The 5-Hole: Blue Jackets News and Notes – 4/12/11

Every Tuesday, WFNY’s The 5-Hole brings you up to date with the goings-on of the CBJ…

The Week That Was

This Week: 0-3-0, 0 points
Overall: 34-35-13, 81 points (5th division; 14th conference)

Tuesday, 4/5 in Dallas – Stars 3, Blue Jackets 0 – (box) – Highlights 
Friday, 4/8 in Nashville – Predators 4, Blue Jackets 1 – (box) – Highlights
Saturday, 4/9 in Columbus – Sabres 5, Blue Jackets 4 – (box) – Highlights

If there was a microcosm for the last month-plus of the season for Columbus, it was the last period of the last game on Saturday night. Hosting the playoff-bound Buffalo Sabres, Columbus had managed to score the first goal of the game. They then gave up three unanswered goals, but managed to score one late in the second to be heading into the final period down just one. Not more than a couple minutes in, they tied the game at three. There was a chance. They would have to play hard, play sound, and find a way to take the game away from their opponents.

The end result? A horrible penalty/mistake in the final 10 minutes cost them two goals. Craig Rivet cross-checked a guy in the face. Five minute major. Two goals on the power play. Down 5-3. No answers.

This is what the Jackets’ late season surge-and-collapse looked like, in just a few short minutes. They find a way to do just enough to get themselves close, and then they find a way to totally KILL themselves and end their chances. It seemed like they lost a lot of close games this year, and it almost always seemed like it was a late, killer mistake or goal that cost them in most of those games. So, the paradox is this: they made some progress from last season. They played meaningful games in March this season. They were legitimately in the discussion. They weathered another December swoon and looked to have come out on the other side a stronger team.

And then the bottom fell out. As we’ll see below in the numbers section, it can be argued that this year’s team was actually worse than last year’s in terms of pure hockey.

At the end of the season, they were again in 14th place in the conference. They were again far, far out of the playoff picture. They are again picking in the top-10 of the draft (right now, pre-lottery, they sit 7th, but could jump up as high as 3rd or fall back to 8th). They finished just two points ahead of last year’s point total, considered to be a miserable finish. So, at the end of the season, can we honestly say they improved? Yes, they had a fleeting flirtation with playoff chances. Yes, some guys took a step forward. But, overall, they’re still right where they were a year ago: 14th, looking up at the playoffs, and having A LOT of questions about their short-term future success.

By The Numbers

Let’s take a look at the Jackets by the numbers, now that the season is over:

Scoring:
2.56 gpg (24th NHL) – Down from 2.61 (t21st) last season, this is one of the more disappointing aspects of the club. With the new coaches and system, it seemed as though this club might have the horses to score a bit more. But, as we saw in shootouts, this club seems to have a dearth of “finishing skill” on the roster. This will need to improve majorly in the next year or two if the team is serious about any kind of contention.

Defense:
3.05 gapg (26th NHL) – Down from 3.04 (24th) last season, this is the main continuing culprit. Part of it falls at the feet of goaltender Steve Mason, but he can’t do it all by himself. With a lot of free agents on the current blue-line, look for major changes to this corps in the off-season. Hopefully.

Power Play:
14.0% (29th NHL) – Down from 18.2% (14th) last season, this is another area for concern. Sure, the team made the playoffs two years ago with the league-worst PP unit, but that unit steadily improved in the second half. This unit went down early, and stayed down for most of the season despite a brief surge in January and February. Coincidentally, it’s when the team played well. Hmm…

Penalty Kill:
80.3% (22nd NHL) – Down from 81.7% (17th) last season, this was a streaky unit. They started off the season very well, and played several stretches as well as any other club in the league on the PK. As recently as early March, they kept Carolina scoreless on NINE power play chances in one game, including some 5-on-3 time. And yet, at year’s end, they sit worse than last year’s team. As all four of these areas show, this franchise needs to build some CONSISTENCY in all facets of their game if they want to progess.

Goals Leader:
Rick Nash – 32 (last season: Nash, 33)

Assists Leader:
Rick Nash – 34 (last season: Kristian Huselius, 40)

Points Leader:
Rick Nash – 66 (last season: Nash, 67)

Wins (Goalie):
Steve Mason – 24 (last season: Mason, 20)

Goals-Against Average:
Mathieu Garon – 2.72 (last season: Garon, 2.81)

Save Percentage:
Steve Mason, Mathieu Garon – 90.1% (last season: Garon, 90.3%)

So, what do we see? No real improvement anywhere. In fact, a lot of stagnation and even some regression. For a season that started out full of hope and promise in the first two months, and that included meaningful games into March along with a real possibility of making a run, the overall picture looks just as bad—or worse—than a season ago. Scott Howson has his work cut out for him, and thus by extension so does Scott Arniel.

Injury Update

Rick Nash missed the final six games of the season with a back injury. Yikes. Can’t say I blame the club for not trying to shoe-horn him in, though, as the horse was way out of the barn at that point. Kris Russell also broke his leg last Tuesday, which is a huge bummer to the man who spent most of the season trying to get his groove back from pre-season leg injuries. Russell, instead of working on his game this summer, will now be rehabbing his leg. Ugh.

Quotes of the Week

No introductory blurb needed…

We are team that underachieved and it’s two years in a row so it’s a concern. That needs to be addressed.
–Forward RJ Umberger

I don’t think I can put my finger on one thing. It was a bunch of different things we couldn’t get going. Our home record wasn’t good enough, our effort on some nights wasn’t good enough, our special teams wasn’t good enough. You could go right down the list on a bunch different things.
–Forward Rick Nash

Whatever we have right now isn’t working.
–GM Scott Howson

No kidding. I don’t even need to add my two cents here, I don’t believe.

Overall, it was sad to see the season end so abruptly back in March. A five game road trip all but ended things, and the litany of “dang! so close!” games when there was still a chance made it that much more painful. In the end, despite all of my hand-wringing above, there are some positives to take away. This year’s team—though woefully undermanned in terms of pound-for-pound talent—never quit. They could have quit back in January when December had AGAIN killed their season. Shoot, they did it last year. But they didn’t. They played themselves back into it, albeit with smoke and mirrors in hindsight.

In my eyes, Scott Arniel looks to be a legitimate NHL coach. He may not have a full legitimate NHL roster right now, but his coaching style and style with the players in the room seems to be a positive for the franchise right now. And this is a franchise that can use all the positives it can get.

Finally, we did see a glimpse of potential for the future. It’s no secret that Howson has tried to restock this team’s system that was long devoid of talent. So far, the returns are mixed. We did, however, see a couple of guys (Grant Clitsome, Matt Calvert) come up and make contributions. We saw another couple of guys who are just now about to get their professional feet wet have spectacular seasons in juniors or college (Ryan Johansen, Cam Atkinson). We have a few defensemen who looked like they’ll be in the discussion in the fall (John Moore, David Savard, Cody Goloubef). It takes time to completely refill an organization with talent. Whether we’ve reached the time where it’s now time to turn the keys over to that home-grown crew as opposed to retread free agents, this summer will tell us a great deal.

No matter what the roster looks like, this will be the most important summer of Scott Howson’s career and tenure with Columbus. His seat grows warmer.