WaitingForNextYear

Columbus Blue Jackets (11-6-2, 24pts)
vs.  Dallas Stars (9-5-6, 24pts)
American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
Thursday, November 19, 2009
8:30 PM EST
FSOhio TV/WWCD(fm)/WBNS(am)

(Dispatch Preview / SportsDirect Preview)

The Jackets bounced back from the 9-1 drubbing at the hands of Detroit by finishing their home stand with two shoot-out wins. In those wins they did not play up to their full potential, but were able to get the win. That’s a main difference between Jackets teams of the past and this year’s team: they have been able to win games when not bringing their best effort because they have more talent and experience. Dallas has always been a proverbial thorn in the side of the Jackets, and this first meeting kicks off a five game road trip for Columbus.

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

The Week That Was

Week: 2-1-0, 4 points
Overall: 11-6-2, 24 points (2nd division; 6th conference)

The beat goes on. The Jackets aren’t playing great hockey, but they’re winning more than they’re losing in spite of a rash of injuries and inconsistent play. The only rub this week, however, is that the one loss was a HUGE one. Detroit came into Nationwide Arena and all but toyed with the Jackets, jumping out to a quick 4-0 lead in the first period en route to a 9-1 victory. But, they rallied back from that to win two straight to keep themselves in good shape in the standings.

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

The Week That Was

Week: 2-0-1, 5 points
Overall: 9-5-2, 20 points (t1st division; t3rd conference)

Those numbers are a beautiful thing. The NHL functions much like the NBA, wherein the three division leaders in each conference get the top three seeds. It’s ironic that what was thought the be the deepest division in the conference to start the year is actually one of the worst in the conference. The Jackets’ 20 points would put them even or behind four of the five teams in the Pacific Division, for example. But, you just have to win your own division; that’s all that matters. The Jackets are currently tied with Chicago for first place with identical records.

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San Jose Sharks (10-4-1, 21pts) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (7-5-1, 15pts)
Nationwide Arena, Columbus, OH
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
7:00 PM EDT
FSOhio HDTV/WWCD(fm)/WBNS(am)

(Dispatch Preview / SportsDirect Preview)

The Jackets are back at home after a rousing come-from-behind win in overtime on Sunday against the Capitals. They’ve played better in their last two games, earning three out of four possible points. But, the Sharks bring all manner of challenges: in their first meeting of the year back in the opening stretches of the season, the Jackets had no answer for Dany Heatley who notched a hat-trick against them in his first Sharks home game. The Jackets get a big boost with the return of Jan Hejda tonight, and their beleaguered defense could certainly use the help. Without The Big Czech in the lineup, the Jackets were 3-4-1, and their goals-against average as a team jumped from 2.20 to 4.25. In other words, welcome back Jan! But, the news up front is not good, as Columbus was dealt a big blow with two injuries to their top-6 forwards.

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

The Week That Was

Week: 1-1-1, 3 points
Overall: 7-5-1, 15 points (2nd division; t8th conference)

I think I’ve figured out what one of this team’s problems is: they’ve bought into their own hype. When they get ahead, they think they’re much better than they are and they coast. They lollygag the puck around and think they can just play the clock out. I hope Sunday’s game–a huge win–showed them something: without the best player on the planet, the Capitals made them look silly for long periods of time. But, they rallied and finished strong. Newsflash, though, Jackets: you’re not that great, yet. Yet.

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

The Week That Was

Week: 1-3-0, 2 points
Overall: 6-4-0, 12 points (2nd division; t8th conference)

Aaaand, the other shoe droppeth. Obviously, we’ve pointed out how tough a scheduling stretch this was, but the Jackets didn’t do themselves any favors with their play. They gave up 22 goals in four games this week, which is not only “un-Jackets-like” but nearly impossible to overcome. What’s really frustrating is that Columbus scored plenty of goals themselves, scoring almost four a game (15 in the four games). But, when you give up more than five a game, it doesn’t much help.

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

The Week That Was

Week: 2-0-0, 4 points
Overall: 5-1-0, 10 points (2nd division; t6th conference)

Don’t let the “t6th” fool you: Columbus is off to a stellar start. In the West, there is one team with 13 points (Colorado), four teams with 11 points (Chicago, San Jose, Calgary, and Edmonton), and three with 10 points (Columbus, Phoenix, and Los Angeles). The difference? The Jackets have played only six games. Every other team in that top-eight has played at least seven (Phoenix), and most have played eight or nine. So what does that mean? In terms of points per game thus far on the young season, Columbus (1.667) has gotten off to the best start in the conference. The Jackets have passed their first major test, but it doesn’t get any easier as they again head out to the western time zones for four straight games.

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Blue Jackets 2, Flames 1
(Box) – Highlights
Record: 4-1-0 (8pts – 1st division, 2nd conference)

Coach Ken Hitchcock summed it up yesterday beforehand: “Our games [with Calgary] last year were a real measuring stick in how competitive they are. I told our players today, competitive-wise we’re not going to get a bigger challenge.” Forward RJ Umberger was a little more succinct: “It’s going to be a man’s game.”

Indeed.

This game was physical. It was tight. And the Jackets played like it mattered to them. (more…)

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

The Week That Was

Week: 1-1-0, 2 points
Overall: 3-1-0, 6 points (2nd division; t7th conference)

The Jackets come home after a tough three game road trip in fairly good shape. They took two out of three on the road—all three games were their opponents’ home openers, too, which presented an added challenge—and got some solid play along the way from some key sources. The tough schedule to start off doesn’t get any easier, however, as a near-juggernaut Calgary team comes calling tonight at Nationwide.

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Columbus Blue Jackets (2-0-0, 4pts)
vs.  San Jose Sharks (1-2-0, 2pts)
HP Pavilion, San Jose, CA
Thursday, October 8, 2009
10:30 PM EDT
FSOhio TV/WWCD(fm)/WBNS(am)

(Dispatch Preview / SportsDirect Preview)

The Jackets are 2-0-0 for the first time in their history. So, what does that earn them? A trip to San Jose for the Sharks’ home opener, against another team who has struggled amidst big expectations thus far, on a night during which they will raise their President’s Cup and Division Title banners. Remember that the Sharks were the top regular season team in the league last year (President’s Cup), though the Jackets played them as well as any team in the league did, winning both games in Columbus in stunning fashion as well as playing about as well in “The Shark Tank” as any team last season. And the Sharks have reloaded again. It’s going to be a pretty intense game!

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

The Week That Was

Week: 2-0-0, 4 points
Overall: 2-0-0, 4 points (2nd division; 5th conference)

The two lines above… that’s history, folks. In this, their ninth season in the NHL, the Blue Jackets have won their first two games in a season for the first time. Let that sink in for a moment. That’s some seriously long-standing bad mojo that was just undone. What’s better, they won last night in Vancouver in a game that, if you looked at just the stat sheets, you’d think they had no business winning. I’m not ready to start getting the Stanley Cup engraved after two games or anything, but this team has shown me something already in the early going.

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Columbus Blue Jackets (1-0-0, 2pts)
vs.  Vancouver Canucks (0-2-0, 0pts)
GM Place, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Monday, October 5, 2009
10:00 PM EDT
FSOhio TV/WWCD(fm)/WBNS(am)

(Dispatch Preview / SportsDirect Preview)

Well, the year got off to a great start for Columbus on Saturday. In spite of losing starting defenseman Mike Commodore to a groin injury, the Jackets were stellar on defense and generated enough offense to pull out a 2-1 victory against Minnesota. It’s always good to win your opener; this makes three consecutive years in which the Jackets have done so. The challenge now, however, is to build off of that momentum as they head out west to continue the young season. They face an 0-2-0 Vancouver team making its home debut, and the Canucks should be fired up, ticked off, and ready to right their own ship. Columbus will have to match that intensity if they want to pull of their first road win of the year.

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Minnesota Wild (0-0-0, 0pts)
vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (0-0-0, 0pts)
Nationwide Arena, Columbus, OH
Saturday, October 3, 2009
7:00 PM EDT
FSOhio TV/WWCD(fm)/WBNS(am)

(Dispatch Preview / SportsDirect Preview)

If I knew how to skate with any kind of consistency, let me tell you that I would be ready to check someone through the boards at this point. With a summer of utterly crap-tastic baseball now in my rear-view-mirror and any semblance of excitement about the Browns now completely extinguished, not to mention the lack of any worthwhile Cavs action for most of this month, I cannot over-state how JACKED UP I am for hockey. I know most of you don’t give a crap, but I DO. The Jackets are coming off their Best Season Ever, had arguably their Best Offseason Ever, and look to be fielding their Best Team Ever. I heart superlatives. Enough goofing; LET’S DROP THE PUCK ALREADY!

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Well, I know this will mostly fall on deaf ears, but for those of you like me who love hockey—or maybe for those of you tired of inept franchises and are biding your time until the Cavs start playing for real—this weekend marks the anticipated start of yet another march to Lord Stanley’s Cup.

The Blue Jackets take to their home ice this Saturday night at 7:00 PM against Minnesota to kick off their own quest. I will be there, and frankly am stoked for it. In anticipation of the new season, I thought I’d take a moment or seven and break down the team as we transition from last season to this.

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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: 3-1-0
Final Pre-Season Record: 4-3-1

What a difference a week makes. The Jackets were light-years better this past week in wrapping up their exhibition schedule, winning three straight (two against Boston and one against Pittsburgh, two of the East’s best) before dropping the finale to Nashville. The highlight was most definitely Thursday’s tilt against the Penguins at Nationwide, when the Jackets dressed only nine regulars and still dropped the hammer on a fairly full complement of Penguins stars.

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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: 1-2-1
Pre-Season: 1-2-1

The pre-season schedule got underway for the Jackets with a bit of a bump in the road. There were some positives in their overtime loss to Pittsburgh last Tuesday: new back-up goaltender Mathieu Garon was solid, surrendering no goals in his two periods of work. In addition, the Jackets’ power-play unit—by far the league’s worst last season—scored on two of their four chances, and center Derick Brassard saw some time at the point, which was a major area of weakness on last year’s PP unit. However, the team wilted under the pressure in the third period as Pittsburgh launched a barrage of shots (outshooting Columbus 20-7) and scoring four times to force overtime, where they eventually won it.

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Guess who’s back / back again / 5-Hole’s back / tell a friend…

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

The Summer That Was

Last Season: 41-31-10, 92 points (4th division; 7th conference)

It was officially “The Best Season in Franchise History”. Granted, 4th place in the division isn’t something to shout about, but the division was so stacked last season (and looks to be this season as well) that 4th in the division was good enough for 7th in the conference. They tied in points with 3rd/6th place St. Louis, but finished below them by virtue of head-to-head record. But, the Jackets finally made the playoffs, and have laid the foundation for what should be a return trip this year, hopefully with better results due to the experience gained last year. And, despite the loss, Game 4 against Detroit still is and will always be one of my favorite sports memories.

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Here we are, mid-July. Training camp is still on the horizon, as is the college football season. The Cavs won’t be back in the gym and the Jackets won’t be back on the ice for a couple of months. The Tribe and Clippers eat it. It’s kind of a Dead Period for us. Likewise, I’ve largely been persona non grata on this blog with the exceptions of writing once a week about the aforementioned Horrible Clippers and my neuroses about Rick Nash.

So, in an effort to: a) write something, and b) offer my ironic protest against how bad the two baseball teams I’ve been paying the most attention to actually are, I thought I’d take a moment to offer up my list of the Five Sports Things I’m Looking Forward To.

Feel free to denigrate my selections (I suspect one in particular is just me “asking for it”) and offer your own in the comments. (more…)

As has been chronicled closely here by DP, the Blue Jackets have been in negotiations with team captain/winger Rick Nash.  It is being reported that the team and Nash have agreed to terms, resulting in an eight-year, $62.4M extension.  Nash was eligible to be a free agent in 2010 and has been in negotiations with the team since July 1.  I’m sure much more analysis will be forthcoming from DP, but this is big news for the team and the city that we felt you ought to know.

Well, two steps forward, one giant step back. While the Jackets intimated “patience” as other teams (looking at you, Blackhawks) spent money like drunken sailors (really? a 12 year contract for Hossa?), the Jackets’ brass told us they had a few irons in the fire, but that they were first focusing on resigning Rick Nash. Ahh, the smokescreens of professional sports GMs!

As we noted yesterday, the Jackets did send an offer Nash’s way. It was reported to be a five year deal, though no monetary terms were known. Nash and agent Joe Resnick summarily rejected it. It wasn’t so much that he turned it down (that’s how these things happen; the team comes in low, the player/agent come back high, and they meet in the middle and get it done) as what he said in turning it down.

“There were tons of teams throwing some pretty big money around,” Nash said. “If this doesn’t get done, I’m sure I won’t have a problem getting signed by somebody next summer. Things didn’t line up the way I anticipated them lining up. I thought we had a solid chance of getting (a contract) done, especially with all the interest they said they had going into this. If they want me that bad, they’ll get it done.”

Rick, you know just what to say to hurt me. (more…)