Saturday, January 31, 2009

Commodore "Lays It On The Line" -- TSN

In an attempt to quantify some of the intangibles that make some players so valuable, despite perhaps not showing up on the scorecard, TSN has put together a list of 75 players who meet the "lay it on the line" standard through blocked shots, hits, takeaways, faceoffs, etc. Our own Mike Commodore ranks 3rd in this compilation, behind only Brooks Orpik of Pittsburgh and the Predators' Greg Zanon. Congrats, Mike!

No other Jackets are cited in the top 75, but Manny Malhotra gets the nod as the forward on the team leading in these categories. Take a gander at the full list here.

Go Jackets




3 comments:

jemhuff said...

At least there weren't any Jackets who made the bottom 25 either. ;-)

Mase1 said...

@ss Bag Dougy Mac's at it, again! Here's the quote, from this A.M.'s Dispatch:

Former BJ Prez and GM Doug MacLean, now a radio show host in Toronto, took a swipe at Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock in an interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Asked to describe Dan Fritsche, the former Blue Jackets player acquired by the WIld this week, MacLean said, "Hitchcock didn't like him, but there's not many young guys he liked. I mean, Hitchcock didn't like (Flyers center) Mike Richars, so keep that in perspective"

Can this jack@ss just please shut up, or die, or something?

Maybe blowhard can't distinguish between a guy not liking younger players, and uh, rushing them - i.e. Klesla, Brule, Fritsche, countless others?

Is this A-Hole an eternal bitterman, or what? Guess that's why he's nicknamed "The Clown Show" around the league.

This is the same guy who's @ss is still permanently attached to Toolie's nose (Toolie seems to think DMGM was wronged, to this day, as does Spitty the Retard - AKA Spielman)

Shut up, loser!

JAL said...

Good point, jem. HR -- couldn't agree more. Doug MacLean is bitter at the world since the Tampa Bay situation fell through. (Although he must be taking perverse pleasure in their struggles)

Let's get some perspective here. Doug is not the "Great Satan" that everyone makes him out to be. As with many guys, his ego gets in his way, and makes him believe he can do more than he can.

Doug was an excellent President. He knows how to shape an organization, and did a great job of helping to make Columbus get on board with hockey. We take that for granted now, but there was real serious doubt that it could happen.

Doug was not so hot as a GM, but not for the reasons most think. I have a series of pieces I am working on, reviewing all of the CBJ player deals since Day 1 -- trades, free agent signings, etc. There are really darn few places where you can say that MacLean clearly blew a draft pick or a trade.

Where I fault Doug is on three things:

a. Handling of youngsters
b. Coaching -- both his personal coaching and his coaching hires pre-Hitchcock.

Both are related to the same concept -- namely that pure talent and enthusiasm can overcome anything else. Give Doug credit for bringing in some amazing young talent, but he never insisted on the quality coach and a system to go along with it.

Hitch and Howson are the methodical CPA types in contrast to MacLean's carnival barker approach. The latter works well when you are the President of a hockey club in a new market and need to create interest. It ain' so hot for getting victories.

More in upcoming pieces, but thanks for the post. You called it like it is!