Record: 7-16-1-1
On the road: 3-9-0-0
Last 10: 2-7-0-1
Bloggers and local media:
Death Cab for Woody
End of the Bench
The Jacket Times
Nash a work in progress - The Columbus Dispatch


Synopsis:
Well, then. Looks like I'm getting this little pre-game in on the wire! That's what happens when you work 10-6 on a game day, and your ride home on the bus takes about an hour in all. What fun, right?

The Jackets are riding a pretty good high right now after a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers drubbing that chased "Balls Breaker" Roloson from the net after the second period. There is definitely a lot of good that can be taken away from that game. The penalty kill that is clicking on all cylinders and has gone 15 straight without a goal; the power play finally tallying a goal; Fredrik Norrena's first NHL shutout ever ... I'm sure the list could go on, but let's not get too excited over just one win, alright?

Questions still persist about a few things: Where's Rick Nash and his vaunted skills and scoring touch (though taking a hockey stick to the babymakers and playing through that definitely earns some major respect)? How long will Nikolai Zherdev be out? Hidden behind the grinders netting goals and Carter's recent somewhat awakening from his slumber during the first quarter of the seasons, other big players on the team have struggled to find the net in any way.

Let's see if something can be done about that tonight.

It burns us, preciousssss! Burns usssssss!

I'm starting to learn a lot about how I handle a horrible team I put a lot of energy and devotion into after the past two seasons with the Blue Jackets. Like I mentioned in posts long ago, I grew up in New Jersey and up until around the lock-out, was a devout follower of Lou Lamoriello and the Devils. "In Lou We Trust", neutral-zone trap, legendary goalies, three Stanley Cups in nine years, and so on and so forth.

So you get used to winning. Even if it bores you to death, like the Devils would do for those last two Cups, you still enjoy knowing that the playoffs are pretty much a lock.

What are the Blue Jackets supposed to do? Nothing is going right. Why isn't Doug MacLean fired yet? Everyone is clamoring for GMDM's head on a pike in Columbus, and yet the McConnells and the rest of the ownership seem content to let him twist in the wind, and as a result let the Blue Jackets continue to do so by association. Why aren't fans getting angry at the ownership for taking this long to do something about this hole that's been dug? How many General Managers would have lasted this long, even with the free pass of the CBJ being an expansion team, which has now long expired?

I don't know. Maybe my anger is misguided. But to tell you the truth, I hear very little rage towards ownership. Part of it might be that while they seem to have made a horribly fatal error in keeping GMDM around so long, their intentions are noble and they really want to see this team thrive. If I had to make an analogy, I'd say this smacks of the recent elections here in the U.S., where slick Dick Cheney (GMDM) seemed to have all the right words to keep his power and also keep friends such as Donald Rumsfeld (Gerard Gallant) in power, while George W. Bush (ownership) naively went along with things until the voters (CBJ fans) called them all out with a referendum.

The analogy is pretty slipshod, but it still illustrates my point: ownership has been too naive to GMDM's pure and utter failings, and doesn't seem to have the stomach to kick the guy out.

Ever since I arrived in Columbus and started to pick up on the Jackets, something that always stood out to me was the "friendly" atmosphere that the team seems to have. I can't put my finger on it, but to sum things up, I'd say that the whole team and management is just plain soft. That's the best word I can use to describe why nothing seems to be done around here. Management is too busy double talking and trying to appeal to fans with regular interviews and radio shows, players are too busy being chummy with one another, and ownership is afraid to do anything extremely drastic or take any real risks with an organization shake-up.

You want to win? Then stop being so fu-- ... gosh-darn soft. What the Hell does this team have to lose? They're last in the division, the conference, and the league! When you hit rock bottom, you have all the ability in the world to start trying something different, which this team needs to do.

Bench Nash. Fire GMDM. Bench Foote. Put the Pepsi Patrol on the roster and replace Pascal Leclaire with the freaking Mongolian BBQ mascot out on the concourse. I don't care! Just do something!

This rant was brought to you by the number 3.141592653... and the letter Ж.

Colorado Avalanche (7-9-2)

So, yeah. The Blue Jackets now sit 15th in the Western Conference after last night's SO win by the lowly Coyotes, and even further behind the Blackhawks in the division after their loss still potted them a point. To add insult to injury, the Philadelphia Flyers then somehow stormed back from 2 goals down in the 3rd period against the Kings for a 4-3 regulation win, dropping the CBJ to 30th in the league.

But, hey. At least Rick Nash is now scoring, right? Let's hope he is able to score a little more when the Avalanche come to Nationwide Arena. I'd originally been planning to go to this game, but a run-in with overdue cable fees has sidelined me at home for the rest of the day and squashed my birthday treat. Man, when it rains it really does pour, doesn't it?

The Avalanche aren't exactly playing any better than the Jackets are so far this month, going 2-5, including the 5-3 backhanding they gave the CBJ at the start of the month. They're currently in the throes of a 4-game losing streak, which honestly scares me a little, since teams like the Avalanche -- even during a harder season like this -- don't usually go in to losing stretches like this that much longer before they stomp on an unsuspecting team (see: Blue Jackets).

This will be Gary Agnew's second game as interim head coach, and from the looks of it, he has at least a week or two before a new coach is ushered in. The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that Kenny Hitchcock will be interviewed next week, meaning Agnew has at least two more games after this one (both against Nashville) to make a name for himself. Or at the very least get the Blue Jackets back on track. Seriously, if he can just eke out a 1-1-2 record, then at least they'll be making some headway despite the rather cumbersome search for a new, more permanent head coach. It's pretty bad when you're asking for a record like that on a 4-games-in-6-nights schedule in the middle of November.

If Agnew can show people that Wednesday's offensive output was not just emotional backlash and fervor from the Gallant firing and help the team pot a good few goals two games in a row, I'll start backing him up for staying with the organization. As it stands, you never know whether or not a new coach will want to bring in their own team or not, so even if the writing is already on the wall for Agnew's chances as a more permanent head coach, he still has to show some coaching prowess to impress whoever comes in to take the main job.

The good guys
End of the Bench
The Jacket Times

The not-so-good-guys
Jerseys and Hockey Love
The Post-Pessimist Association