Archive Page 2

23
Aug
10

46 Vack’s of all trades

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Combined, Filip Novak, Tomas Kana, and Tim Jackman have played a whopping 31 games with the Blue Jackets. Couple that with the first day of school, and I’m not gonna go overly in-depth with any of these guys.

Defenseman Filip Novak was signed as a free agent in 2006 by Columbus and appeared in 6 games during the season with the Jackets. That’s about it. No trade, no notable plays that I can think of or find evidence of. Just the “quasi-constipated” look on his face in that picture.

Winger Tim Jackman was drafted by Columbus in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft and played 19 games with Columbus in the 2003-04 season. During the 2004-05 lockout Jackman was traded with Geoff Sanderson to Phoenix in a move that brought Cale Hulse, Michael Rupp, and Jason Chimera to the Jackets.

Since Jackman’s stint in Columbus, he has played for Phoenix, Los Angeles, the Islanders, and will play this season with Calgary.

Tomas Kana is currently a Blue Jacket (hooray!). Kana was called up late this past season and filled in for 6 games in the final throes of 09-10. Kana was acquired in a trade with St. Louis along with d-man Brendan Bell.

Kana most recently signed a 1 year, 2-way contract extension with the Jackets and will have a solid chance at getting some spot-time in Columbus this season.

The Cannon and Broad Street Hockey teamed up to answer some questions about each team. If you care about the Flyers go visit The Cannon here. If you want to see what Matt had to say about the Jackets go here.

The Unsurprising Resurgence of Rick Nash is an interesting statistical look at the ebb and flow of Rick Nash’s past season with Columbus.

Ryan Lambert does what he does best and is a dick about the Blue Jackets in this week’s “What We Learned” over at Puck Daddy.

22
Aug
10

47, A Bunch of Nobodies

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Don’t feel bad if you can’t remember more than Geoff Platt’s name ringing a bell. This is probably because he didn’t do much with his short time in Columbus.

Center Geoff Platt signed as a free agent with Columbus in early 2005 and managed to appear in 15 games during that season. In the next season he appeared in 26 games with Columbus bringing his total to a whopping 41 NHL games with the Blue Jackets.

Early in the 07-08 seasons Platt was traded to Anaheim for minor-leaguers Clay Wilson and Aaron Rome. In his brief NHL career Platt would best be qualified as a “Minor League Plus” player. He has found a scoring touch in previously the AHL and now with the KHL.

The other number 47 in Columbus history was defenseman Aaron Johnson. After being drafted by the Jackets in 2001, Johnson spent parts of 3 seasons with Columbus, totaling 116 games during the 2003, 2005, and 2006 seasons.

Since not receiving a qualifying offer from Columbus in the summer of 2007, Johnson has been on the move each of the last 3 seasons, Johnson has spent time with the Islanders, Blackhawks, Flames, and Oilers in his time since leaving the Jackets. After never really sticking anywhere, I’ll be surprised if Johnson gets many more chances in the NHL.

The Green Seat View continues making “A Case for Columbus” with the most recent installment, “The City, Part 1, The Food“. Green Seater mentions some Columbus staples but leaves off a few of my favorites: Catfish Biff’s Pizza (Campus), Buckeye Donuts (Campus), Columbus Fish Market, Cap City Diner, the Original Max & Erma’s (German Village). There are few places he lists that I have yet to try, and now will definitely need to now that yet another person recommended it.

The winds of change are a blowing… well at least there’s a slight breeze about. Shootouts will no longer be included in a teams win total when it comes to tie-breakers. Puck Daddy goes on to give a good bit of credit to GMSH for nudging these changes in the right direction. Last season the shootout had a bigger impact than it ever has previously on the final league standings. I’m all for decreasing the impact a skills competition has on who does and doesn’t make the playoffs, especially since the Jackets have been so poor in the said competition.

I also wouldn’t mind a slight scoring change if the powers that be reject allowing overtime to change to 3 minutes of 4-on-4, 3 minutes of 3-on-3, and 3 minutes of 2-on-2, before the shootout.

I’m glad to see the league and management being proactive on this front. I am extremely “anti-tie” but have strong feelings against the use of a shootout. A continuous OT like the playoffs would be nice, but the weight of regular season games doesn’t warrant 4 hour hockey games

21
Aug
10

48 Formerly Mr. Methot

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Marc Methot used to wear number 48. There ya go. Currently young Methot wears number 3 for the Blue Jackets but was the only player to ever wear number 48 for the Union Blue.

Marc Methot was drafted by Columbus during the 2003 NHL Entry Draft and since then has spent parts of 4 seasons with the Blue Jackets. Methot is under contract with the CBJ for one more season, my take is that this will be his last season in Columbus.

Earlier this summer Rick Gethin of The Hockey Writers had a nice interview with Methot about his off-season conditioning.

Unfortunately almost no news since last night’s #49 update. But there was this nice dismantling of Brian Burke‘s comments and motives to push the NHL players away from the Olympics and towards the World Cup of hockey.

I don’t know what I’ll say or do if the “L word” happens. Right now hockey fans need to try to keep a level head and ignore all the posturing that’s going on. The owners, general managers, players, and agents are all going to try to puff their chests up big and intimidate one another, but if all parties involved know what’s good for them, when negotiations arrive, there won’t be much arguing for the sake of the game and the fans.

If you didn’t catch this summer’s NHL Network series “Raising the Cup”, you seriously missed out. Of 35 years of Stanley Cup Clinchers, I’ve watched probably 15 of them and have a good bit still to catch up on the DVR. As a fan of an expansion team, I kind of view this as my education of what the NHL was before the Jackets came on to the scene. Maybe next summer they’ll play video of every team (that’s available) during their Inaugural Game. Probably not feasible for the Original Six… oh darn.

20
Aug
10

49 Dan Fritsche

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Dan Fritsche remains one of the few native Ohioans to ever play for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Fritsche was drafted during the 2003 NHL Entry Draft and spent parts of 3 seasons with the Jackets. Fritsche was a typical grinder for the Jackets until the make-over summer that sent Fritsche along with Zherdev to the New York Rangers for Christian Backman and the man I forgot about, Fedor Tyutin.

I kinda feel bad for Dan Fritsche getting shipped out of Columbus, but if the roster was going to be truly re-made, it was a necessary move. Pretty insane that GM Howson had the foresight that Backman, Zherdev and Fritsche would all fizzle out of the NHL (although Zherdev is returning this season).

My favorite Dan Fritsche moment was Friday, March 7, 2008 in the midst of on of the worst blizzards to hit Columbus in decades. It was a special night because there were maybe 7,000 people in attendance and everyone was intently focused on the game to mentally escape the carnage happening outside. The Jackets trailed for a good chunk of the game until Dan Fritsche became the hero scoring the game-tying-goal with 1 second remaining to force overtime. It was a pretty surreal moment, although the Jackets went on to lose the game.

I need to apologize.

I missed one of the most obvious players/numbers in the whole damn countdown.

After the 2009-10 season was completed Dark Blue Jacket named Tyutin the MVP of the club, and here I am leaving Tyuts out of my countdown. Sigh…

Tyutin was acquired in the previously mentioned trade that also brought in Christian Backman.

Tyutin was the lone stud on last year’s blue line and was just plain tired as the season wore on. With a little help from the rest of the guys, he could have a big-time season. Tyutin still has 2 years remaining on his current contract at $2.843 million per season, a very friendly hit for such a minute-eater.

Bits of news:

Pre-season tickets are on sale… wooo (Official Site)

Chat with 2009 Conn Smythe winner Evgeni Malkin mentions the similar attempt of “reaching out” that worked on Malkin that Tyler Wright has recently attempted with Nikita Filatov (Puck Daddy)

Brad Larsen was hired today as the newest, and final new coach in the Blue Jackets system. (Dispatch)

19
Aug
10

The Long Haul, 50 to go

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The wild ride to the start of the NHL regular season starts now. Thankfully there are many other things getting started in the next couple weeks to keep us busy and get the days really flying by.

First up for me is school starting Monday, high school football on Friday, and Ohio State Football on the Thursday after. Hooray.

From here on out, I’ll be with you every day with a different player in the jersey countdown. Again, thanks to En4cer45 for putting together the all-time numerical roster.

Antoine Vermette was acquired at the 2008-09 trade deadline in exchange for oft-injured CBJ goaltender Pascal Leclaire. Vermette was Mr. Clutch along with RJ Umberger and The Captain in the final run-up to the 2008-09 Stanley Cup Playoff appearance.

Just before this past season Vermette signed a 5-year contract extension. A great move by Howson, especially when Vermie posted 27-38-65 in 82 games during the 2009-2010 season, a bright spot in a disappointing year.

Dark Blue Jacket continues his “Time to Step Up” series with features on Andrew Murray, Derek Mackenzie, and Tomas Kana, among others. Lots of work being put into this, check it out!

Andrew at The Cannon speculates what might become of the Blue Jackets power play in the piece “The Arniel Effect – Power Play“. Some interesting speculation.

Matt from The Cannon pointed out this quick interview with Rick Nash. Here’s the money quote:

“We got to make the playoffs. That is by far the expectations going in,” Nash told sportsnet.ca. “Obviously it is going to be tough, but we need to get back to where we were in ’08/’09.”

Nash also talks about his experiences with the NHL 2K franchise in this video.

Go out and read the great stuff being posted all around the NHL blogosphere. Before you know it October 8 will be here!

Go Jackets.

17
Aug
10

Judas Foote! 52 days to go

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I’ll just put it out there. I hate Adam Foote.

I never cared for him when he played for the Jackets, but what transpired on February 26, 2008 will be a significant part of Blue Jackets history as long as I’m around.

About the only thing I will give him credit for is his willingness to sign with Columbus out of the lockout. That’s it. His previous and current affiliation with the Avs will always taint my view of that team… even though watching Ray Bourque’s Stanley Cup win recently on the NHL Network did bring some tears to my eyes.

When Adam Foote left Columbus he left a void that forced young players to step into leadership roles and Rick Nash will be that leader for the forseeable future. Not to mention, but when Foote was shipped out the 1st round pick received brought in RJ Umberger… I think that trade worked out pretty well.

Cannonfest Wrap-up:

First off, I was pretty quiet on this event leading up to it because, frankly, I didn’t know what to expect. There was potential for just 8 or 9 people standing in a circle drinking beer and being hockey dorks. There was also potential for a huge turnout of Blue Jackets fans that are hockey dorks but don’t always show it.

What we got was a combination of the two, and I have to say, it was pretty darn awesome. I cannot say enough positive things about the people I met and conversed with that day. The approachability of Todd Sharrock, the hockey knowledge of the fans, and the passion of absolutely everyone in attendance. Kudos to the Grandview BW3′s and owner (and CBJ Blogger) Greg May for the great event hosting. Even more thanks to the Dark Blue Jacket (aka Tom) and Matt Wagner of The Cannon for all their promotion and organizing of such a cool get together.

I can’t forget to mention Skraut of HF Board and video-making fame. Go watch his new video “Requiem for a Season“. Just do it. Absolutely blown away by the time and effort he puts into this.

Skraut uses some great, and some sad clips from the past season and one of my favorite emotional movie soundtracks and remixes. The remix of the main theme from “Requiem for a Dream” does an amazing job to ram-home the passion and emotion behind any sports highlight reel.

My favorite use of it was this Troy Smith for Heisman video from 2006. Whether a Buckeye fan or not, about halfway through the video composer uses Skraut’s “Requiem for a Dream” remix and it’s just plain bad-ass.

If I thought writing this blog and making 3rd-grade level photoshops was challenging, well, I’ve got another thing coming.

Funny story when writing this post. I started writing while bored during today’s teacher in-service, and “The View From 210′s” blog about Cannonfest was blocked because the school’s filter told me it was “pornography”. uhhhhhh Unless the CBJ are porn my school’s filter is efffed up.

And not to be left out, here is The Green Seat View‘s post on the awesome-ness of Cannonfest.

Other CBJ news:

The Cannon has got your free agent invites for the Traverse City Prospect Tournament.

DBJ has started his intriguing “Time to Step Up” series for every player on the roster of the Blue Jackets.

That’s all for now. Adam Foote Sucks.

Go Jackets.

15
Aug
10

Nash Crosses the Scioto, Photoshop

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Just a newly photoshopped banner that I thought everyone would get a kick out of.

I still need to work on the lighting effects in Photoshop but, hopefully we can appreciate the effort.

If you have a suggestion for a famous battle-related scene that would make a potentially cool banner, send an e-mail, tweet, or comment!

14
Aug
10

OKT means 55 to go

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Number 55, Ole-Kristian Tollefsen is the next former Blue Jacket on the “Jersey Countdown to Puck Drop 2010″.

Tollefsen was drafted by the Blue Jackets in the 3rd round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. “Tollie” ended up playing in parts of the 05-06, 06-07, 07-08, and 08-09 seasons with the Jackets. While in Columbus Tollie was a feisty fellow, and tried to make an impression during training camp in 2003 when he injured (almost CBJ Legend) Geoff Sanderson, for an extended period of time.

After 151 games in his time with the Jackets, OKT moved on to play with the Philadelphia Flyers and had a brief stint with Detroit’s AHL team, the Grand Rapids Griffins. While with Philly, distinctly OKT soured his image to me as he was running around like tool bag trying to injure someone from the CBJ, probably sour grapes that he wasn’t re-signed after the 08-09 season.

Cannonfest is TOMORROW. Be there or be square. Seriously. I’ll take any excuse to put on a hockey sweater in the middle of August. Maybe the Jackets will have traded for Kaberle by then? Wouldn’t that be exciting?

The Green Seat View continues to look at the goaltenders of the Central Division.

Besides DBJ, The Cannon also wants you to go to Cannonfest too. Plus their usual link-dump.

Speaking of DBJ, he speculates that these could be the base of the CBJ’s new uni’s.

Sooooooo, 55 days to go, come to Cannonfest tomorrow.

Go Jackets.

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