton Oilers, that would be Saturday. No, their biggest rival these days is the Vancouver Canucks. They have had epic playoffs series' (Flames have a 4-2 advantage in all-time playoff series) in the past and their regular season games these days are about as intense as they get in the NHL. This intensity carries over to the fans as you will see when another new blogger joins this site.

The reason for this carry over to the fans, in my opinion, is that Vancouver fans have an inferiority complex when it comes to the Calgary Flames. A brief history: Vancouver was the first of the two to make the Stanley Cup finals in 1982 but they were easily dispatched by the mighty New York Islanders. The Flames made it in 1986 and similarly were taken out my the Montreal Canadiens. The Flames, however, didn't fade away afterwards, they were 3rd overall the following season, behind the Stanley Cup finalists Edmontona and Philly and then 1st overall the following season. They did lose in the first and second round respectively but 1988-1989 brought another first overall, a first round thrilling win over the Canucks (likely still a sore spot for many Lotusland fans) and then the only Stanley Cup championship in either teams' history. (They won in 6 games over Montreal and are the only visiting team to ever win the Stanley Cup on Montreal Forum ice). Vancouver made it again in 1994 but lost to the Messier-led Rangers.

Fast forward through some down years for both teams and in 2004, the Flames had a solid defensive team that nobody wanted to play in the playoffs. All we heard from Canucks fans was how boring Calgary was and that they would be no match for the offensive minded Canucks. Once again, they met in the first round, and once again, the Flames prevailed in 7 thrilling games, going all the way to the Stanley Cup finals and winning.... had there been a video review in Game 6 against the Lightning. Alas, there wasn't and the Flames lost Game 7.

Anyway, Vancouver must have liked what they saw as they moved to the exact same style that Calgary employed, getting Roberto Luongo and adding defensive defenseman (credit where credit is due, they did a good job) at the expense of offense.

All this adds up to a constant back and forth between Flames and Canucks fans that is heated and at times downright nasty, but it makes for a great rivalry. As you will no doubt see in the next day or two when another blogger joins here, it is a friendly rivalry as well, however neither of us will pull punches or pass up a chance to rub the other guys' face in a loss, a bad play or anything else that we think will raise the blood pressure of each other.

Russell the Rookie

2007-10-29T23:35:00.001-04:00

A lot of print has been devoted to Kris Russell, 3rd rounder in the '05 entry draft, and rightfully so. At roughly the same size as most of the JV players at Dublin Jerome, Russell isn't your typical imposing NHL defender. So, at 20 years old, what is he doing in the NHL?

Well, the kid can play hockey, and play it well. He moves the puck as well as any defenseman the Jackets have ever had on the roster. Some of his passes just make you ask, "How did that get through there?" And even lacking size, he's positionally sound on d...well, other than that one time he was out of position against Dallas.

The stats aren't glowing, he's got 2 points and is -1 (see: Out of position v. Dallas) through the first 10 games. A lot of what he's done in his first ten games in the league isn't showing up on the stat sheet so far...he's played solid d, but in the offensive zone he knows when to pinch and where. He had one rush where he just pulled away from everybody on the ice, then hit the post with his shot. He's set up Rick Nash with a pass through the crease, and he's shaken off checks from men 90 pounds heavier than him. So far, Kris Russell has made the decision to keep him seem like the right one.

On the flip side, Hitch has protected him so far, keeping his ice time under 15 minutes per game for the most part. In last Saturday's ugly-fest against the Sharks, Kris only had 11:16 of ice time, so when the game gets tight defensively, the rookie is going to sit. I think that's as much for his maturation process as it is for protection of the lead. Why throw the kids to the wolves when Rusty, Footer, and Hejda can eat the minutes and keep the puck out of our zone? No reason to pressure the kid too much.

But in the offensive zone, Russell has been a joy to watch so far. The speed and the hands have been a joy to watch so far. Sure, he's made his share of mistakes, he's still a rookie and has played all of 10 games so far, but he's still in there. I like what this kid brings to the table and can't wait to see more of it.

The Never Ending Shelley Discussion

2007-10-24T22:26:00.000-04:00

With the Jackets off to their best start in team history, and fresh off a shellacking of the Hawks 7-4 last night (nice to see the offense show up), we turn our attention to everybody's favorite enforcer: Jody Shelley.

I usually don't spend a lot of time concerning myself with Jody, he's a great guy, a great team guy, a great leader in the room, but his ice time in the big picture of the NHL is roughly the same as taking a leak in the ocean. Don't get me wrong, I believe the enforcer still has a place in the NHL, although it is a diminishing role. Jody is a victim of that as much as he is a victim of his own lack of pure hockey skills. (Not a knock on the guy, but we're not kidding anybody...he's no Curtis Glencross.)

However, it seems in various forums Jody gets more discussion time and bandwidth that he does TOI in a month. The never ending debate...is he eating a roster spot? Should he be dressed at home to satisfy his fans? Is he a dinosaur? (My answers to those are no, no, and no. Jody is at least assured of sticking around until the next Avs game...he has a date with Scott Parker, I'm sure.)

But, every so often, Jody's role gets confused. And confused in a way that makes me think to myself, "We're still an expansion city..." The latest of this comes from fellow blogger Tyler over at The Jacket Times. Tyler stated the following yesterday, which prompted my own blog entry in a counter-point kind of way...

"Shelley first seemed doomed when Tollefsen has solidified his place on the Jackets squad, but matter have only gotten worse this season with youngster Jared Boll. Boll is a scrappy winger who can score in addition to throw punches."

Here's my issue with this: Tollefsen is a hard nosed defenseman who plays the body as well as anybody on the team who happens to drop 'em on occasion. Boll is an agitator at the core, not an enforcer in any way. Sure, Jared will throw a few punches, but usually in self-defense after blasting somebody. Neither of these guys fill Jody's role. Basically, being able to fight does not make somebody the heavyweight enforcer.

There are plenty of guys on the roster who have been known to throw the gloves off...Footer, Chimera, Malhotora, and even Rick Nash has been known to chuck'em. That doesn't make any of them worthy opponents for Boogaard, Parker, or Parros.

Now, I can definitely agree with Tyler that Jody's role is diminishing, as are the three guys named above. It's almost as if coaches are now baiting other teams to dress their enforcer so they can scratch their own and basically shorten the other bench by one player.

However, a couple guys on any roster that can fight doesn't mean they're fighters. We're not better off with OKT or Boll in the box for five minutes at a time, their primary role is clearly something else.

So, what's changed?

2007-10-14T08:33:00.000-04:00

Jackets go to Denver and lose.

Jackets get behind and lose interest.

Jackets get a powerplay and can't get the puck deeper than the face off circles.

With last night's outstanding game, I belive the Jackets record against the Avs stands at 1-2,346-1. Put Avs jerseys on the boys that play hockey at Notre Dame and they'd beat the Jackets by 2.

Beyond the obvious "we can't beat the Avs ever" whining, what else was that? There was no energy like there was the three previous games. The forecheck apparently stayed in Columbus. The penalty kill started well, then acted like the rest of the Jackets game and fell apart at the seams.

Now, going forward I think Hitch will chew enough ass to get the ship righted. I doubt we see two games in a row like that, and hopefully don't see another game with that much disinterest out of the Jackets the rest of the season. But I'm beyond tired of losing to the Avs...the boys in blue need to step up and punch the Avs in the mouth the next time and take the game to them.

Observations from the Phoenix game

2007-10-11T20:20:00.000-04:00

Off the top, Shane Doan is a douche. Mr. Doan ranks at the top of my wife's most hated player list - God bless her - and he lived up to her low expectations right away with the cheap shot on Vyborny. Thankfully she was at home watching, so a very limited number of people heard the string of expletives. (And Alex's pre-school friends may learn some new words tomorrow.) After said cheap shot, enter Jared Boll.

Jared fears nothing, least of all Shane Doan and his hit-from-behind tatics. Whether by design or not, Boll and Doan ended up on the ice together about three shifts later...and Jared got a run on Doan, which he put to good use. Later in the shift he tried again, but Doan had a little something in the way of a shoulder for him...the homer in me says the second meeting was a draw.

At the start of camp nobody expects him to stick on the roster into the regular season, and last night he's netting his first goal roaring in on a breakaway. He also got 5 for fighting, so he was an assist away from the famed Gordie Howe hat trick. We'll give him a nod for planting Doan in lieu of the assist.

As for the rest of the Jackets, they were again spotted giving their opponent very little breathing room for most of the game. They forced turnovers, cycled the puck deep, made solid breakout passes, and continued the instant backcheck when losing possession. The last 8 or so minutes of the second period I could have done without, but they righted the ship and poured it on the Yotes in the third period.

So, through three games I like what I'm seeing, my question remains can they sustain it? Beyond that, what injuries can they weather without falling off too far? I like the intensity, the forecheck, the backcheck, and the overall "in your face" type game. I think it'll carry the Jackets further than we've seen in Columbus, but I don't know if it'll be enough. Fingers crossed...

Individual player notes...

Peca - good to finally see him on the ice. Even with his ice time limited, he was a noticeable factor in the game, and was inches from a rebound put-back from having his first goal as a Jacket last night. He shook off the slapshot he blocked, which I think caused more than one gasp in the arena.

Nash - the kid is a monster. Does what he wants, when he wants. Combine him with Modin, and there's a tandem with enough size to scare any defensive paring in the league. Last night they cycled low often, and effectively. Give them a few games together, and it'll turn into goals.

Russell - I like what I'm seeing, but you can see a bit of hesitation in his step. That hesitation has lead to his very limited number of mistakes. The more ice time this kid gets, the more confidence he'll play with. By Christmas we'll forget he's a rookie...maybe by Halloween.

Zherdev - through three games, he might have been our best overall player on the ice. His backchecking has been relentless, and even though he's still not making some passes he should make, he's passing more. Once he makes some of those passes, the ice will open up more for him. I like what I've seen out of Nikki so far.

Too bad we have to wait until Saturday for the next game...

First weekend out of the way

2007-10-07T18:11:00.000-04:00

The Jackets got through the opening weekend back to back with a 1-1 record. Opening night was impressive, while the trip to Minny not so much. It wasn't an ugly, cower in the corner performance, but it was a loss. Minny is a pretty good team, though, and very quick to make a turnover into a scoring chance. The Jackets could have won the game, but they'll need to take better care of the puck through the middle of the ice.

On the upside, the Jackets power play is clicking at 30.8%...50% on the road, thanks to the Wild committing two penalties during the game and the Jackets cashing in on the first one. To go with that power play is a kill that has yet to yield a goal and has scored a goal. Granted, it's only two games, but it's looked pretty strong so far.

Now for a couple days break to prepare for Phoenix to come to town. A few questions come to mind before the Yotes get here: Will we continue to go with 7 defenseman, 11 forward line-up or does Jody get a start? Will Nash get off his one game scoreless streak and find the net again?

What was THAT??!!??

2007-10-05T23:54:00.000-04:00

OK, Jacket Fan, we were shown something entirely different than we're used to tonight. We saw a team totally dismantle another team, and the Jackets did the dismantling. It was amazing. It's tough to not get mildly excited by that.

The checking was great. The back check was excellent, and instant. As soon as the Jackets lost the puck, the back check was on, and forced more than one turnover. The forecheck was solid, too. At times in the game, Anaheim tried to take control but couldn't. And the frustration mounted.

I didn't see the Boll elbow, but can't think it was very good. I like what Jared brings to the table, but keep the elbows down kid. We don't need a Steve Downey on our hands...

Other notes: Apparently this Nash kid can play a little hockey. Russell looked excellent in his NHL debut. Lost in all the play by the forwards and defenseman was Leclaire's shutout...he didn't have a lot of work, but he did the job when asked.

I can't wait to see what happens in Minnesota tomorrow night, now...

Roster being pared down

2007-09-30T15:56:00.000-04:00

According to the Puck Rakers blog, Derrick Brassard has been sent to Syracuse. I like the idea, give the kid some ice time. He got his taste of the NHL, and will likely get a call-up during the season, but by sending him down with the #1 center spot still up in the air you're basically saying, "Not yet, kid, go work your butt off."

In the past, Brassard may have hung around a few games, or the whole season. May have been touted pretty hard to be the #1 center, and to be honest the kid might have the skills to pull that off during camp. But, we don't want Derrick Brassard to be a work-in-progress #1 center of right now, we want him to be the definite #1 center in the years to come. So, off to the AHL to hone those skills...welcome to the new regime.

For the hypocritical flip-flop, it appears Kris Russell is here to stay on the blue line. I wish I had seen more of him in the pre-season than I did, but all accounts in the paper and online are that he may have been the best defenseman overall in training camp. That's a pretty strong vote of "keeper." Of course, if he gets overwhelmed, the opportunity to send him to the Crunch still remains, but I'm guessing he doesn't get overwhelmed.

So, six days from training camp, everything appears to be shaping up nicely. Jared Boll is still in camp, and rightfully so. The whole #1 center mess continues to rear its ugly head, and the current center du jour is Malhotra...um, OK. If the roster as it stands can get off to a good start, the inevitable return of Foote, Modin, and Peca should make it better.

I hope...

Training camp, day 2

2007-09-15T14:24:00.001-04:00

"Just because the Goddamn puck comes out doesn't mean we quit playing! We go 'til the whistle!"
-Ken Hitchcock

Those words were after about 7 guys stopped skating when the puck came out of the zone. Hitch wasn't red faced, but the offenders took notice and didn't make the same mistake again. Neither did any of the other guys on the ice at the time.

And, those words describe pretty much the feel to training camp today...don't quit playing. It was up tempo, there was hitting, there was crisp passing, there was an all around workmanlike aspect to it. There's no loafing, not half-assing things. It doesn't mean this team is automatically playoff bound, but I think it does mean a change in attitude is already here.

I got to the Ice Haus at 9am today, so I saw all of Team White. Left a little before noon, so I saw about half of Team Blue. (Training camp roster.)

From Team White, a few impressions...

Derick Brassard is impressive. His skating is second to none, he's bulked up a little since we last saw him in Nationwide, and he's got a few skills. He left Fedorov flat footed on a move across the zone one time that raised a couple oohs. He looked pretty comfortable on the ice, too. He was skating with Chimera and Jiri Novotny, so no lack of speed in those three.

Chris Russell looked pretty solid. He's not real big, but he's never out of position and he's strong with the puck. Like to see a little more of him before saying he's awesome, but he looked pretty good.

Marc Methot was solid. He smoked a couple guys at the blue line, never backed down from anybody, and knocked Shelley off the puck a couple times. (No, Jody didn't just lose the puck, Methot removed him from it.) I was impressed overall by Marc's practice.

Gilbert Brule....wow I want this kid to step up, but I didn't see it this morning. He almost looks tentative, like he doesn't want to make a mistake. So he's skating 95% when he needs to be going full speed. On the upside, when they were cutting the ice, he went up to Feds and asked a few questions, and Fedorov provided plenty of feedback. They skated on the same line during practice, and when they weren't skating, you could see Feds pointing things out to Brule.

Ole-Kristian Tollefsen has picked up right where he left off. If there was a loud "BOOM!" from the boards, he was usually on the giving end of it. He gave no ground in his own zone, and was consistently the best defenseman in the group. Like to see him paired up with Russell for a pre-season game.

Chris Mason is going to make a lot of people in London smile this year. He flashed the glove a couple of times to snag pucks behind him, one got stick taps from his teammates while the crowd gave him a cheer.

Adam Foote left the ice early in the session. No word on what happened, he just kind of disappeared between drills.

From Team Blue, a few impressions...

The Nash-Zherdev-Vyborny experiment is beyond intriguing, I'm almost hoping it becomes a reality. These three were all over the place when they were out there together. If one of them can win face-offs, it could be interesting.

Rick Nash is as large as I've seen him. He was impressive all over the ice, but especially in front of the net. He had two or three different moves in one-on-one drills that crossed up the defenseman. At least one spin move that got a cheer out of the crowd, and an over all bull-in-a-china-shop approach to offense.

Geoff Platt kind of stood out, for his feet of course. I'm just amazed by how fast this guy is every time I see him.

I didn't see more of the team drills of this group as I had to leave, so not much more on the individuals. To be honest, I was pretty much focused on Nash, which was entertaining all by itself...

Training camp opens

2007-09-14T21:32:00.000-04:00

...and I've got NOTHING.

Didn't make it to the Ice Haus at all today, might not even make it tomorrow. It's possible my first look at the 07-08 Blue Jackets will be Sunday night against the Preds. Not a bad thing, but I'd like to catch them sooner.

Off to feeling shame for not making day 1...

Center of attention

2007-08-27T22:06:00.000-04:00

The Dispatch gave us a great summertime article this past Sunday about all the fun that's about to happen at center. Svitov out, Peca in. Feds still here. Brule and Brassard as unknowns. Fritsche getting another shot in the middle. Seems the only thing for sure is Malhotra has the fourth line spot nailed down. (It's his to lose.)

Want to toss some more fuel on the fire? What the heck...

I've heard this little nugget from a few different people, people that don't even know each other so they have no reason to have shared said info. But, rumor has it one Nikolai Zherdev might get a look at center during training camp and into pre-season. Raised my eyebrows the first time I heard it.

Guess with no true, clear cut #1 center, may as well give the kid a look...it'll give him a few more responsibilities to not do. Or, maybe he'll sack up and be a solid center. No doubt he's got the hands for it, just have to see if he has the defense for it. And the, um, head for it.

So, it sounds like a little experiment could be in place...or maybe not. Brule and/or Brassard could render the experiment moot if they drop some jaws. Worst case is still Fedorov on the top line, there are worse options. Though, if somebody can supplant him on the top line, we suddenly have Fedorov and Peca in the middle of lines 2 and 3. Modin with Feds and Chimera with Peca should provide some pretty good defense and some scoring punch.

Has training camp opened yet??

Dinner with my source...

2007-08-22T23:44:00.000-04:00

As some of my more loyal readers - both of them - may know, I play a little beer league hockey with a guy who works for the Jackets. To protect the innocent we'll refer to him only as Nikolai, because on the beer league ice he is the toe drag.

So, Nikolai has returned from his summer vacation in...um, well somewhere north of Buffalo. He's been back for a few days and is hard at work under Hitchcock's watchful eye. Yup, those stories in the Dispatch are true, the coaches are at it. (And apparently, if you're a Hitch stalker, your best chance to catch him is at Mega Wrap on Front...sit back and wait, he'll get the tuna wrap. Seriously, a dude that big I thought FOR SURE would have better taste in food.)

So, here's my evening with Nikolai. The fact that we dubbed dear Nikolai "The worst inside source in the history of sports" last year should not be overlooked...

TW: So, Nikki, how was the summer?
Nikolai: Pretty good. I drank a lot of beer. Mrs Nikolai was OK with that, who am I to let her down?

TW: This is your first year without Doug, how's it going so far?
N: Doug's gone? Oh yeah...sorry, I met that Scott guy once, figured he was just a puppet for Doug. Doug's gone, really? Wow, could be an interesting year.

TW: You gonna miss Svitov?
N: Who? Svitargh? Oh, the guy that got replaced by Peca this afternoon? No, not going to miss him. Excited about Peca, though. Dude makes a mean appletini.

TW: How's Nash looking?
N: The Nash kid has got a good chance of making the squad out of training camp. Real good chance.

TW: I'm hearing good things about Kris Russell, what have you got?
N: Oh, he's got the tools, weighs 124 pounds soaking wet, though. Hopefully we send him to Syracuse...he can get a few games in before Duvie gets hurt.

TW: So, overall, you like our chances this season?
N: As sick as it sounds, yeah, I like our chances. I'm a bit biased, but I could see us making a nice run this season.

That was this evening's beer and wings with Nikki. Look forward to more non-information as the season progresses.

No mo Svitov, replaced with Peca?

2007-08-19T17:44:00.000-04:00

The end of the Sydor experiment seems to have arrived with Alexander Svitov opting to stay in Russia, apparently forever. On the one hand, losing Svitov creates a crunch at center where the Jackets lack of depth just got exacerbated by losing one of the more highly regarded guys for the upcoming season.

On the other hand, it appears this has created a buying opportunity for Howson and Co. The list it topped by Michael Peca, who has made the Dispatch both yesterday and today. It appears it's the Jackets v. the Rangers for the services of Mr. Peca. As luck would have it, the Rangers are up against the salary cap, so the cap could come into play for this signing.

There are a few other options out there, all of the older, late in the UFA season variety. But, Peca and Howson were together for the Oiler's run to the finals a couple seasons ago, and that can't hurt the Jackets chances. And it can't possibly go worse than signing Carter last year, can it?

Oh how I've missed Doug

2007-08-09T16:55:00.000-04:00

Of relative importance to us here in Jacketland is that Doug MacLean has landed on his feet and taken a minor ownership role in Tampa. I read that the other day, and thought that it was good that he was right back into the NHL in some manner. After all, his passion for the game is undeniable, and having him in the league is probably a good thing. Well, it's at least no worse than Brian Burke pouting about the rules.

Then Doug gives his welcome speech and proclaims that he didn't like the Blue Jackets payroll last season, insinuating that somehow he didn't have the tools to get it done. Since he didn't have the resources, he lost his job. Because of that one season where his payroll was low, he was handcuffed to make any moves and was subsequently shown the door. Whether the payroll was 28th in the league according to Doug, or 24th in the league according to the cap and Aaron Portzline doesn't really matter, it was easily in the bottom third of the league, and Doug was powerless to do anything about it.

My grandad would have been thrilled to spread a load of such high grade fertilizer on his fields back when he was farming. Using Doug grade manure, grandad would have grown enough corn to solve the both the worlds hunger problems and produced enough ethonol to put the Middle East out of business. Where was Doug when grandad needed him?

Back to Doug...a couple minor discrepancies I'd like to point out in Doug's theory...

1) While in a contract dispute with Nikoali Zherdev, the payroll was pretty easily upped to land Anson Carter. Anson was a real steal, and even though I argued in his favor...well, I was an idiot. What a piece of crap, but the point here is Doug had the money to go get him.

2) After landing said POS on the wing, Doug then threw more money at Zherdev. So, after expanding the payroll by Anson Carter, he got to add to it more than he'd anticipated with Zherdev.

3) How much does Sergei Fedorov make? No, Doug didn't sign that one, but he traded for it, and it upped his payroll just a smidge.

4) Adam Foote.

OK, with those minor points out of the way we can get down to some other things that Doug may want to consider. Not the least of which is that he had 6 years to make something work in Columbus, not one season with a low payroll. He had 7 drafts in which to build the team, and although a couple reasonable guys were landed, a couple of real question marks were as well. Look no further than Zherdev for the first head scratcher. Vanek, Phaneuf, and Suter may have been decent selections that year, Doug.

Here's what really irks me...I went to bat for this guy online for quite a while, right up until I got sick of his BS about last November. I'm fairly patient with my sports teams - I'm a Reds and Bears fan after all - and my patience ran out with Doug. So, after years of standing up for him, supporting his decisions, and even seeing the upside in most of the moves, he turns and stabs me and the rest of the Jacket fans right in the back in his first press conference. He may as well have just opened with, "I hate Columbus because I got fired there," and ran with it.

I thank Doug for all he did on the local hockey landscape. He did a lot of things for the sport at the grassroots level here. However, he had the only hand in building the Jackets, and it's not his fault that they didn't succeed in 6 seasons? Somewhere grandad's manure spreader is weeping for just hauling regular ol'bullshit all those years...

Nashville Recap

2007-08-06T19:58:00.000-04:00

I did have a little free time over the weekend, but honestly didn't feel like blogging between games. So, now that things are over and I've made it home...

Once again, we didn't get to play in the extra game. In three trips south, I've yet to see the championship game, we always fall a couple goals short.

After winning our first game, we got blown out in our second game by a team from Windsor. This was one heck of a team, they moved the puck so well and found the open man a lot. After facing 6 shots in our first game, Paulie faced 6 shots before we made it to our offensive zone in the second game. He got his money's worth out that one. But, the guys from Windsor were a good bunch to play against, even while whooping us. A bit of an intra-squad dust up made the post game interesting, but aside from that we looked forward to getting into the third game with a good chance of getting to the finals.

In the third game, we took the first 8 or so minutes off...and were down 3 goals quickly. We were playing the Stars from Alabama, the third straight year we've played them, and it was another good, hard played game. We managed to get within a goal at 4-3 late in the game on a great "Rogers family" tic-tac-toe goal.

With about 5 minutes left, the Stars changed goalies, which technically isn't allowed under tournament rules. However, their starter was hurt, and we're there for the fun of the tournament, I didn't really want them to put the injured guy back in, so I said OK to the sub goalie. Besides, we'd gotten 9 or so past him the night before.

We didn't get another goal, though. We stacked the lines and pulled the goalie, but to no avail. They ended up scoring a power play goal with about 3 minutes to go, so the final score was 5-3.

Now on to the important stuff...where we did our drinking...

First stop on Friday night was at the Flying Saucer, home of 80 beers on tap and 200 plus beers on the 4 page menu. They have the UFO Club, where you get a saucer on the "Ring of fame" around the top of the restaurant for drinking 200 different beers. Similar to the Winking Lizard's "Beers Around the World" except there's no time limit at the Flying Saucer. I didn't sign up for it, though was quite tempted. Maybe next time...means I'll have to drink the same three beers I had Friday again. Bummer. (Those three being the Rogue Dead Guy Ale, Anchor Steam (both on tap) and a Stella.)

After the Flying Saucer, we headed to a small strip of bars on Donnebrun street that was recommended by our waitress. Turns out our college age waitress sent us to a strip of college bars. We ended up at bar named Dan McGuiness, and was the first Irish pub I'd been to that didn't really fit the pub style...at least in its patrons. But, they had beer on tap, so we sat in the back and watched the Rogers boys work their magic with the ladies. That in and of itself was rather entertaining.

Saturday night, we started by getting our free 10oz domestic draft beer at Logan's steakhouse near the rink. Following that, we headed downtown for the evening. Bill and Fish scouted ahead for a place to eat, and wound up at Bailey's sports bar. Bailey's is the home of the infamous $11 beer from my first visit to Nashville back in '03 for the Jacket Backers road trip. This time I didn't order a Sam Smith's IPA, but rather got two 26oz Leinie's honey wheat beers. And a black and bleu burger.

Following dinner, it was off to the Fiddle and Steel once again. As always, it didn't disappoint. Reasonably priced beers brought promptly by the waitress while we took in the music. The beauty of the Fiddle and Steel is in its simplicity. It doesn't pretend to be anything other than a bar with a stage, and I love it.

So, another successful trip to Nashville. Hockey was played, beer was consumed, and it was an all around good time. Already looking forward to next year.

The Country Classic in Nashville

2007-08-03T20:56:00.000-04:00

Every summer a group of us heads to Nashville to play in an adult tournament. This is the weekend for it, and we're one game into the tournament so far. We managed to win our first one, and it was pretty much a blow out. They don't show any more than a four goal lead on the scoreboard, so it said 5-1 for a long time. I think we scored closer to 9 goals, but it doesn't matter. I did manage to get my first goal in three trips south.

Now with the hockey out of the way we can concentrate on the reason we drive down...the drinking. First stop is the Flying Saucer, where they have 80 different beers on tap. After that, who knows. We'll be at Printers Alley at some point, but not sure if it'll be tonight.

We've got a decent break tomorrow, so hopefully I can get a few more updates in.

Old NHL back or not?

2007-07-07T11:15:00.000-04:00

After the smoke cleared last Sunday night, many a media pundit was touting that the old NHL had returned. That because the Rangers, Avs, and Flyers landed big name, big dollar free agents that the big markets had returned with a vengence. The "small" market teams on either side of Manhattan from the Rangers weren't spending much, and were getting taken apart pretty much. That didn't seem to matter to the ones writing the articles, though. The Wings dipped into the UFA pool for one big signing, didn't seem to matter to "them," though. The Leafs signed...um, well, didn't matter to "them" for all their "Old NHL is BACK!" articles.

Then it happened. July 6th the traditional big market, "buy up all the talent we can" Edmonton Oilers made a $50 million, 7 year offer sheet to Thomas Vanek. Vanek's current employer, the big spending, money is no object Buffalo Sabres matched the deal, there by locking up Vanek for 7 years.

No Rangers, no Wings, no Stars, no Avs, no Flyers...so no articles about how the system is broken and the small markets will once again be shut out. Kevin Lowe may not have made the brightest move in the world, and may have irked every team in the league in the process, but he also didn't fit popular opinion very well. Nary an article about how the big spending Oilers were screwing up the league. Nothing about the big market Sabres returning spending to its pre-lockout levels. Come on, guys, where are your panic inducing columns?

Will the deal handcuff the Sabres for the next 7 years? It certainly won't help them, especially with the annual salary cap rise. I don't think the market size is the big player here as much as raising the cap beyond a number of teams' budgets every year. The cap will keep one or two markets from snapping up all the high dollar talent, but the league is going to have some explaining to do if they continually claim higher revenues when you see tons of empty seats in a number of markets and know there's no TV deal to speak of. The resurgence of the Canadian dollar against the US dollar has helped, but even that's not going to continue forever.

All in all, I'm willing to give the New NHL another season or two before calling it dead and burned in a pile of money in Madison Square Garden. These long term, front loaded deals might not work as well as planned. Even with a higher cap, planning ahead and drafting will is still going to be the key to winning for more than one season. And who knows, the big money Flames might make an offer sheet to Sidney Crosby that the big spending Pens will have to match...

Howson is the one

2007-06-14T00:05:00.000-04:00

So, according to the Dispatch, the Jackets have hired Scott Howson to be the next GM of the Jackets. Unless Scott pulls himself out of the race in the next 24 hours, it looks like he's the man in the chair.

Personally, I think it's great. I don't have a huge bit of comparing to do of Bob Murray v. Scott Howson. But, I have this: Howson has spent the last 7 years in Edmonton, the poster child for small market NHL teams who seem to win more often than they lose. Bring that small market talent to Columbus, a mid-market team who needs a few wins to stretch that to upper mid-market team and we could have something here. With Priest watching the books and Howson stretching a dime, the Jackets could prove to be a major pain in the ass for Cup runs in the coming seasons.

Will it happen this season? I'm not hanging my hat on it, there are some pretty big holes in the roster. A full season of Hitch is a good thing, but is that enough? There will be improvements over last season's roster, I'm sure, but good enough for the 23 point jump needed to get to the playoffs? 12 wins? We'll see...

For now, I'm glad the GM search is over, and I do like the idea of Howson at the helm. He's an up and comer with front office experience, and decent experience at that. The draft will be his first big item...and it's in his new backyard. Can't wait.

The Hockey Gods

2007-06-11T00:10:00.000-04:00

We've all heard about or referenced the Hockey Gods at some point. For the most part, the Hockey Gods see that things go evenly over the course of time. Hockey Karma, if you will.

Well, the Hockey Gods have a little work to do in the future. I'm usually not one to blog about the beer leagues, or even worse complain about beer league officiating. After all, beer league refs go to jobs the next day like the players do. Tonight, however, the Hockey Gods are not smiling...

In our league there is a rule that a player can score at most 3 goals in any one game. After the third goal, the player's goal won't count. The purpose of the rule is to keep upper tier players from playing down and scoring all they can to help their teams win.

So, this evening's game in the beer league got a bit interesting. There was a certain player on the other team...well call him "Douche"...that was at least a league above, probably two. Douche scored the first three goals for his team, two breakaways and a cross crease tap-in. The game was 3-3 after said tap-in, but now he's done scoring. He had three breakaways after that, we backed off because he couldn't score. He knew it, didn't even bother shooting on two of them and put the puck off the side of the net on the third. Even better, after scoring his third goal Douche was taking the face-off when one of his teammates said that he couldn't score any more. He replied, "I know, but I'll keep shooting for rebounds, go to the net." Fair enough, I thought.

Well, late in the game, we have a 5-4 lead after a great put back by Zach. There was less than a minute left. Douche's team calls time out and pulls the goalie. 20 seconds later, Douche scores and all hell breaks loose...

The refs check the scorebook, they credited his third goal to the wrong player. Apparently during the time out Douche's team checked on that, so when he scored, all was well with them.

But, here's the thing...Douche grew up next to one of the guys on our team, and wouldn't even look him in the eye after it was all going on. There was a huge argument, as you can expect, that included our goalie telling the ref's each puck he stopped and didn't stop. The scorekeeper or the ref screwed up earlier, and that was OK with Douche's team because they had just tied it up. Even though everybody in the rink KNEW he had three goals, they allowed the fourth to stand and sent the game to OT.

In the mess, we drew a couple penalties for various expletives, so we ended up losing the game in OT...but did we lose? We played by the rules and attempted to have said rules enforced and were thrown in the box because of it. We had a guy with three goals, he made passes the rest of the game, set people up, and had he put an fourth in would have said, "Hey, that was my fourth one."

So, somewhere Douche is happy with himself for winning a beer league game by breaking the rules. Good for him...but the Hockey Gods will likely set it straight, and at a time he least expects it.

The best part, even if it works out for them, the most they get is a t-shirt. I know I want to cheat for that $10 t-shirt...nice work Douche and Co.

Ducks go up 2-0

2007-05-30T23:44:00.000-04:00

Ducks just won 1-0 to take a 2-0 series lead on the Sens, and on the heels of my last post I'm on the edge of my seat to see the excuses flow tomorrow on why the Sens lost. (Rather than why the Ducks won.)

My own opinion is that the mighty Sens offense has been dismantled thus far. They got off a very Jacket-esque 16 shots for the game, 5 in the oh-so-important 3rd period. Prior to the Ducks goal, the Sens had 3 shots in the third...so down a goal and staring a 2 game deficit in the face they mustered 2 shots on net. I'd be intrigued to see scoring chances, because they had more than two chances with Emery pulled. But, either way, 16 shots in the Stanley Cup finals out of a team with a downright scary offense is impressive...for the Ducks, that is.

The Ducks once again outhit the Sens, 36-28 this time. The forecheck came to life, and the forced turnovers were once again a big factor. Gotta hand it to Heatley, Pahlsson was wide open for the pass he gave him. (And then Sammy finishing by sending between the wickets of a defenseman...impressive.) So, the Ducks checking line nets the game winner again. This checking line is making a name for itself, and as much for the scoring as for the shutting down of the Sens big line.

On to game 3 in the Great White North. Unfortunately, I'll be flying over the Great White North on my way to Alaska during game 3, so I'll miss it. Not sure Mom has a DVR, either. Doesn't matter...we don't land until 4am EDT, I probably won't be much in the mood to watch the game at that point.

Any more excuses for the Sens?

2007-05-30T19:56:00.000-04:00

Game 2 is about to start, so I'm a little behind on my game 1 thoughts, but I needed a couple days to get all the excuses out of our friends to the north...

If you're a hockey fan, then you know 90% of your news comes from Canada. With a Canadian team in the finals, that media is going to slant to said Canadian team. (No real shock there...unless you're Damien Cox, I guess.)

So, in the last two days, here's what I learned about game 1:

The Ducks have re-introduced obstruction to the game, and the New NHL turned a blind eye to it. (0 interference calls were made on the Ducks, 1 on the Senators. Interesting...)
When the Ducks weren't keeping the Sens out of the offensive zone, they were running Ray Emery. Goalie contact this season isn't a new gripe, but if the puck is free, the guys pursuing it are going to pursue it pretty hard.
And the latest entry in the Sens downfall...Bad Ice. Excellent!

In the Game 1 I watched, I saw the Sens jump out to an early lead on a power play. I saw the Ducks not panic, and then watched them step up the pressure. The forecheck was a thing of beauty as the game wore on. The Sens capitalized on another power play opportunity (they're going to get a few), and the Ducks again didn't panic. The forecheck continued, and the checking line of Moen, Neidermeyer, Pahlsson did an outstanding job at both ends of the ice.

I didn't see the obstruction, I saw the Ducks beating the Sens to a lot of pucks. I did notice a lot of action around and on top of Emery, but the puck spent a lot of time in that end of the ice. I didn't notice bad ice, but as it turns out both teams played on the same sheet of ice.

Here's to a great Game 2, hopefully every bit as great as Game 1. And if the Ducks win, I can hardly wait for the excuse parade on why the Sens lost rather than why the Ducks won.

The Finals are Finally underway

2007-05-28T20:18:00.000-04:00

Our Super Bowl-esque wait between the conference finals and Stanley Cup Finals is over. In that time we've learned that all of Canada is behind Ottawa...well, duh. Wonder how long it took some "pundits" to figure that one out?

So, now that they're here, a couple of notes offf the top...

Ottawa did manage to find their way to California. That was in question, I believe.
Steven Stills was an embarrassment to the anthem, and by extension all of America.
Whitney Houston's rendition of the Star Spangled Banner can't hold a candle to Rosanne Barr HUMMING Oh, Canada. Greatest anthem ever. (And I can't wait to hear it in Ottawa...half English, half French, sang by the entire crowd...great stuff.)
Ottawa's power play still works...1-0 Sens as I type.

Here's to a good final. Here's to more stories about how it's ignored in the US. While the "pundits" whine about the NHL's TV ratings, they'll likely forget to look up that the NHL ratings are steady while the NBA's ratings are in a double digit free-fall. That's OK. I'm watching, and that's all that matters in my house.

And the list is four...

2007-05-26T20:50:00.001-04:00

According to the Dispatch tonight, the Jackets have narrowed the GM field to four. Jim Clark, Don Boyd, Neil Smith, and Bob Murray.

Clark and Boyd are already on the staff, so I'm not so hip to them getting a promotion. Though, without Doug lording over them I'm sure they have ideas of their own that could be worthwhile. However, I'm not all that anxious to go down the rookie GM route again, and both these guys would be rookies in the truest sense of the word, with a good bit of their recent experience watching another rookie GM try (and fail) at building an NHL team from scratch. And, as mentioned in the paper, Boyd is our amateur draft expert...not liking that as the biggest feather in his cap. (I know hindsight is 20/20, but raise your hand if you'd like to have Thomas Vanek, Milan Michalek, or Ryan Suter in a Jackets uni. Those were the next three picks after Zherdev.)

Neil Smith intrigues me. This is the guy that build the '94 Cup team in New York, and was the guy that held the GM position for 3 hours on The Island this past summer before Garth Snow took over. Smith ran into some issues with the Rangers when he ran out of prospects and started buying up all the talent he could, which lead to his demise in 2000. In cap-ville, that landscape has changed. So, for all intents and purposes, Neil has yet to GM a team since the Jackets have been in the league.

Bob Murray seems to be the shooting star of the moment. He's currently hitched to the Ducks playoff run as VP of Hockey Operations where he oversees all aspects of player development...given the age of the Jackets roster, player development is in dire need here. He did have a short stint in Chicago as GM. And, let's be honest, what's a GM in Chicago really do except try to retain guys with the belly button lint and pesos he's given by Wirtz.

In all honesty, I think we're down to Murray and Smith, either of which would be a step in the right direction for this franchise. Personally, I'd like to see us get Murray. Then again, I wanted Andy Murray as coach back in November, so maybe I just want somebody named Murray involved. Is Anne Murray available to sing the anthem(s) next year?

No more Nashville

2007-05-24T20:42:00.000-04:00

Doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that Jim Balsillie is buying the Preds for one reason - move them to the Great White North. That's why he went after the Pens, and when that fell through, up step the Predators...owners of three straight playoff trips, and the 22nd best attendance in the league.

Personally, I'm a huge fan of Nashville and attending hockey games there. I've been to two playoff games, two regular season games, the '03 draft, and our annual pilgrimage for the Country Classic in August. There's a lot to do in Nashville beyond the game, so it makes for a great road trip, especially considering it's within six hours of Columbus.

But, it looks like my days to make trips down for NHL hockey are officially numbered, and that number might be less than 365. The good folks of Nashville, the die hards that do the fang fingers for every power play, have done their part. However, the corporate support isn't there. From some of Leipold's letter to the fans of Nashville posted in Spector's Blog, corporate support is around 35% for the Preds. The average in the other NHL markets puts corporate support at 60%. My guess is that the corporations of Nashville are all too willing to throw some money towards the Titans, but when it comes time to pony up for the Preds they tighten the purse strings.

The Preds have had 10 years to develop a fan base. Seems that the individual fans are doing OK. From speaking to some people while I was down there in April, the youth leagues and adult leagues are growing, like they should after people get introduced to the beauty of the sport. So, the grassroots part of building a market is underway, but the corporate dollar isn't. In the current NHL landscape, that's no way to keep your franchise.

So, the Preds will most likely move north of the border where the team will be embraced by legions of hockey fans and the victims of the move will be the fans in Nashville who have followed the team this far. They suffered through the early years of expansion and finally got to the playoffs a year ahead of the lockout. The lockout probably did a good job of killing the momentum in Nashville, not to mention putting an end to Wolfy's outstanding chili-cheeseburger.

For Leipold, who's done his best to garner support and money for his team and make it flourish in the South, it's time to cut bait or fish...and his line's been in the water for about 10 years now.

Down go the Wings

2007-05-23T21:10:00.000-04:00

I had started to mellow towards the Wings as the playoffs went along. I started to marvel at how these guys were just totally dominating teams that should have been beating them. I was enjoying watching them move the puck with precision accuracy and then somebody on the other team having to make an amazing play to keep the puck out of the net. Now, I hadn't stopped hoping they'd lose, I haven't gone THAT soft, but I was starting to warm to the fact that watching them in the finals and maybe even win the Cup wouldn't be so bad. And then it happened...

Wings Fan showed up.

If you live in an NHL city that's not Detroit, you've met Wings Fan. Good chance you loath Wings Fan. He/she is usually loud, usually very quick to gloat about the Wings history since 1997, and will give the confused-dog-head-tilt if you say, "Remember the 80's?" Locally, they are especially annoying because their quickest defense is, "Heh, Blue Jackets...what have they done? Made the playoffs yet?" The rigors of expansion is lost on the guy/girl because, well, they can't remember the 80s. (Then again, maybe being the 1/30th of the league that has never made the playoffs...oh, never mind.) Anyway, in most circles, this person would be known as a bandwagoner, but since the Wings bandwagon started filling up about 10 years ago, he's had a long enough ride to consider himself a die-hard.

Following my weekly Tuesday beer league game, we headed to BWs in Crosswoods for some wings and beer and to take in game 6 of the Western Conference Finals. BWs has been kind enough to put the hockey game on at least two big screens, so it's kinda like we have a local NHL team or something.

Anyway, the Wings score to make it 3-1, a few cheers go up at various tables. No biggie. Then the Ducks score to make it 4-1, and a rather large cheer went up at our table. That's when Wings Fan started in...

One member of our team was born and raised in Boston. Still has the Boston accent, typically yells "RED SOX NATION" at the top of his lungs upon seeing them on TV, and is still a die-hard Broons fan. He'll attend Jacket games for fun, but he's a Broons fan to the core. We'll call this guy "Chowd." THIS is the guy that Wings Fan decided to pick on.

I didn't catch the whole exchange, I heard Wings Fan say something to Chowd after the goal, and Chowd just kind of chuckled and said, "Well, I want to see the Wings lose."

Wings Fan (with big grin): "Why? Are you a Blue Jackets fan?"

Chowd: "Um, no, I'm from Boston." (No grin involved in the retort.)

Wings Fan: [silence]

Dude had nothing in return. His prepared Captain Obvious jab at the Jackets was shot down before he had the chance to bring it out. He had nothing for a Bruins fan. The team had as much history as his. Since he can't remember the 80s, the whole Original Six thing is lost on him past, "Hey, the Wings are an Original Six team!"

Since all Chowd got was silence, that's when the grin started to grow on his face.

So, to close out the evening, the Wings made a game of it, Wings Fan cheered some more, but he left Broons fan alone. But in the end, the Wings fell short, and were bounced from the playoffs. And for his efforts at BWs that night, Chowd gave him a parting gift, "Hey, wait...here ya go."

[hands Wings Fan an official Buffalo Wild Wings napkin]

"That should help dry ya teahs." [Boston cackle]

NBC Goes to the Preakness

2007-05-19T19:03:00.000-04:00

The inevitable happened on NBC today, they had something more important to shift their attention away from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. That's not all that big of a shock, afterall this is America where our networks are scared to death of putting a hockey game on after 7PM on a weekend for fear somebody will tune in. And, the Triple Crown is a big deal, I'll give them that. However, over an hour of pre-race coverage is NOT that big of a deal.

The odds on favorite for the Preakness every year is the Derby winner. There has been two weeks of feel good stories about Street Sense and his jockey. Odds updates? Who cares if you're not at the track? So, that's what NBC thought would be better than completing OT? In the world of ratings, which drives everything TV, I'm sure the Preakness would get better ratings than OT of the Sens-Sabres...meaning the actual Preakness itself. Spare me the pre-race stuff, at least finish the OT then shift it off to Versus. There's no time commitment to getting to the Preakness coverage at 5PM for a race who's post time is about 6:10PM.

Or, here's an alternate thought, and one that would have all of Canada cheering...put the game on at night, AFTER the Preakness. There's really very little threat of the Preakness needing overtime...or extra furlongs, whatever they'd need. A horse race is a pretty finite time frame for TV purposes.

Playoff hockey, however, has a pretty good chance of seeing overtime. It's got a pretty good chance of seeing more than one overtime. Even a regulation game could eat up the 3 hours that NBC allotted before they switched over to the oh-so-important race build up in Maryland. So, why not start the game at 7? Or better, 8, let HNIC get it's broadcast and let the American hockey fans (we are out there, believe it or not) get a prime time playoff game before game 3 of the Cup finals.

So, I think NBC had options other than the one they exercised. I doubt this becomes "Heidi '07," but it was leaving a game in-progress to go to over an hour of pre-race stuff for the Preakness. As it turned out, the game ended about an hour before post time at Pimlico, so NBC could have done both finish the game and get plenty of pre-race banter in before we lost another shot at the Triple Crown. I'd say NBC fumbled, but this is a hockey blog...they turned the puck over in the slot...

Catching up on the Conference Finals

2007-05-19T11:00:00.000-04:00

It's been a bit since something worthwhile was dropped on this blog...forever, arguably. But, I've missed a few happenings in the playoffs since my little no Versus issue from the last post.

First of all, what the hell happened to the Sabres? OK, in listening to Barry Melrose's podcast, the Sabres just haven't been working as hard as their opponents. I'll buy that for a $1(US). Game 2 against the Sens is a perfect example of that as the Sabres worked just hard enough to get it to OT, but then couldn't put the Sens away to even up the series. That sent the Sens to Ottawa with all the momentum, which they used to take a 3-0 lead. Buffalo staved off elimination in game 4, though, but have they learned their lesson? Allowing the Sens to cut the 3-0 lead to 3-2 in a span of minutes says no.

I won't be surprised to see the Sabres pull off game 5 today and send it back to Ottawa. Then again, I won't be surprised to see them not show up - except for Miller who has been the only one to show up every game - and call it a season.

Out west we have a series locked at 2-2 heading back to Detroit. Game 3 delivered us an ass-beating of biblical proportions which included the controversial head shot by Pronger to the back of Holmstrom's head. Pronger got a suspension out of it (more on that in a sec), and the Ducks went on to play a solid game sans-Prongs and even the series.

In watching game 4, my sudden love affair (purely heterosexual sports love) with Ryan Getzlaf continued. Is there anything this kid can't/won't do? Firing the game winner through traffic was an impressive shot, but he goes to the net, he goes to the corners, he takes big face-offs against the likes of Chris "I don't lose big face-offs" Draper, and he's more than responsible in his own end. Yet another draft pick from the ridiculously deep '03 draft. (The number of guys taken after Zherdev who are excelling while he flounders is mind boggling.)

On to Pronger's suspension: 1 game? Please. If you're going to take a stand on head shots, then take a flippin' stand. The game he got suspended could have put the Ducks in a hole, but 3-1 is hardly the end of a playoff series. A 2 game suspension in that instance would have hurt a bit more, IMO, as Prongs could have been on the sidelines watching his team drop 2 straight and the series without him. THAT would have left an impression. As it turns out, they won the game he was suspended, so the point is moot. However, the two game suspension could have still had his team down 3-2 coming back to Anaheim where he would have returned and had to step up to keep the Ducks from getting eliminated. I think one game was barely a slap on the wrists, it was more like wagging a finger in his face.

On the flip side of the hit was the relative noise coming out of Detroit. I'm a HUGE fan of Kukla's Korner, possibly the best hockey blog out there, but Paul is a Wings fan so there's a good amount of Wings content. I have no issue with that, and in fact expect it since they're one of the four teams remaining. However, in reading some of the articles posted there you'd think Pronger was in the book depository with a rifle as Holmstrom skated into the corner. I'm not condoning the hit at all, and think Pronger's suspension was in order, but the Helene St. James types of the world took hype to a whole new level. Had the tables been turned and Chelios's elbow met the back of Selanne's head, I doubt the media noise from the motor city would have been the same.

Out of town, no Versus

2007-05-04T21:22:00.000-04:00

So, I'm shipped out of town for a couple of nights on business, and am in staying in a couple of hotels which means no Versus and no playoffs. Now, I did get to a sports bar last night to catch the Ducks and Nucks, but got booted before OT was over.

The thing that is somewhat ironic about being sans-Versus while out of town is that I'm in Michigan. Ann Arbor to be specific, so WELL within Red Wings territory, and still no Versus. I'm not shocked, but was hopeful. And while I think somebody in the NHL should get Versus into every hotel room withing 100 miles of any NHL arena, all is not lost...

I've got to listen to the Sabres feed on NHL.com of game 5 tonight. And while I wish I could see the game, hearing this broadcast has been pretty good. Listening to Rick Jeanneret call a game has been outstanding. (And while typing this paragraph, Drury tied it at 1 with 7 seconds left...the sound of the crowd is coming through loud and clear.)

So, I'd like to thank the Hilton for not putting Vs. on the channel line up, I got to hear a classic call of what is turning into a classic game.

Tip of the hat to Mike Grier

2007-05-01T19:22:00.000-04:00

Through the playoffs this season, I've probably watched as much of the Sharks as any other team. It seems to me that they're in what I think will be the "best series" of the round each round. Though they did away with the Preds quickly, it was an entertaining series. Hopefully their series with the Wings picks up where it left off last night and gets better and better.

But, while watching these games, it seems that Mike Grier has steadily taken on a bigger and bigger role with the Sharks, and he's doing it well. In round one, he just seemed to be out for every big penalty kill the Sharks had. (Not many since the Preds were in the box the whole series.) Now against the Wings, he's out for big PKs, big even strength shifts, and even some power play.

Grier isn't your big scorer, he isn't the big set-up man, he's not even the shut-down winger...but he is steady and accountable on each and every shift. In the regular season, the Sharks had plenty of flash on offense, so Grier just did his job without big numbers or big acclaim. But now that they're grinding away in the playoffs, a guy like Grier comes to the forefront more often. Toss in Patrick Marleau getting the "Loch Ness Monster" award on TSN pretty regularly, having Grier step up is a good thing for the Sharks. (If you haven't caught the LNMA on the Vs. simulcast of some playoff games, you're missing some sheer genius of sports broadcasting.)

So, while the New NHL talks up all the offensive stars, and we're seeing 6-5 playoff games that involve Martin Brodeur, I think I guy like Grier deserves a little nod.

The fact that I went to school with a guy named Mike Greer has no bearing on this post what so ever... :)

New GM out of the spotlight? Yeah right!

2007-04-28T23:25:00.000-04:00

There was a great article in the Dispatch today about the Jackets new President, Mike Priest, and how he wants to do his job, and do it out of the limelight. Priest is going to be much more concerned with the business side of the team, so out of the headlines should be pretty easy. (Until next spring when they decide to raise ticket prices yet again.)

Rumor has it that the new GM would like to operate out of the spotlight, also. Compared to MacLean, that should be relatively easy. The new guy could have his office in a glass cube at the corner of Broad and High and be less in the spotlight than MacLean was.

But, I wonder if Columbus will let him operate in the background and not out in the forefront?

This is traditionally a "FIRE WOODY/COOPER/MacLEAN" type town. Whoever is viewed to be at the top has their head on the chopping block in this town almost immediately. And while Columbus has done a solid job supporting the Jackets, we're still pretty new at the NHL thing, and who was introduced to us as the head of the org in all facets? The General Manager.

So, even if the next GM comes in with a glittering resume, a clean record, a plan, and #1 center that makes Hitchchock drool, his predecessor set a certain level of expectation for what he's to be responsible. Doug painted the picture to the residents of Columbus that the GM is the guy who answers the questions on the radio and in the paper. That the GM is the guy responsible for Rick Nash under performing in December. That the GM is ultimately responsible when his collection of talent can't crack the playoffs when the three teams that came into the league at roughly the same time have all done it.

Now, I don't disagree with that last one at all, on the ice it was time for something. But the others are going to have the regular Columbus fan ready to question the new guy right away. Regular Columbus fan is the guy who cheers for the Jackets but wasn't a big hockey fan before their arrival. He kind of understands the business side of things, can explain offsides, probably owns a jersey by now, but still has the Columbusite "FIRE COOPER!" attitude at heart. You know, he's Bob Hunter. (Except for the offsides thing, Bob is still working on that one.)

So, the natural evolution here should move the onus on the coach more than the GM. But, thanks to the work that Doug did here - and he did a LOT of good things for hockey in Columbus - the next GM is going to have a hard time operating out of the spotlight for a couple years.

Round 2 opens with a bang

2007-04-26T22:23:00.000-04:00

4 games into the 2nd round and the goals are being poured in...well except for one of the more explosive offenses in the league in Detroit. 24 goals through the first 4 games? Yowza...defense first apparently went out the window.

Luongo giving up 4 and Brodeur giving up 5? I doubt that continues, but still pretty noteworthy. The Devils broadcast pointed out that Marty had only given up 4 goals one other time in his playoff career...and the Devils won that game.

I can hardly wait to see how the next set of games goes. The Sharks and Wings seemed like the only "sane" score so far, and the Sharks netting their two in under a minute raises the eyebrows on that one.

But, it's playoff time, anything can...and will...happen.

1-1 after two in Game 7...

2007-04-23T22:49:00.000-04:00

Watching the Stars-Canucks, and here we are at the second intermission tied at 1 in game 7. Does it get any better than this???

Turco and Luongo have been outstanding...here's to at least a period of a great battle...

McLennan Loses It

2007-04-22T22:10:00.000-04:00

If you haven't caught Jamie McLennan wigging out at the end of Game 5 yet, maybe you shouldn't bother. The NHL seems to try ever harder to get rid of such antics, and yet they keep cropping up. Now in the holiest-of-holies, the playoffs. And against Detroit?

Now, I'm an avowed Wing hater, have been for years, but there's always something a little different with how they approach the game. They're usually not regarded as physical, but can hit when needed. Sure, Maltby tries to goad everybody he can into turning around so he can do the head snap thing to feign getting punched. But, seriously, when's the last time the Wings have been involved in some ugly knee-on-knee thing? Cross check to the grill? These guys - as much as it pains me to say it - play good, clean, hard hockey. (And I hate them for it.)

So, McLennan goes Paul Bunyan on Johann Franzen's mid-section...where the hell did THAT come from?? Franzen of all people.

But, here is exactly what the NHL doesn't want: An ugly stick incident in the playoffs. Thanks Jamie.

Dougy did not survive.

2007-04-19T21:54:00.000-04:00

Apparently, I made my entry about an hour early last night. (Stupid Preds/Sharks game had to start at 10!)

So, Doug didn't make it to season 7 as the Jackets GM. Part of me is happy, part is let down. First, the let down part...

Doug did a lot for hockey in general in Columbus. He oversaw the final stages of the arena and was present before ice was frozen at the Easton Chiller. He was around when three more sheets were added at the Ice Haus and Chiller North. He was instrumental in getting the USHL in Columbus, even though the jury is still out on that one. Youth hockey has exploded with all the extra ice in town, and so have the adult ranks. No, Doug didn't single handedly build the rinks or force people into them, but he was the face of the NHL franchise that was spurring the growth. If there was something involving hockey in Columbus, it was more likely that you saw Doug involved than not involved.

Now for the happy part...at the NHL level, it's time for Columbus to move on. The panic-and-patch approach to the Jackets' roster isn't working. Rushing kids to the NHL, not working. Brule should have been stewing over not making the NHL and tearing up the WHL with a, "I'll show that MacLean he screwed up by leaving me down here!" Rusty could have used a little more time in Brampton and probably Syracuse. Nash...well, Nash might have been the right decision.

But, hindsight is 20/20. At the time, both Rusty and Brule appeared ready to roll in the NHL, but that was probably a combination of optimism and fan desire on my part, and having no other options on Doug's part.

My personal opinion is that the day Doug announced he was going to take over the head coaching job full time was the beginning of the end. At the point, he cemented himself as the one and only voice in all decisions from the front office to the front of the net for the Jackets. Once he had that power, he wasn't going to relinquish it to just anyone, so enter Gerard Gallant. Turk did his best, but like Brule and Rusty, he wasn't ready for the NHL. The owners of the Jackets force Doug's hand into Hitchcock, and it all spun out of control for Doug right up to last night when the other shoe finally fell.

So, a big thank you to all that Doug did in building Columbus and central Ohio into a solid hockey market.

But, here's to the excitement of what tomorrow might bring in Jacketland.

So, did Dougy survive?

2007-04-18T22:01:00.000-04:00

The owners of the Jackets met about 6 hours ago to determine Doug MacLean's future, and I can't help wonder what the outcome was? Nothing on any blog - good blogs like Kukla's Korner, not lame, rarely updated blogs like this one. Nothing at Dispatch.com, who I would assume would be the first to put the news out there.

So, what now? What if there is no more Doug? On the one hand, could be a good thing. The worst record in the NHL over the last 6 seasons isn't one of those resume builders that people look for. The Carter deal is another good one to pile on there, especially when Dougy went and threw more money to land Zherdev after signing Carter. There have been a number of head scratchers over the years.

But on the other hand, the guy has been the face and voice of the franchise for almost as long as there's been a franchise. Without looking it up, we've been looking to Doug for Jackets info since March of '98, I believe. If he is gone at this hour, it'll be strange to see somebody else in that position. Additionally, with Hitchcock in place, and some of Doug's sole proprietorship in the hockey decisions being removed, the possibility of things turning around is looking up. In a way it would suck for Doug to not be around to finally see the team turn the corner.

If he's gone, I've got to speculate that "Unemployed" and "Good friend of Ken Hitchcock" will be two parameters for Doug's successor. There's a guy out there that fits those params, and if you thought Doug was a hard ass, then get ready for some real fun. I won't mention any names, but it starts with "B" and ends with "obby Clarke."

Nashville Recap

2007-04-15T18:56:00.000-04:00

Wendy and I had a wonderful time in Nashville, got to see a great game, and probably drank way too much.

The atmosphere in the arena was electric. You could just feel the intensity from the sold out crowd. They seemed to turn the knobs to 11 on the PA system, you had to yell in the concourses to be heard. The good folks of Nashville spent a lot of time on their feet, too. (Was a nice change from some old codger behind me yelling at me to sit down while the rest of the arena is standing...)

The Preds and Sharks didn't disappoint, either. It was a good game, though the Preds seemed to be in control the whole time. It got chippy, as playoff games have a tendency to do, though I didn't see the Radulov hit that got him suspeneded. It was along the boards to our left in the blind spot created by the glass.

Other odds and ends...

We found where Wolfy's is located, and it's a great view. They're in the "cone" on the front of the arena overlooking downtown Nashville. We did find out, however, that they dropped all burgers from their menu, including the famous chili-cheeseburger. An institution has died...
We slogged to Printers Alley in the rain...well worth the slogging. Made it into the Fiddle and Steel, and had great time.
Preds fan is loud and they follow their team as homer-ific as any other fan. One tidbit I picked up in line in the restroom was that, "...the refs are taking Tootoo right out of his game!" I could only think to myself, "What game?"

All in all, it was a great trip. I hope the Preds continue on, maybe another trip will be in order.

Off to Nashville...

2007-04-13T09:11:00.000-04:00

In an attempt to maintain my sporadic posting on this here blog...

My lovely wife bought us playoff tickets in Nashville tonight, so there will be at least two Jackets fans to take in a playoff game live this season. (I'm sure there are more heading to Pittsburgh or Detroit.) We'll be stationed in Section 109, Row D, which I believe is the top row of the section. Corner seats, should have a good view.

Some things of note for the evening, other than the game...

- We're staying in the same hotel we stayed in for last summer's Country Classic adult hockey tournament.

- I'm going to attempt to locate Wolfy's again. The lockout forced him out of his nice little Broadway digs, and into the arena somewhere. Hopefully the move didn't change the chili-cheeseburger at all.

- We may hop across the street from the hotel and get a beer at the Blackstone Brewery.

- Post game we'll be off to Printer's Alley. Wendy hasn't been there yet, so this is a must do.

We'll be home tomorrow afternoon, I'll probably post a full report here to make for two posts in two days, a Better On Ice record!

Jackets equal NHL record

2007-03-10T12:31:00.000-05:00

Similar to Crash Davis setting the record for career home runs in the minor leagues, last night the Jackets equaled the post-expansion, dubious NHL record of being shutout 14 times in a season, tying the 69-70 Penguins, and the 00-01 Wild. One more shutout, and the Jackets can have that record all to themselves.

The Jackets have 14 games to manage at least a goal in to keep themselves from owning the record all to themselves. (Facing the Preds in Nashville tonight could set the mark quickly, hasn't been a good season going up against the Preds, as the Jackets 0-6-1 record will attest.) But, the way this season has gone, it's only a matter of time before Ricky and the boys fail to net a goal in a game. Would somehow be a fitting, final kick in the teeth for this season...

Holy underwear!

2007-03-02T23:57:00.000-05:00

The Jackets went and won their second game in Dallas this season...unpossible!

For all the downers this season, getting two wins in Dallas, where I don't think they'd won prior to this season, is a step in the right direction. They stepped up and played a solid game. With four guys from the Crunch out there all night, and Footer going down early, they played a good game.

I know Zherdev has taken some heat of late, and rightfully so, but I think he was our best player hands down late in the third and into OT. Once he decides to do this stuff night in and night out, it'll be a lot more fun to watch this team.

Great article on Eklund

2007-02-28T10:10:00.000-05:00

Chuck passed this from the Toronto Star along to me today, and I got a good laugh out of it.

Since the lockout is long over, Ek seems to be nearing the end of his 15 minutes. He helped me and many other fans get through the lockout, but since then he's been more miss than hit on his rumors. It's almost to the point now when I hear him mention one of the Jackets in a trade rumor, I'm relieved because now I know they're not going anywhere.

"4:50 p.m. More food is delivered to the Sportsnet set. It isn't clear whether Eklund had predicted the arrival of more pizza."

Berard on waivers

2007-02-26T23:25:00.000-05:00

I've mulled this one over all day, and for the life of me can't see the advantage of this move. If there are no trading partners on Feb 25th, what happens late on the 26th or early the 27th when somebody decides, "Hey, we could use another d-man for our playoff run, and this Berard guy has scored in the past. I could part with a 4th rounder."Well, putting Big Bry on waivers pretty much ends that scenario.

It's not that Berard going on waivers is all that shocking, it's the timing of the whole thing. Why now? Hours before the deadline? With people throwing draft picks around?

I really can't see where this is going. Straight up salary dump won't happen by sending him through waivers if somebody doesn't grab him. Waivers still exists after the trade deadline, send him through then.

I'm just not seeing the advantage here. Hopefully there's a reasonable explanation tomorrow.

The doghouse fills up

2007-02-24T22:53:00.000-05:00

Seems Mr. Berard landed himself in Hitch's doghouse with his little, "I'm not one of his boys," comment. Though, if that made it public, I wonder what's said behind closed doors?

Well, it's getting crowded in there as Zherdev found himself back in the doghouse yet again. Barely a week after getting the boot from practice, Z gets scratched for not doing what was asked of him following the Oiler game. The kid is already on a short leash, seems the choker chain is being attached now.

Neither Berard nor Zherdev seemed to be terribly missed in the 3-2 win over the Rangers, though. Nice effort tonight, and two shorties to win it is pretty impressive.

What to do with Freddy Mo

2007-02-23T17:40:00.000-05:00

Now that Anson Carter is safely in the Eastern Conference where he can pollute somebody else's line-up, there are still two guys left on the block: Bryan Berard and Frederik Modin. Of the two, Modin's value has to be infinitely higher, since he's actually played more than 10 games this season, and his back didn't just come off surgery.

Rumors in the paper are that the Jackets are trying to retain Freddy Mo, and honestly I'd be OK with that. The guy does it all - top 6, PP, PK, natural leader, etc - and never, ever takes a shift off. Ever. In this train wreck of a season, Modin has been one of the few bright spots. No, it doesn't show up on the score sheet, but the Jackets are 29th in the league in scoring, NOBODY is showing up on the score sheet. (29th for now, we're locked in a battle with Chicago and are separated by a goal at the moment.) As a building block, having Modin around for 2 or 3 more years wouldn't be a bad thing.

On the other hand, I hear today that the only serious offers coming in to 200 W. Nationwide Blvd. involve dealing Modin. Not that this is all that shocking. Other people will want him for the same reason we'd like to resign him. But, are these offers worth considering? Will they outweigh what Modin will bring to the table next season in Columbus? Could he be traded and resigned in Columbus in July?

I'm still on the "keep Freddy" bandwaggon, but wouldn't be upset if he was moved in the right package.

Stay tuned...

Anson Carter traded...THANK GOD!

2007-02-23T13:18:00.000-05:00

TSN is reporting that Carter has been traded to Carolina for a 5th round pick in '08. We can get to how much the Canes overpaid for him later, for now let the cheering begin.

Coming in to the season, I thought a lot of Carter. Thought him a solid winger who could really help out. I didn't really think 100% of his output from last season was all on the Swedish Twins, but it appears they were good for about 98% of it. I really figured he would help, but he never really bothered to show up. And last night just took it all. Maybe he knew he was gone, I don't know, but it was the laziest game I've seen on Nationwide ice in 6 seasons. Games like that make me wish Kevin Dineen had never retired and was there to tear a hole in somebody...

Update on Carter

2007-02-23T09:56:00.000-05:00

Turns out Anson wasn't shipped out of my fair city while I slept...pisser.

However, there is hope! Ek stated yesterday that:

"Also word out of Columbus is that Zherdev and Modin are now likely to NOT be dealt prior to the deadline....Carter and Berard likely will be."

WHEW! I feel better now that Eklund has put it out there. I am wondering how he came across that ultra-secret rumor? Reading the Columbus Dispatch?

Carter traded yet?

2007-02-22T22:57:00.000-05:00

After sitting through yet another joyful Jackets game where about three of them showed up, I am wondering why Anson Carter hasn't been traded to any where else for two pucks and a roll of tape. (Hey, they raised the price of tape at the Chillers to $5 a roll, trading him for a roll would be a steal!) He hasn't been apparent on the ice in weeks. He's been on the fourth line since mid-January, and he's been ineffective for pretty much the whole season. OK, the whole team has been ineffective, but Anson has taken it to a new level.

The kick in the bag for me tonight was seeing him in a 2 on 1, with Chimera I believe. Chimmer breaks to the middle, Anson up the left wing. Jason gets the puck to AC in the neutral zone, Anson gets into the Oilers zone and takes one stride. That's it, a 2 on 1 and the guy takes one effin' stride inside the zone. Great way to drive to the net...coasting like week 2 in a learn to skate class, feet shoulder width apart.

For holding such promise early in the year, he hasn't worked hard since long before Christmas. After all, the guy's got 3 goals since Christmas, and 3 whole points in February.

Happy 27th Anniversary!

2007-02-22T16:46:00.000-05:00

It's February 22nd, so it's time for the anniversary post of the USA taking down the Soviet Union in Lake Placid. Why this isn't a national holiday yet, I don't understand. OK, well, it's based on hockey and this is the United States, so I guess I can see why it's not a national holiday, but it SHOULD be.

So, run out and watch Miracle, read the wikipedia entry on Herb Brooks, or learn now to spell Eurzione. Do your part to commemorate not only one of the greatest hockey wins ever, but one of the biggest upsets in sports history.

The emergence of Svitov?

2007-02-19T20:17:00.000-05:00

Are we finally seeing the Alexander Svitov that warranted the 3rd overall pick back in '01? The scoring isn't totally there yet, but it appears that Alex has realized he is 6'3", 230-ish pounds and now attack the offensive zone like a bull in a china shop.

It appears Hitch has taken note of this, too. Since Dec 16th, Svitov hasn't dipped below 12:40 of ice time in a game, and has only fallen below 20 on the shift count once. 12 of his 16 points have come since that time, too. Prior to that date, shift counts in the 8 to 10 range and TOI under 10 minutes weren't all that uncommon for him.

Coming in to the season, Svitov had 21 career points, and a giant question mark over his head after spending last year back in the Russian Super League. He snapped up a contract to come back over here, and didn't exactly set the world on fire early on. However, it appears Hitchcock knows which buttons to push, and that Svitov is responding. He's on pace to out pace his career point total just this season. His ice time is up, his play is up, his points are up, his puck control is up...everything is looking up for Big Alex.

Which is good, because not much looks up in Columbus at the moment...

The care and feeding of a backyard ice rink

2007-02-07T20:13:00.000-05:00

After thinking I had missed my chance to put it up this year, last week I constructed the back yard rink. This is it's fourth season, though last year's edition was an engineering failure, and turned out to be too warm all winter, anyway.

The big cold snap over the last 4 or 5 days has it frozen solid. It's been too cold to skate on it in the evenings with negative wind chills, so no skating prior to yesterday's snow piling up on it. I got home too late last night to scrape it off, and didn't do so this morning either...which meant today's sun turned a portion of it to slush. Which then froze. I'd say a good 15% is presently unskatable. The whole rink now needs some serious attention with the hose. It's supposed to be 3 tonight, so I think we'll be back in business tomorrow evening.

More on this as the rink progresses. The trial and error process of this takes years... :)

Versus goes on

2007-01-30T20:29:00.000-05:00

So, we get disconcerting news last week when the NHL All-Star game drew less than 500,000 viewers on versus. That the game that is to be the showplace of the sport, where Rick Nash and Brian Rolston, American, have monster games, but not monster enough to knock Daniel Briere's 5 points from the MVP status isn't even able to draw more than a .7 share. That viewership is down on both sides of the border. All this is such solid news that the NHL renews their contract with Versus through 2011.

2011!?! Hockey is stuck promoting itself on channel 185 of most cable systems until a year AFTER Sid, Alex, and the other big guns play in the Olympics in Vancouver?? The NHL is on Versus until 3 years into the next Presidential term? The guy (or girl if we get Pres. Clinton, part two) who holds that office will be starting the re-election process before the NHL gets to negotiate a deal with any other channel?!?!?

Personally, I have no problems with the Versus production of the game, or their handling of the game. My issue is with the exposure, or lack there of, that the NHL receives by being aired there. If you want a sport to gain popularity, you need to get it in front of the fans. The couple years experiment with Versus was nice, but they're network isn't growing like they or the NHL had planned. Bass fishing, climbing, bull riding, cycling - it sounds like ESPN's line-up on Sunday mornings between 6 and 9.

Why not stop with the exclusivity crap, Gary, and go the way of the NFL and the NBA - get your sport on as many channels as you can. Go back to USA for a bit, a natural since it's in the NBC family of channels. Hit Ted Turner and the boys up to carry a few games. Grovel at the feet of Mickey Mouse to get a game on Wednesday nights at 10PM on the dEuCe. Do something, ANYTHING to expose the sport to more people.

And another thing, while I'm tossing out brilliant ideas, stop running the Ovechkin commercial only during hockey broadcasts. As it turns out, the 400,000 or so people south of the border that tune in to your broadcasts know who Alex is. Pay the NFL a couple bucks, air it there. Buy a slot during 1 vs. 100. During Deal or No Deal. Put AO in front of people who DON'T know who he is.

You shut us out for a year to make the game better. Well, in this fan's opinion, the game is better. But apparently me and roughly the population of Mesa, AZ are the only ones tuning in.

World Juniors to a shootout

2007-01-03T21:44:00.000-05:00

I tuned in today, via the USA Hockey audio feed, to the US v. Canada at the World Junior Championships. What a game. Back and forth, excellent goaltending, both teams playing as hard as they could play and after 60 minutes they were tied at 1 each having converted a power play.

So, on to overtime, which is played 4 on 4 for 10 minutes. Here, the US seemed to take it to Canada a bit, outshooting our northern friends 12-2 in the extra frame, helped in part by a power play when Jack Johnson took a high stick to the face. But, Price stood on his head and kept the score tied.

And then it happened...they went to a shootout.

Now, regular season NHL games and even the round-robin games at the WJC, the shootout is exciting, no doubt. I've witnessed them in person at Nationwide, and don't think anybody sits. They are without a doubt fun for the fans.

But, today, a trip to the gold medal game was on the line, and these two teams who had played a phenomenal game, got to skate one on one with the opposing goalie to settle the tie. I just can't agree with that, it's the medal rounds, after all. An individual display to settle a team game for a medal on the international stage? Who came up with that grand idea?

So, in the shootout, the two teams continued their exciting play, and Carey Price stopped one more shot than Jeff Frazee, so Canada moves on to play Russia for the gold medal. I seriously hope THAT game doesn't go to a shutout, it would just be wrong. (If it does, and the Russians pull it out in a shootout, that noise you'll hear coming from the north will be a clamoring for this to be the one and only year the shootout is used in the medal rounds.)

So, I'm a bit let down that the US didn't win, and have a somewhat empty feeling in the manner in which it happened, but I'm happy with the way the boys played. It was their best game of the tournament, by far. They finally played up to their rather lofty resumes, and gave Canada all they wanted.

But in the end, one on one, Peter Meuller couldn't get that last shot past Price. So, the US plays for bronze on Friday vs. Sweden.

Another timely entry...

2007-01-02T21:47:00.000-05:00

Hmmm, let's see what what's happened in Jacketland since my last post griping about the Zherdev contract situation...

Zherdev signed a contract, for one.
The Jackets started solid in their first three games and then, well...
Gerard Gallant was fired.
Ken Hitchcock was hired...and things began to look up almost immediately.

So, in my timely manner, here we sit at the beginning of '07 with the Jackets headed west for three games. At this point, I'm pretty happy with the team. I have a couple gripes - mainly named "Malhotra" and "Eriksson" - but happy with how things have come around. Now I wonder if they've come around enough. Will my credit card bill explode in April? We can only hope...

Have to see if I can get a bit more regular at this whole blogging thing...it seemed like a good idea at the time...

Dear Mr. Hedges

2006-09-12T19:10:00.000-04:00

Mr. Hedges,

As a loyal follower of the Columbus Blue Jackets and the National Hockey League, I feel it my duty to inform you that the holdout you have masterfully guided Nikolai Zherdev through is about to come to an end. Today, Joffrey Lupul signed a 3 year, $6.935 million contract, and all your squabbling about comparables ends right there. There isn't a more perfect comparable to Zherdev than Lupul. For example:

- They are both top 10 draft picks, one year apart.

- Their rookie and second seasons are the exact same years.

- Their career points are a difference of one in favor of Zherdev. Lupul does have one more goal than Nicky, though.

- Their rookie scoring numbers are identical.

- In their second season, Zherdev managed one more point in less games.

That's it in a nutshell, to use your words. Meaningful discussions with Columbus in June is laughable, you were waiting to see what Lupul would get and Doug was waiting to see what Lupul would get. Well, Lupul got $35,000 more than Doug offered you a week ago. Regardless of what you told the CP, Zherdev's different set of circumstances on the ice, which is what he gets paid for, is apparently now worth roughly $6.935 million.

Have fun trying to prove why your client deserves $2.065 million more than Joffery Lupul.

Sincerely,
Tim Wingfield

And then there were two...

2006-08-21T21:25:00.000-04:00

We're down to two RFAs that the illustrious Doug MacLean has yet to sign...Dan Fritsche and the well noted Nikolai Zherdev. Personally, I'm not overly worried about each, it's August afterall, signing them today isn't going to put many pucks in the net next week.

Fritsche will likely fall into line fairly soon, he doesn't have a huge amount of leverage in the negotiation of his second contract. He's played a fair share of NHL games sooner than most thought he would, and he's been a servicable NHLer, but the production isn't there to be playing much hardball. Danny will sign soon enough, I'm sure.

Zherdev, though...this one seems much more interesting. TSN covered it well today, following on the Dispatch yesterday. Nicky is threatening to play in Russia for the year...a place he couldn't WAIT to get out of three years ago. Snuck out in the middle of the night with his skates and what he was wearing. Sounds like a guy who'd LOVE to play a season in the RSL, doesn't it?

MacLean is playing hardball, and I think rightfully so. Zherdev's poor, underperforming start last year isn't some great secret. With Nasher out, he had every chance to step up and be The Man for the Jackets, and he'd take nights off. Was demoted to the 3rd and 4th line, even healthy scratched a couple times. Didn't seem to have much of an effect on him, he just kept doing his thing. The arrival of Fedorov and the return of Nash turned not only Z around, but the whole team. He went on a tear, starting arguably with his end to end rush through the Blackhawks the day after Christmas.

But, how does all that factor in now? Doug is using Oct and Nov of last year as his, "Zherdev needs to prove something," stance. Zherdev is using the rest of the season as proof that he has proved something. Personaly, I'm with Doug...play a full 82 games and the money will fall in your lap, Nicky.

The kid has unreal talent and potential, but tapping it through that thick skull has proven tricky so far, and this just seems to be the latest chapter.

Off season so far...

2006-07-09T11:57:00.000-04:00

Draft is over, the free agent madness has begun in the NHL, and so far MacLean and Co. have wowed us with the signings of Anders Ericksson, Tomas Kloucek, and Ty Conklin. Of course, there's that whole Denis for Modin thing, too...

First off, Modin makes the Jackets better instantly. This guy does it all...scores, plays good d, kills penalties, goes in the corners, goes to the net, and probably makes a mean Swedish meatball. He's going to bring an upgrade to both special teams and 5 on 5, so this is a good move.

Losing Denis seemed to be inevitable. But given the relative talent of Denis and Leclaire, Denis and his larger salary were the ones to get shipped off. (And for what Tampa signed him for...wow.) So the net is now Leclaire's, with I'd guess Conklin as his back up. Though it appears Norrena will get a shot at that spot, too, since Ty has a two-way deal signed. (For the conspiracy theorists out there: Norrena is listed on the Jackets roster with Leclaire, Conklin as "in the system.")

As for the other signings on D, not sure what to make of it at this point. Seems 5 of the 6 defense spots are pretty much locked in with Foote, Berard, Klesla, Westcott, and Hainsey. So, just need to fill that 6 slot, and we've got Johnson, Tollefsen, Ericksson, and Kloucek to slug it out for that spot. Personally, I figured it was about time for AJ to step up and take his place on the big club, we'll find out in September.

Lots of things to look forward to in September...yet again...

Draft Day

2006-06-24T22:17:00.000-04:00

So the Jackets picked up Derick Brassard with the 6th overall. Admittedly, I don't know a heck of a lot about the kid. Though he did put up 44 goals and 116 points in 58 games in the Q this year. Not bad, but scoring usually isn't a real problem in the Q. But, as I said before, I know very little about the kid. Hopefully I can hit rookie camp next week and get a look.

In the second round, the Jackets apparently traded the 36th pick away to St. Joe, but I can't find what we got in return. I'm guessing picks of some nature, because nhl.com and TSN have nothing about it. Of course Metro is down, and hfboards is slllooowww, so can't find anything on it. Guess I'll just wait for the Dispatch in the morning.

One other draft comment...WTF was Minnesota thinking? They traded a first round pick AND Patrick O'Sullivan to LA for Pavol Demitra? OK, Demitra is a scorer, no doubt about that and the Wild need somebody who can play offense. But the Roloson trade is now Roloson and O'Sullivan for Demitra...seems a bit lopsided, and not in Minny's favor. O'Sullivan was almost a shoe-in to make the Wild this year, he just led the AHL in scoring. Obviously he wouldn't have put up Demitra numbers, but the kid was looking good. We'll see how it turns out...wonder how Demitra will take to playing defense first, second, and third?

Not feeling so good...

2006-06-19T23:37:00.000-04:00

Usually at the end of the season, I feel pretty good for whoever is hoisting the Cup. Even when it's the Wings, I still feel pretty good for the players and fans of the winning team...but I don't have that feeling this year.

At all.

There are so many things that just drive me nuts about Carolina that I can't be happy that they won. Just can't.

I have no problem with hockey in the state of North Carolina. I'm a firm believer in the more hockey spreads, the better it is. Having a team in Raleigh is not a bad thing...neither is having one in Nashville, Tampa, Atlanta, or Miami.

My feelings stem directly from having to deal with Peter Karmanos on a number of levels...

1. 1997 - The city of Columbus is on the verge of building a new arena (and soccer field) to lure an NHL team (and give the Crew an actual home). Issue 1 is hotly contested, but things are looking up. Just before that election, Peter J. Karmanos Jr. comes waltzing into town carrying the Hartford Whalers in his pocket. He woos some people, gets on TV, gets in the paper, and does just enough to get The People thinking, "Hey, we don't need to vote for that, Pete will bring us a team ANYWAY!!"

WRONG! Days before the election, we see Karmanos on TV live from Raleigh announcing that he's moving his team there...but it's too late for our vote here, Issue 1 goes down by narrow margin. (Later McConnell did his thing, but that's a different subject.)

2. I worked for Compuware, Pete's "real" company. He started it many years ago, and it's a fairly successful company. But, thanks to Pete's management and lack of foresight, CPWR has been in the tank for many years after his Y2K money dried up. While I was there, everybody took mandatory pay cuts...good way to win friends. After my third pay cut in less than six months, I finally got out, but not before I vowed to never pull for Carolina again as my own personal crusade against the short, bald guy from michigan with a rather severe Napoleon Complex. (CPWR closed at $7 today...guess those options Pete gave me with a strike price of $21 are pretty much worthless...)

3. During the lockout, you couldn't find anybody quicker to pop off about "linkage" and salary caps and, "We'll lock 'em out for YEARS if we have to!" than Peter Karmanos. This guy was a loose cannon the whole time complaining about the money he was losing. (Yeah, same guy who started the whole mess with the Fedorov offer sheet just to piss off his Detroit rival, Illich.) It was rarely constructive out of Pete, it was combative.

4. The good folks of Carolina have barely noticed this team all year. Now I know there are die-hards there that have been to every game, but the attendence figures don't lie. Announced crowds of 10k are under that. This particular Carolina team has been AWESOME all year, not just in the playoffs. Eric Staal alone should have had them cramming at the turnstiles, but it didn't happen. In April, 3 weeks before the playoffs started, the Canes played a home game before 12,137...6,000 under capacity. This is a division leading, headed for the playoff team taking on Ovechkin...12k. Pathetic.

But wait, there's more...a gentleman from the greater Columbus area went online three days before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals and bought two tickets to the game. Lower bowl, blue line. Guess that's all they had left.

Game 7, Eastern Conference finals tickets were available just before face-off.

Some Carolina apologists in the past have said, "Well, wait until we win, you'll see!!" Well, you're winning. You won all year, and now you have the greatest trophy in professional sports in your possession...better sell out the season.

I hope that whole thing came off as bitter because it is. No, not jealous that they won, our situations are entirely different. Just totally bitter...the man who took a dump on Hartford with a fly-by shitting on Columbus now owns the Cup.

Somewhere there's a Carolina fan who bought a jersey the day the team was announced. He or she hasn't missed a game. They died when the Wings took them out a few years ago. This person lives and breathes Hurricane hockey. For that person, I am genuinely happy...they deserve to enjoy this. For Pete and the folks who didn't bother to show up in November to see one of the most explosive teams in hockey...well, it feels pretty empty in that sense.

Ryan Smyth moves back DOWN the list...

2006-06-17T23:10:00.000-04:00

Two posts...and several months ago I blogged that Ryan Smyth was such a pain in the ass that he moved up my list around Bert and into rarified air occupied only by Sean Avery and Kirk Maltby.

Well, having just sat through a rather enjoyable game 6 of the Finals, I've come to the conclusion that I am WAY wrong about Smyth...he doesn't belong on the same page with Avery and Maltby, he doesn't even belong in the same book. Hell, he should be in a different library from those two because this guy would do anything in his power to win a hockey game. If removing his right arm and beating a defenseman with it would give the Oilers a scoring chance, I believe Smyth would do it.

Over the season I got to see a lot of the Oilers, and enjoyed watching them. This team moves up the ice without regard for their own bodies, let alone their opponents. I might be one of the few people outside of Edmonton not surprised by their run through the playoffs.

But, during those games I never thought much of Smyth, even though the guy was a major piece of their team. But in the playoffs, I've been enamoured with the guy. He'll do anything to get a goal, to win a game, and on Monday a chance win the Cup.

Now, next fall I'll probably be right back to screaming for somebody, ANYBODY to get Smyth out of the way, but for now I've got to give the guy the credit he's due.

The Weekend of Hockey

2006-02-12T23:02:00.000-05:00

This was one of the best hockey weekends for our family, possibly ever. Starting at about noon on Friday, we headed north to Findlay for Brendan's first travel tournament. Findlay hosts a mini-mite tournament every year about this time, and it's a lot of fun for the kids. All five CCYHA teams made the trip up, so lots of familiar faces on the ice and in the hotel. All in all a great time...so to recount the weekend...

4PM Brendan and his Predators play their first game against one of the host teams. The kids played a great game and got the win. Following the game, the whole team had a pizza party, and celebrated Justin's birthday at the pizza place. (Reservation for 50. :) ) After the party, back to the pool to turn the kids loose, because they were WAY more intersted in the pool than the hockey, anyway. But, the Jackets were on at 7. So, more hockey. That was followed by the opening ceremonies in Turin. No hockey, but it's the Olympics.

Saturday, back to the rink for game #2 for the Preds, and they again play a great game and win that one. Happy mini-mites everywhere, and a lot of smiling parents. Then, another team meal, this time at the local BWs, and the US women's game is on TV...more hockey. After lunch, back to the hotel where...yes this will be shocking...but there was even MORE hockey on as the Canadian women were playing AND the Frozen Tundra game between Wisconsin and Ohio State started. But, we didn't get to see much of either of those games because it was time to head back to the rink for more mini-mite hockey, which is the best kind of hockey, afterall.

Saturday evening saw the Predators win their third straight game and earn themselves a trip to the championship. In this game, though, Brendan took a nasty spill. Typical mini-mite chain reaction where one kid falls and takes out another kid...and Brendan was at the end of the chain. He got hit from behind by a sliding teammate and did a full flip in mid-air landing on his back pretty hard. He laid there for a bit, coaches out to check on him, but he just nodded and hopped back up. I think he was way more stunned than hurt, didn't complain about anything hurting other than his cheek where his helmet hit it.

So, lots of cheering in the locker room, more happy mini-mites, and bigger smiles for the parents. We head back to the hotel and what's on TV? That's right MORE HOCKEY! This time around it's time for Hockey Night in Canada as the hotel actually had CBC on the channel line up. A bit of the Leafs and Rangers, and then it was time for the Jackets and the (real) Predators...which didn't exactly go the Jackets way.

On to Sunday and the finals...but before we got there, there was more Olympic hockey to watch, so we did. In the finals, the Predators once again prevailed, and earned a nice big trophy and they each got a medal for their efforts. Big pile of mini-mites at the end of that one, and VERY large smiles for the parents. (And the coaches. :) )

That should be the end of the hockey weekend, right? WRONG! Beer league time! Sadly, it was the lowlight of the weekend as we got shutout the second straight week. But, it was a nice ending to the weekend of hockey...

...which continues for two more days: Pred practice tomorrow and more beer league fun on Tuesday. Then Olympic hockey...well, maybe it'll never end!

Ryan Smyth moves up the list

2006-02-04T22:32:00.000-05:00

Since the Jackets have a rare weekend off, I'm taking in the Oilers again after just watching the Jackets take them in an shootout on Thursday. Tonight they have the Canucks in Edmonton, and so far its entertaining. (Way more entertaining than the Wild and Coyotes...somewhere there's paint drying more exciting than that game.)

So, Ryan Smyth has a redirect goal doing what he does best...standing in/on the crease and annoying the goalie. He did it all night to Denis on Thursday, and did enough of it to Anaheim last week that Giguere drew a couple penalty minutes for chasing him down and smaking him with his glove.

As such, I have determined that Ryan Smyth has now surpassed Bertuzzi on my top three most hated players list. No threat of the top two going anywhere...Sean Avery and Kirk Maltby have those two spots locked up until they decide to quit playing. But slot number three is now Smyth's. Was Bert's, but Bert has pretty much lost the edge that got him there, and Smyth is about to don the Red and White of Canada and annoy me even more in the next few weeks.

So, Ryan, welcome to the top!

One to remember

2006-01-20T23:22:00.000-05:00

Every so often you have one of those nights that's going to stick with you. Tonight was that night for my oldest son, Brendan, and in turn for me.

On Tuesday this week I told Brendan I'd take him to the Blue Jackets game tonight if he wanted to go, and he did. He laid his jersey out on the chair this morning, and when I got home at 5:15 he was asking when we'd leave. I ask who his favorite player was, knowing the response was going to be a rather loud "RICKY NASH!"

So, off to the Jackets game we go, ready to watch them whip up on the Blues. The game had very little whipping, and it was a one goal game for the most part. Blues up one, Zherdev ties it. Blues up again, Vyborny ties it. Blues up one more time, Hrdina ties it with about 13 minutes to go. As soon as it was tied, Brendan says, "I'm ready to see a shootout, dad!" I told him he had to get through overtime, which required the Jackets to kill about 1:40 of penalty time at the end to get to the shootout, they did.

In the shootout, Denis stops the first shooter then Balastik misses for the Jackets. Denis stops the second guy from the Blues, and out onto the ice steps #61 along with cheers beside me of, "LET'S GO RICKY NASH!!!!" Nash, being Nash, scores an absolute amazing goal by crashing the crease and one handing the puck around the goalie and into the net. The place erupts, as it should after seeing that. Denis stops the last puck, and the game is over, Jackets win 4-3 in a shootout.

Now's when the fun starts... :)

We're pretty good friends with Dan Singleton, the video coordinator with the Jackets, and his wife, Karin, emailed me earlier in the week to see if we'd be interested in meeting Dan downstairs following the game. Since Brendan was going along, I took her up on the invite, but didn't tell him about it. When we met up near the staris, his face lit up at the possibility of meeting "a hockey player."

We got downstairs and stood behind the barrier and saw hockey players going past, Brendan asking who each one was and dad doing his best to figure them out without numbers. (Dad did alright, too, even recognized a couple of the St. Louis guys.) While we were standing there, one of the managers from the Blues walked up and gave him an official Blues game puck. That was pretty cool to a six year old, didn't matter that it said Blues on it, either.

Of course, we're waiting on one specific guy to come out, and it's getting late. "Where's Ricky Nash, dad?" was asked a few times. Finally, he stepped around the corner, and Brendan went silent. Other kids are getting cards and stuff signed by anybody that will walk out, so he notices he has a puck in his hand. A few of the players wives were standing there, so Adam Foote's wife scrapes up a silver puck signing pen, gives it to Brendan, and he's all set. He strides up to Nash, coming allllll the way up to mid-thigh on Rick, and holds the puck and pen out. Rick obliges, smiles, and hands it back...and thoroughly made a six year olds day, week, possibly year. Nash didn't say a word, just bent down, signed it, and handed it back. The look on Brendan's face was priceless.

Of course, that's where the silence portion ends. He was so excited and proud of his newly signed puck that I heard it recounted a number of times on the way home. Before the garage door had shut he was upstairs telling his mom. I have no doubt that all the grandparents will know about this before they have their morning coffee.

Oh, and stupid dad owns a camera phone, and has uttered the words, "I have NO use for a camera in my phone," a few hunnert times. And, I didn't use it for this either...forgot all about it.

But, that's how Brendan went from just going to see the game with dad to getting quite possibly the only Rick Nash autographed St. Louis Blues puck in existance.

Where does it stop?

2005-10-17T20:05:00.000-04:00

No, not the losing...although it would be nice if that stopped soon, too.

But, the injury bug, when will it move on to a different team? First Ricky, then Rusty, then Brule, and now Fritsche. Awkward fall, carried off the ice...rumor has it it's his ankle. How long do we lose THIS guy who was playing well and figured into the Jackets success? 4 weeks? 6? 8? Good thing we have all these spare forwards at the moment. But, Fritsche's fire will be missed...

Hopefully four days off does the Jackets some good. Staring at a homestand that starts with a Sharks team that just tore them limb for limb, two games against the always tough and division leading Wings, followed by a game with the currently unbeaten Preds isn't much of a run to "get well" against.

While we're asking "where does it stop," next on the list is the parade to the penalty box...where does THAT stop? Killing 12 minutes of penalties in a period has happened too many times for it to just be coincidence. These guys need to start moving the feet and get in position - hooking, holding, and interference are on the box score way too often. Just because the penalty is working pretty well doesn't mean we have to "showcase" it every game.

0-1 Because of 0-fer 9

2005-10-06T08:11:00.000-04:00

Wow, what can be said about the Blue Jackets power play last night in Washington? Nothing, really, because that's what it produced. No goals and barely even any shots on goal. At one point the Jackets had 3 power play shots in 7 power play opportunities. 3 shots in (roughly) 14 minutes of power play time? Ouch.

Conversely, 5 on 5 the Jackets looked great. Possibly as good as they ever have. Great puck possession, good passing, good cycling, just an all around solid 5 on 5 performance. Why, then, couldn't they do that same stuff with an extra player?

Other than the power play, the game wasn't that bad of a debut for the Jackets. Dan Fritsche proved he should be on the roster, and possibly be centering Nash and Vyborny some time late next week. Nash proved his ankle needed a little more rest. (Rest it Friday, too, Ricky...it's a long season.) Zherdev continued to prove he thinks there's an i in team...must be lost in the translation. He showed flashes of genius, as always, but the total lack of effort is troubling. He needs to go to the Dan Fritsche "This is how you move your feet" school.

Another source of learning for Zherdev was on the other bench in his countryman Alexander Ovechkin. WOW is about all that you can use to describe this guy. While the media is still swooning over everything Crosby (and his one assist in the Devs PASTING of the Pens), Ovechkin has quietly been overlooked. That's not going to last long, he's the best player the Caps have on the ice right now. He'll need some help because it's a long season, but he's the real deal.

One other note: Not a huge fan of the shootout (for the "individual" reasons behind it), but glad to see Dany Heatley officially win the first shootout in NHL history last night. Couldn't have happened to a better guy.

Brule is in...

2005-10-03T22:29:00.000-04:00

As of this afternoon, Gilbert Brule is officially a Blue Jacket for the upcoming portion of the season. That he signed and it went to the wire is not shocking, so did Nash and Klesla in their respective signings. (Each for a lot more cash, too...hello new CBA.)

So, now that Brule is in the fold, and you don't sign him to scratch him, who DOES get the scratch?

My guess at this point is Geoff Sanderson. Don't get me wrong, Sandy's still got it...especially in the wheels department...but coming out of preseason, he doesn't have it like those he's competing with. Down the left side he's already behind Nash and Zherdev which puts him on the third line at best. The third line is the likely home for Brule, too, as he'll likely get the same treatment Ricky did his rookie year.

Another option is to scratch Shelley and bump Sandy down to the fourth line, but relegating him to the checking line could be worse than just scratching him. Afterall, it worked so well for him in Buffalo that we landed him in '00.

Two players I don't think are scratchable to make room for young Gilbert are Tyler Wright and Trevor Letowski. These two kill penalties WAY too well to be in the press box in the "New NHL."

So, Brule's on-ice audition starts Wednesday night in Washington. All the best to him, we'll see how it shakes out.

Welcome Back Danny

2005-10-01T21:30:00.000-04:00

OK, I'll admit it...I'm a homer. Big time when it comes to the local NHL franchise, and moreso with our Ohio born draftee, Danny Fritsche.

Two years ago, Danny was a big surprise coming out of camp and made the big club. He stuck around until it was time to join the US Junior team, which he helped win a gold medal in Finland. After returning, he went back to juniors, no point in hanging around Columbus since the Jackets had just made the coaching change, and the season was in "Salvage Some Pride" mode by mid-January.

Last season, he had another shoulder issue, but apparently unrelated to those before. He stared out in Sarnia, but was traded to the London Knights not long after he returned from his second stint with the US Junior team. While with London, he got valuable seasoning without worrying why he wasn't in the NHL. He won a Memorial Cup, and in the process was key in shutting down this Crosby guy (you may have heard of him) in the final, where he had a goal and two assists.

So, fast forward to this season, and it looks like Danny will be ready for Prime Time. He did a fine job in the rookie tournament in Traverse City, but came out of the tournament with a couple nagging injuries. Those kept him out of the first week of training camp, but he was finally cleared to skate last week. Just in time for a trip to Pittsburgh to make his case to stay in the NHL again.

WHAM...7-2 Pens.

OK, he's got another shot, this time in Detroit.

POW...9-0 Wings.

The flu ripped through the team, so the squads sent to both games were pretty thin. Nothing against Fritsche, but those were two tough games to make your preseason debut.

Finally, no more flu, a few more vets, and a home game in Columbus. David Vyborny gets out of the box about 6 minutes into the game, gets the puck, flips it over the defense and Fritsche is gone...red light is on a few moments later, and it's 1-0 good guys. The impressive thing about it, he pulled away from the defenseman as he got deeper in the zone. The kid has always played a no bull s**t type game, taking it at guys rather than around him, so the speed never really came into play or got noticed. It got noticed last night.

Later in the game he was out on a power play, and was the only guy on the weak side. He worked to the open space (hopefully Zherdev was paying attention at the time) and got a nice pass and a good shot off. Didn't score on that one (did later, didn't get to see it, though), but showed his just all around hockey sense. His play with the puck is great, but his play away from the puck was noteworthy. No floating at the blue line, no watching the point man, his feet never stopped moving and he got himself into open ice to receive a pass.

So, we finally get to see Danny on the ice in Columbus, and it appears he's grown up nicely while he was gone. I can't see how he won't make the team, and I can see him moving up the depth chart pretty quickly if he keeps playing like he did on Friday.

Zherdev has me wondering

2005-09-23T22:00:00.000-04:00

After watching the Jackets play the Wings Thursday night I came away wondering if this is the real Nikolai Zherdev or the preseason "meh" Nikolai Zherdev.

Far too many times away from the puck he just stood there with his stick at his waist watching the play. At one point, all he had to do was crash the net and he would have had a rebound with Jimmy Howard pulled way out of position. But, instead he decided to hang five feet inside the blue line.

Movement away from the puck is too big in the NHL for Zherdev to be watching at the blue line, even if it is preseason. Gilbert Brule isn't standing around, this kid's motor never stops. Granted, he's trying to impress, so he should be going all out. Maybe a better example at this stage is David Vyborny not mailing in his preseason games and watching the other four guys on the ice play.

I get how a player could decide not to take preseason serious, nothing counts, and they're throwing shootouts in just for fun. But, habits can be formed, and bad habits at that. Nicky's defense leaves a lot to be desired, and in the "New NHL" there are a ton of penalties being called, so his ice time will be limited by each kill we have. Does he want to spend the ice time he's actually getting loafing at the blue line?

Some nuggets from the Sunday Disptach

2005-09-04T10:54:00.000-04:00

As always, the Jacket info in the Sunday Dispatch is the highlight of the weekly hockey coverage. This week was no different, and the two articles they had shed some light on a couple of issues: ticket renewals and how the roster is shaping up.

On the ticket side, 92% of season ticket holders have renewed their tickets already, and the team anticipates that rising to 96%. Not too bad. While readers of the Dispatch are writing into the editor to tell him that he should print every morsel of Buckeye football coverge he can find, and other fans explaining that 80% of the city only wants to read about the Browns, the Blue Jackets fans quietly went about making their point with their wallets rather than writing the paper to complain. Things are looking good for another loud season in Nationwide, especially if Doug's quote at the end of the article comes true: "The best thing we can give our fans," MacLean said, "is a better team."

The probable training camp roster wasn't that surprising, but it was nice to see it in print, especially since it seems the Dispatch gets the best info out of the front office. After going through the guranteed contracts, there are 18 roster spots filled. That leaves five spots if the Jackets are to carry the full 23 man roster, which is unlikely because of the salary cap. For all intents and purposes, we've got 11 guys slugging it out for probably three spots on the full time roster.

It appears the defense is set with 6 guys having guranteed deals already, but Aaron Johnson and Francois Beauchemin to slug it out for the 7th spot. Given our injury problems on the blue line last season, healthy competetion between these two will be a good thing. Based on what I've heard out of Syracuse, it seems it should be a pretty tight race. We've seen Johnson in Columbus, but apparently he didn't really build on that last year. While Beauchemin, snagged off the waiver wire from Montreal last September, came in and played a solid season for the Crunch. Enough to earn him a two year deal with the Jackets.

On the offensive side, things get a little more interesting. The year off gave the Jackets draftees more of a chance to mature. Dan Fritsche used the time to help London win a Memorial Cup and put up 35 points in 28 games with the Knights. Alexandre Picard upped his game some more scoring 40 goals and 85 points in 60 games with Lewiston in the Q. Recently signed Jaroslav Balastik led the NHL star laden Czech Elite League in goals. Joakim Lindstrom hopped the pond to play 13 games with the Crunch, and mananged 4 goals and 4 assists in his short time there. And this doesn't even take into account this year's pick in Gilbert Brule, who some say was the steal of the draft at the 6th overall selection.

All of that leads to what should be an entertaining training camp. We have finally compiled enough draft picks of NHL quality to make the fight for spots interesting. Plus, even the guys with a guranteed contract don't have a guranteed spot on the team. Outside of Nash, whose spot on the top line was cemented in two months into the '03-'04 season, every other spot is open to be won. Preseason games might not be boring for a change.

Friday Night Football

Hilliard Darby - 28
Central Crossing - 0

North Union - 6
Cardington - 34

Waynesfield-Goshen - 50
Lima Perry - 12

Darby continues to look good, their defense giving up 7 points in its frist two games. North Union starts another Jekyll and Hyde season winning week one in fine fashion then getting whacked in week two. Uncle Kev's team in Waynesfield won another squeaker, but according to Uncle Kev once again started off slow.

"New NHL"...until the TV schedule comes out

2005-08-31T21:00:00.000-04:00

OLN has released the games they are going to air in the "New" NHL. Seems they picked the same old teams that the Old NHL liked to promote.

I get how TV ratings work, and how you want the most eyeballs possible watching those games, so it makes sense to put the bigger markets on nationally. So, seeing Detroit, the Rangers, Boston, the Avs, and St. Louis on the schedule 8 times each isn't so shocking, from a market standpoint. From an "exciting hockey" standpoint, the Rangers haven't been to the playoffs in 7 years, the Blues are shadows of what they were the last time the NHL iced a game, and the Avs have lost some luster as well.

On the flip side, the NHL is out to market some of its new stars, and it should. Sidney Crosby's Penguins get 7 appearances and Alexander Ovechkin's Capitals get 6, so the last two first overall picks will be seen plenty. 2003's first overall pick is a Pen, so if Fleury sticks in Pittsburgh he'll be on TV with Crosby. First overall pick from 2002, Rick Nash, is on OLN once. (NBC, never.) This is the same Rick Nash that was all the talk in this year's World Championships...which is another event in which nobody in the US saw Rick perform. 2001's top pick, Illya Kovalchuk, is on OLN twice, so the top pick theory goes out the window pretty quickly.

Maybe OLN meant to showcase young American hockey stars: Zach Parise 2 appearances with the Devils, Ryan Suter 1 with the Predators, Ryan Kessler 1 with the Canucks. Nope, guess that wasn't it, either.

No, it seems OLN looked at the standings from the last season, tossed in the Rangers and the hockey hot bed of Minnesota and put them on TV. But, that can't totally be true, either, because the defending Western Conference champion Calgary Flames are on OLN one time. Playoff teams Toronto, Ottawa, and Nashville are on a combined one time.

So, the criteria for who is on and how many times aren't real clear. I was hopeful that when the contract went away from ESPN, that ESPN's favorite teams would cease hogging all the ice time. Guess that didn't happen. With 58 games on the air, that's 116 possible teams to make the schedule. Getting all 30 teams to air two times should be fairly easy, and a good way to expose the entire league, which is in DIRE need of exposure.

Thank God for Center Ice.

Why the Wings?

2005-08-29T18:05:00.000-04:00

Since the FA season has opened, it seems plenty of prognosticators are still picking the Wings to win the Central. Why?

Osgood back in net? Datsyuk is in Russia, and may not come out of Russia. Zetterberg is as yet unsigned, too. That leaves the Wings with a veteran core. A core that has won the Stanley Cup, which isn't to be denied, but won it four years ago and before the "off year."

Chelly is 43, Yzerman 40, Shanny and Schneider 36, and $7 million man Lidstrom is 35. Kirk Maltby is a relative youngster at 32. Buying out McCarty seemed to be buying out a bit of the heart of the Wings, not that they'll be short on leadership.

But, here's the question: Can the aging Wings hang in the "New NHL" where the game is to opened up and speed to be a bigger factor? Can the perfectors of the left wing lock win in a non-left wing lockable NHL? The last time we saw the Wings they were getting bounced from the playoffs by a quick forechecking Calgary team. In round 1, the speedy Predators gave them fits for 6 games. Now, this type of game will be coming at them more often than not.

If obstruction truely goes away this year, can the Wings still stay on top of the Central? The Predators improved their playoff roster, the Jackets youngsters are all a year older and have been complemented by some solid free agent pick-ups, and Chicago seems to be putting together a solid team.

I don't think the Central is the toughest division in hockey this season, but it's not getting any easier for the team whose big acquisition was Andy Delmore.

It's about time...

2005-08-27T10:06:00.000-04:00

This blog thing sounded like a good idea at the time, but keeping up with it has been a bit tougher. And, getting caught up in the fun that has been the return of the NHL has kept me occupied for a while. So, we'll try this again...

Quite a few things have happened in the hockey world since my last entry.

In March. :)

Previously I wrote about things covering the NHL as a whole, as it seemed appropriate at the time. Now that the NHL has decided to grace us with their presence again, time to go back to being All Blue Jackets, All the Time. (OK, most of the time.)

As a Jackets fan, I am absolutely THRILLED with the way we're shaping up for this season. The roster it looks like we're going to camp with is hands down the best collection of players we've seen in Columbus in our short history. Top of that list is none other than Rick Nash. I can't wait to see what our little Ricky has grown into in his year away. His exploits on the other side of the pond last season are well noted, and he apparently lit it up at Team Canada's Olympic training camp. What do we have in this kid? And, big thanks to Doug, we have it for another five years.

Beyond Nash, it looks like our season is going to hinge on how well our kids come together and play. Can Klesla toughen up, use his size, and play like his 130-ish PIMs in the Czech league last year indicate? Will Zherdev continue the mind-boggling moves? Does Fritsche use his extra year in juniors and Memorial Cup winning experience (and giving Crosby all he wanted) to come into the NHL and make an impact? Does Picard stick on the big team? (This is a big question for me personally, I'm not sure I've ever seen the kid skate.) And, what about Brule? Can he drop jaws in camp to earn a few games once the season starts? And will those games earn him more? I've heard it's possible.

All these questions and more will start to be answered in just a shade over two weeks. This is going to be the best training camp we've ever seen. The competition for positions is going to be awesome to watch. Who earns the spot with Vyborny and Nash? Who gets to set up Zherdev? Which rookie is going to put a veteran down a line? Damnit, more questions!

Are you ready for some football?

My other love this time of year is high school football, just for fun I'll toss out scores for at least three games: Hilliard Darby (where we live), North Union (where I played (many, many years ago)), and Waynesfield-Goshen (where my brother is assisstant coach).

So for last night's update...

Hillard Darby - 39
Westland - 7

North Union - 32
Fairbanks - 15

Waynsfield-Goshen - 41
Lockland - 27

BONUS SCORE!

Sycamore Mohawk - 28
Elgin - 7
(Any guesses on where my wife went to high school?? :) )