July 1, and a young man's heart turns to thoughts of . . . lots and lots of cash.2 hours and 13 minutes until the annual feeding frenzy known as free agency formally begins, but indications are that this will be a much leaner meal than in years past. Economic conditions, the prospect of a drastically reduced salary cap next year, and several teams with substantial cap difficulties all point to a measured and muted free agency season. Need confirmation? First, the NBA Free Agent season started at midnight, and you can hear the crickets chirping in the silence. Second, Calgary successfully inked a deal with Jay Bouwmeester for 5 years, $33.4 million. While not chump change, this was not the stratospheric number that many were expecting/fearing. Compare it to Brian Campbell's 8 year, $56.8 million deal with Chicago, and it seems downright reasonable. He is signing for just about what Wayne Redden signed for with the Rangers last year (and ask NY fans how that turned out . . . ) While you can debate (with some justification) whether the talent for Jay Bo equals the hype, he was the #2 overall draft choice behind our own Rick Nash, and has the perception of being a premier player. When it comes to contracts, perception is reality. The fact that this one came in within the bounds of reason is a sign that the dollars will not be flowing large come Noon.This climate is perfect for our own Scott Howson, who is the epitome of patience. Make no mistake, this free agent season will be frustrating for the fans, as we may not see much early action. However, the opportunities abound for some bargains from the teams that have overspent. When all is said and done, either via free agency or trade, I expect that we will see five new faces in the lineup come the start of the season -- 2 defenseman, 1 center, 1 winger and a new backup goalie. My gut tells me that Manny is gone, as the perception gap is just too great, and another club will be enticed by his faceoff record. I have a hunch that Jason Williams might find his way back into the fold, however. He is a good shooter (which we need), and his stock is not sufficiently high, compared to the other forwards available, to attract a huge dollar deal. I think we may see two existing faces move on via trade, but I am now way out on a limb. Expect a backup goalie early in the process.The Nash Watch -- Contrary to the aspirations of every Toronto Maple Leafs fan, the early indications are that Rick will be staying put. Howson was in Toronto yesterday, doing a big presentation for Nash and his agent on the direction of the club and his role going forward. Everyone is saying all of the right things, and the Jay Boumeester deal did not launch the price out of the ballpark. Nash likely has two offers sitting on his table right now, one shorter term (3 -5 year) one long term (10 year or so). Howson seems willing to pony up the cash, and Rick loves being the big fish in the relatively small pond. Nash is not a glitzy, grab the limelight guy, and the microscope of Toronto has little lure for him. Besides, the organization in Toronto is a train wreck right now. Not the situation you want to dive into. Number 61 stays. Phoenix Phollies -- Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of both the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox, has put up a $148 million offer to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and keep them in Glendale. Gary Bettman and the NHL are backing this play, and are falling all over themselves in praising Reinsdorf and his ability to turn the franchise around. Not so fast . . . First, Reinsdorf is banking on Glendale renegotiating the lease -- something they have refused to do thus far, even after the NHL put big pressure on them. Secondly, and most importantly, Jerry's offer is $64.5 million short of the Balsillie offer. Keep in mind that whatever the NHL likes, this is a bankruptcy court proceeding, and Judge Baum's primary duty is to look after the best interests of the creditors. Sure, the City of Glendale is a prime creditor, but the Reinsdorf offer is taking a lot of cash off the table. Expect pressure to up the ante significantly to get court approval.Draft Overview -- Scott Howson showed his acument and flexibility during this one, ultimately gaining a defenseman that nobody figured would be available to the CBJ without them trading up substantially from their original slot at number 16. Who knows how things will ultimately turn out, but the crop he brought in looks solid. The pundits give him full marks for the draft, and I have no reason to disagree.The Draft Party at Nationwide was well attended and fun. Great job in having Umberger, Boll and Mason around and so accessible. The formal autograph lines were massive, but that is to be expected. Mike Todd did a nice job keeping things flowing, and the locker room tours, etc. were a nice touch. A few irritations to note for future events: 1) Put in at least one more food area on the floor, or open up a couple of the concession stands. Lines were ridiculous until late in the game, and many folks left early for that reason. 2) The broadcast coordination was reallly poor. The broadcasters did a great job, but the cutting back and forth to the live feed from Montreal was awful, and folks missed some key moments. 3)Why did we show the first period of Game 4 vs. Detroit on the big screen over and over? It looped back at least twice. Why not show the third period, which was the most exciting period in Blue Jackets history? USA Hockey -- Thumbs down for snubbing R.J. Umberger, who has shown that he is a big game player over the past two years. He may yet get invited, as injury or lack of interest dwindle the ranks, but this was a bad miss for USA Hockey.Stay tuned, more to come.
If this were the old Bluejackets, I would probably be stomping around, cursing Doug MacLean and everyone he ever associated with. Sure, they missed opportunities tonight, and yes, they had two defensive lapses that resulted in goals. But when you outshoot the other team 43 - 22, lay 48 hits on them, and their goalie stands on his head to turn away some terrific opportunities, all you can really do is credit them with a well played game and move on with the point. We remain 6 - 3 - 1 for the first 10 after the All Star break, so slightly ahead of our 60% target.Maybe I am getting soft in my old age, but there was a lot to like about the way the team played tonight, and some things that need work. In 4 games played with Dallas this year, 3 are decided in OT or SO. All are physical. The Jackets lose Brassard in Dallas, and now it looks like Dallas loses Richards for the season with a fractured wrist. Nothing official, but that's what was reported on Jackets post game. These teams are going to have some more wild ones down the road. Let's jump right to the +/-:++ Hitting -- We hit Dallas all over the ice, coming, going and in between. After the indignity of the first 45 seconds, we definitely won the physical battle.++ Offensive Aggressiveness -- we held the puck for long periods in the offensive zone, put plenty of rubber on net, and dominated long stretches of the game. We took the first 15 shots of the second period. We score 2, and should have scored 3 or 4 more, but for Turco's acrobatics. ++ Defense -- Commodore and Malhotra were caught flat-footed on Richard's goal Mason made the first save, and Richards had time to jam it up and over. Defense was just slow getting back on the second goal -- nothing Mase could do there. Other than that, we kept Dallas at bay all night. Some frustrating cycling behind our net against the wall, which always creates some discomfort at Nationwide, but it ddin't result in anything. Solid effort.++ Special Teams -- Yeah, we were only 1 for 6 tonight on the PP, but could easily have been more but for Turco. 1.5 stinker PP shifts (see puck handling below). PK was perfect again.++ Players -- Umberger, of course, with Voracek, Backman and Torres all playing hard and well. Boll, Murray provided energy, and Dorsett was an agitator, but not a big contributor otherwise. Commodore was huge with 8 hits. --Puck Handling -- After we got 2 goals, we started getting fancy with the puck. Huselius, trying hard to make plays, ended up making more turnovers with ill advised drop passes or other looks that did not connect. Williams did the same thing several times. That hurt both our 5 on 5 game and the PP. However, that is something easily fixed, and with the way we dominated the offensive zone, tough to harp too much on it. We were better with the puck in our own zone.--Officiating -- No excuses, but my Koharski and his partner were bad. As many power plays as we had, it should have been doubled. Nash was hooked, held, slashed all night, and some comical trips down low were never called. Comical moment when Koharski left his mike on while berating Dorsett in the 1st. Oops . . . Another point, and nothing veering off course. Apparently came through the game healthy, which is more than Dallas can say. You hate to see that, but also tough to have too much sympathy for the Stars, given what we have been through on the injury front this year. As I put the finishing touches on this, I note that Ottawa beat Nashville, Atlanta is beating LA 4 - 2, and Edmonton is tied with Phoenix 1 - 1. Edmonton has a tough back to back with Phoenix and San Jose tomorrow. Shake off the missed point and focus on St. Louis, who might be getting a bit cocky, thinking they have our number. We need to prove otherwise. Go Jackets!!!
Sorry that this review of the Calgary game is so late, but late night and busy day put the squeeze on the available hours. If you had come to me yesterday and said that the Bluejackets could have 1 point for the Calgary game, no need to play, just go off to break, I would have snatched up the opportunity like a $20 bill lying on the street. Once word got out that both Juice and Peca were out, and Filatov was not available to fill the void, things looked bleak.The Jackets are proving every night that we need to scrub our brains of past teams' tendencies. In any prior year, this one was destined to be a 7 - 1 drubbing. These guys just don't care about the fans' collective memories -- they just want to win. For anybody who wants to climb on the old "these guys don't play like they care" wagon, just replay the tapes of the last 12 games, then shut up. These guys care deeply, are giving it everything they have, and are getting results beyond what reason would indicate was possible.Last night the Calgary Thugs, I mean Flames, threw a gaudy home record, a lot of speed, and some of the dirtiest play I have seen in some time at a wounded and exhausted Jackets club, and we battled them to an effective draw. Sure we gave up 4 1 goal leads, but who would have expected us to score 4 goals in the first place?Credit to the officials for doing the right thing on the Phaneuf hit, but equal shame for not doing precisely the same thing on the Regher cross-check to Dorsett's face. As many penalties as Calagary drew, they deserved more. Just before the penalty was imposed for hooking Russell, the officials missed a high stick and a slash. We could have been on a 5 vs 3 for most of the period. It is baffling to me why a team with such skill resorts to the caliber of play they do. Fortunately, the NHL is taking its own look at the Regher hit. About time . . . Here are the +/- for the game:+ Team Effort -- Having every reason to lie down and just get on with the All-Star Break, the team refused to do it. They played with a lot of grit, stood up for each other, made some great plays on offense, and showed a lot of character. Hitch has to be proud. + Offense -- 4 goals by 3 different players, lots of pressure and some great chances. While our defense impacted our offensive zone presence, we made the most of the time in the zone, and improved as the game wore on. We scored 12 regulation goals during the 3 game trip, which is amazing, considering our injury status. + Players --Umberger obviously was huge, as was Nash. Russell and Voracek just keep getting better, and Williams was great. Boll is looking more comfortable, and Murray showed some good punch. Methot had another good game.- Defensive Zone Play -- I'm not going to go on at great lengths about this, as I know some rest and a couple of practices will get us back to where we are comfortable with Hitch Hockey, but our defensive zone effort continued to be poor. We hit OK, did a better (but not outstanding) job of clearing the puck, and won our share of board battles, but we were a couple of steps slow all night. After a hectic first, we were able to slow the pace down in the second, but lost it again at the end of the third. We gave Calgary way too much space in our end of the ice. We were just beaten to too many pucks, which gave them opportunities. Mason was sub-par in goal, but that's what fatigue will do.We reach the All-Star Break with 49 points, 22-20-5, with 3 out of 6 points on a 1-1-1 road trip. We are likely to emerge from the break as healthy as we have been since early in the season, with a distinct majority of home games and two thirds of our back-to-back games behind us. Given the adversity we have been through, that ain't all bad. I am working on some special features, and will have one or two of them up over the All Star Break. All Star Game watching party at the Garage Bar, hosted by the Jacket Backers, so come on out!!! I'll be sporting the white CBJ practice jersey with the #24. Go Jackets!
Ever work on an old car?? You put months, maybe years of effort into it. It starts looking better, but still doesn't run. Then, with some more tinkering, a little praying and a lot of swearing, one day it comes to life. At first it sputters, but then it settles in, and the longer it runs the smoother and faster it goes, until it just purrs right along.Tonight, we saw that work in progress come to life. We sputtered a bit during the first period, then proceeded to play the best second period in CBJ history, and followed up with a 3rd period that was equally dominant. Yeah, the sputtering cost us and Mason a scoreless streak, but his GAA stlll went down as a result of his effort. We sweep the Avalanche in their building for the year -- something you would never have thought, much less say, just a year or two ago. Here are the plus/minus awards for the night:++Nash, Huselius, Malhotra line -- Combined for 8 points and +10 in one game!! Malhotra is a completely different player since joining the top line. The passing, intensity and sheer hockey instinct was a joy to behold. Nasher finally converts a penalty shot to boot!!!+Commodore, Umberger, Voracek -- Great efforts as well. Commodore has become a scoring machine, and it was great to see Voracek get rewarded for his hard work. A nice 5 hole shot that will hopefully encourage him to shoot more. +Peca, Russell, Boll -- In what seems like an injustice, they were all -1, but played with great guts and energy, and always seemed to be making a play.+Mason --Duhhhhh . . . +Special Teams -- 1 for 4 on the PP, with lots of good movement and some good shots. A perfect 6 for 6 on the PK. Doesn't get better than that.+Team Spirit -- Did not get discouraged after some sloppy work in our own end resulted in Colorado's only goal. Came to Nash's defense after the Adam Foote cheap shot (#2) on Nash. Great to see Nash jawing at Foote. Wish I would have know what he said. Something like "Got an airplane waiting tonight, Adam?? "--Foote -- Classless act, slew footing Nash (unbelievable no-call there), then just cheap-shotting him in the corner. But, when all is said and done, it was Foote who walked away with a bloody nose, a -3 for the evening, and the prospect of coming to Columbus in just 10 days. ;-)A truly magnificent effort by the boys tonight. Watching Hitchcock in the post-game interview, you can tell he knows that they are on to something. Fun to watch, and consider that this is all happening on the road. We have guaranteed ourselves no worse than a .500 record on this trip, and it could be really special.Mason back in goal tomorrow in St. Louis, who lost in Carolina tongiht 2 - 1, so they have an even longer flight than the CBJ. Puck drops at 8:30 PM EST. Go Jackets!!!
July 1, and a young man's heart turns to thoughts of . . . lots and lots of cash.
