Like a kid on Christmas eve, the start of Blue Jackets Hockey tomorrow brings the promise of new toys, gadgets, gizmos and stuff to be excited about. In a few months a lot of those “new and cool” toys will be broken, laying in a junkyard somewhere, some of those toys will be gathering dust in the corner of your bedroom, and others will still be actively used deep into the springtime.
The Jackets are the anti-Jeopardy game show right now. There are far more questions than answers beyond, Q: “Who’s the captain?” A: “Uhhh, Rick Nash”, Q: “Did you make the playoffs last year?” A: “LOL”
While I predict the Jackets to have a good season, there are enough reasons to be negative. The lack of turnover from a 14th place finishing team can be disconcerting, but right now, it’s all about faith.
I’ve got a funny feeling about Ethan Moreau. I’m not sure if it’s a good one, but I think it is. Moreau has shown that he has a chip on his shoulder and that the coaches trust him. Winning one of the “A”‘s on this team, that has had seemingly strong supporting leaders for Rick Nash, says a lot to me. I’ve got high expectations for what he can bring to help Rick Nash and to fire-up this team when it’s needed.
The path to redemption for Steve Mason begins tomorrow. As a human being, there is no way that Mase is okay with what his legacy might be at this point. “Yeah he was really good for a year, just like Vesa Toskala” and it’s pretty crazy how many people hate him!
What was on display in the pre-season was a reassuring, but until Mason is showing confidence, poise, speed, and skill when the games count, I will remain a skeptic.
I strongly believe that Mason is the goalie that we saw during the run to the playoffs of 2008-2009, but he has to make re-believers out of many fans, and many critics across the NHL.
A few predictions for this season
- At least once I’ll ask, “Ummm, why did we fire Hitchcock?”
- Rusty Klesla will play less than 45 games
- The new 3rd jersey’s will be surprisingly awesome
- A few new CBJ blogs will pop up and a few will flame out
- Nikita Filatov will amaze us all
- There will be a whopping 5 CBJ Hat-tricks this season, Nash (2), Filatov, Voracek, Umberger
- Fans will still suggest that Nash should be stripped of the “C”
- Nash will proceed to score 40+ goals again this season
- When we joke about the potential lock-out, we’ll all laugh, but secretly be very scared
- Voracek will end the season on the top line
- Mike Commodore will cause at least 2 concussions, unintentionally of course
- John Moore will play fewer games in Columbus than David Savard
- The Sweden games will be a horrible tease as we wait almost a whole week after Saturday’s game
- Rick Nash will play on the top PK unit by season’s end
- The Jackets will make the playoffs
Of course, none of these will probably come true, and I’ll look like an idiot.
A few final comments…
My conference prediction calls for the Jackets to finish 6th in the conference. A bit of the method to the madness how I made such a prediction: Nashville and St. Louis are vastly overrated. The moves made in St. Louis leave a lot of questions, and too much weight is being placed on the youngsters for the Blues. The Jackets have a more complete team, hands down. I know I’m probably biased, but I just don’t see how the Jackets can reasonably finish behind the Blues in this year’s final divisional standings. The Nashville Predators forwards may be one of the most overrated groups in the league. Adding Lombardi was nice, but coming off a career year there’s a very unlikely chance he repeats the same feat.
The Jackets have struggled to find consistency in any part of their game throughout their history. Be it goaltending, scoring, defense, the CBJ’s beginnings have been rough.
Tomorrow the team starts moving the right direction and winning back those that once believed.
