What's that? You thought I was not going to post today, since it was the middle of the afternoon and I still hadn't updated? Well, you thought wrong! For that, I have to smack you with a You Don't Know Jack!


So the IIHF World Championships came and went, and on Sunday Team Canada was crowned the champions of the world with a 4-2 win over Finland. Hip, hip, hooray!

As a Jackets' fan, the focus that you'll find here will be on Game MVP/Tournament MVP Rick Nash. I was lucky enough to catch the 3rd period via a TSN feed (thank you to the fine folks at HFBoards for posting it up), and see that absolutely staggering and amazing goal that Nasher pulled out of his magic hat to seal the deal against the late surging Fins. For those who didn't see it, check this baby out:


I mean ... good God, man! Look at that! He's being bear hugged and piggy backed on his way to the net!

But highlight reel goals that seal gold medal victories in world championships aside, let's also look at Nasher's numbers: He tied for the most goals on Team Canada with Matthew Lombardi ... he had the 2nd most points for Team Canada (only behind Lombardi) ... and this here is the real kicker for his statistics: he had the best +/- rating of anyone on Team Canada.

Let that sink in, folks. The player who, in past seasons, has been lambasted for poor defense (one look at his +/- in both his rookie and sophomore years can tell you why he was lambasted), led Team Canada in +/- rating for this tournament. You can't ignore this, especially when you consider the possible influence that defensive-minded coach Ken Hitchcock had on him prior to the end of the Blue Jackets' season.

By the way, let's not forget Jason Chimera, who looked like he was having the time of his life at the Worlds. He must have drowned Nasher and Shane Doan with more champagne than I've ever even drank in my whole life (which is actually pretty easy to beat) during the locker room celebration. And besides just partying up a storm, he actually played a damn good game, at one point leading the team in +/-, and finishing with a respectable 6 points.

Moving back to news in Columbus and on the Blue Jackets organization itself, the interview process looks to be officially started as of this week, with internal interviews of Don Boyd and Jim Clark on tap for the early part of it, followed by external, non-CBJ employee interviews to come later in the week. Michael Arace churns out a good list (and the odds of landing) each of the several candidates that are supposedly on Jackets' President Jim Priest's list.

I still find myself wondering about the apparent love that former Kings GM Dave Taylor is getting. I've already pointed out one issue in that while he's supposedly a good GM, his Kings' teams fell out of playoff contention in his final three years as GM. Maybe Arace will spot this and go into a little detail about what he likes about Taylor on his own blog -- that is, if he does like him, and isn't just reporting Taylor as the favorite based off of rumblings around the league or in Columbus or anywhere else.

Outside of that, I got nothing else for you today. I have some groceries to buy and some laundry to do. So off with you, now! Go on, shoo!

Apparently David Hasslehoff continues to be videotaped doing the most embarrassing things, if today's Dis or Dat is any indication. I may just start relying on these as my source for pop culture news. Better than sleazy celebrity magazines, right?


It's a shame that I can't watch any more of the IIHF World Championships, since the rest of the games don't exactly mesh well with my work times the rest of this week. Even as we speak, Rick Nash and Jason Chimera have potted a point apiece in the ongoing game against Sweden. If I knew how to use proxy IPs I'd sneak a viewing of it through TSN Broadband, since only Canadian IPs are allowed to watch online. Oh well ... Team Canada's currently up 3-1 at the time of this writing, and so barring a collapse, I'll continue to be able to hear about Nasher and Chimmer tearing it up in Russia. Too bad I won't be able to see or hear any more about David Vyborny's exploits, as the Czech. team was thumped by Russia. But Finland plays Team USA later today, and maybe ol' Freddy Norrena will be between the pipes.

Back in North America, the Eastern Conference Finals start tonight against the two teams that the Blue Jackets whooped in the regular season; the Sabres and the Senators. Just think, it was a little over three months ago that hordes of Sabres fans Columbus left in a beer-chugging, car window-smashing, chuld abusing delusional rage after losing to the lowly Jackets. Man, those were some memories. Though the memories of just outright thrashing the Senators 6-2 a month before are also pretty delightful.

Man, I almost want to root for the Senators, based solely off of that nasty experience. Almost. But in the end, I really have no real preference to either team one way or the other. I just know that this is going to be one helluva series. Then again, I'm sure even people who don't follow hockey can assume that much, just from how much attention the bad blood between these teams got after that itsy bitsy kerfluffle they had near the end of February.

I'm not going to make any predictions about who will win ... but even so, I'm going to buck the trend of guesstimating that this will be some long, drawn-out series that goes the distance. Whoever wins is going to do it in five games.

Overtime: And on a completely unrelated subject, I caught Eric at Off Wing's comment about how the Jackets won't even sniff the playoffs until 2011 (that's a whole four seasons away, by the way) while he was making a point about how a penny saved now might just save a season somewhere down the road. I certainly agree with that ... but even so? Dude ... four seasons? Just ... dude. Dude, no. No, dude. Three seasons is my over/under bet, based off of hopefully freed cap space after this year. I'd go with four seasons if, say ... the new GM turns out to be Bobby Clarke or Craig Patrick, though.

In Democratic America, you can beat Rick Nash.
In Soviet Russia, Rick Nash can beat you. Handily.

And apparently so can Fredrik Norrena, Jason Chimera, and David Vyborny.

While Nash struggled through much of the NHL season, he's been lightning in a bottle for the Canadian team at the Worlds since, having 6 points (2 goals, 4 assists) over 5 games and sharing the point total lead on the team with Chicago Blackhawks prospect and young firecracker Jonathan Toews.

Meanwhile, Chimera is just a point behind Nasher with 5 so far (1 goal and 4 assists), and is also tied for the best +/- on the team with a +5, alongside Florida prospect Cory Murphy.

And that's just when looking at the Jackets' players with Team Canada. Meanwhile, Vyborny has shown a strong outing with the Czech. Republic, with 6 points so far (1 goal, 5 assists), which ties him for third on the team. Keep in mind that unlike the Canadian team, only 10 of the 24 players on the roster hail from NHL teams right now (though you could make that 11 if you want to count Jackets' cast-off Jaroslav Balastik, who despite his wicked wrister and shootout prowess, was waived and went back to Europe during the season ... Balastik has 0 points in the tournament so far, by the way).

Also on the Czech. team, ol' Rusty Klesla has been largely ... well ... average. 1 point in his 3 games played, and par for the course in the +/- department.

Lastly, over with the Finnish team, Norrena has been ... Norrena. The Norrena we expect from international play, at that. Save for the one loss in which ol' Freddy No allowed a whopping 5 goals, his two wins handily gotten via shutout performances just make him look all the more amazing right now. While Kari Lehtonen of the Atlanta Thrashers has the better Save Percentage (.931 to .948) and Goals Against Average (1.67 to 1.0), Freddy's faced more shots per game (24 to 19.3) and has one more shutout to his credit.

So, yeah. Thanks to the good graces of working inside of a hockey arena for an NHL team, one of the perks is that I am actually able to watch the Team Canada games since we have a TSN feed in The Blueline. Were it not for that, I'd probably be going mad from working during, for example, WNBA games. Ugh.

As for why I've been missing since two Wednesdays ago? Well ... what can I say, you know? I've been busy with physical therapy, work whenever I am not at physical therapy, and exercise to get back in to playing shape if I am not therapy-ing or at work.