Beware the Blue Jackets

[member 30781]

I'm a firm believer that Columbus has a better team than most people give them credit for. Their game is set up in such a way that it will likely cause fits to even the best teams in the Eastern Conference during the playoffs.

http://thehockeywriters.com/beware-the-blue-jackets/

Click to read more...

 

[DJA]

Good article.

 

[bizzz*]

Kekelainen has assembled a great group of chippy, gritty, tenacious players to go against the top lines of the NHL’s best teams. Brandon Dubinsky, Nick Foligno, and Boone Jenner are workhorses who are equally talented on both sides of the puck. Columbus sits 3rd in hits over the entire season.

Kekelainen? I think you've spelled it wrong. The right spelling variant starts with H and ends with N.

 

[blahblah]

Thanks for the confidence. I will say our record against elite teams doesn't exactly support your assertion.

The anonymous responder on that was kind of harsh; but he is right in that most of the assembly was done before JK got here. I'll give Howson more credit for the drafting than the roster. I think he was forced into the Nash trade; otherwise I think we'd still be sitting around with Nash and who knows where we would be at. He got a bit lucky on the Carter trade as well.

Thanks for the link and hopefully we don't disappoint.

 

[member 30781]

Thanks for the confidence. I will say our record against elite teams doesn't exactly support your assertion.

The anonymous responder on that was kind of harsh; but he is right in that most of the assembly was done before JK got here. I'll give Howson more credit for the drafting than the roster. I think he was forced into the Nash trade; otherwise I think we'd still be sitting around with Nash and who knows where we would be at. He got a bit lucky on the Carter trade as well.

Thanks for the link and hopefully we don't disappoint.

I've been writing for 3 years. I have thick skin.

 

[ClevelandJacketFan]

While I'd agree, the problem is that Boston has built the same type of team with the same philosophies, only much better. What I'm saying is that while the Jackets can make a lot of noise, they need to avoid Boston in the first round to do it. Or else it will be a blood bath.

 

[Nordique]

We appreciate the press. Hopefully we can avoid a Boston 1st round matchup and make some noise in this post season...assuming we take care of business the next 5 days.

 

[nhldiedinthe90s*]

Against the Flyers or Rangers I'd put us 60:40 favorites right now. Against the Pens, 60:40 underdogs.

Against the Bruins, if we can get that "never won a playoff game" tag off our backs and played hard, I'd be happy with that.

Thanks for posting, Sean. I enjoyed it.

 

[blahblah]

We appreciate the press. Hopefully we can avoid a Boston 1st round matchup and make some noise in this post season...assuming we take care of business the next 5 days.

I don't want to distract; but I've been telling people I would be more concerned with a Pens match up.

Regardless, I would rather face the Pens in the second round. Even if we play our best all series, either team can make us (or anyone) look silly and end up getting swept. We, as a fan base, are realistic enough to realize that making the finals would be one of those miracle moments. I think we're hoping for a good series or two and not another 4 game sweep. A home ice victory or two would go a long way for this franchise. Not just with the players, but with the fans as well. For me anything more than that would just exceed my expectations. I hope we don't over-reach. I want an honest evaluation with the team. Doing something like making the conference finals and limp toward another playoff berth next season would be silly; if it gave the front office a false impression of where we really are.

I haven't had a pro-team I support do anything in the playoffs for a long, long time.

 

[Mayor Bee]

Thanks for the confidence. I will say our record against elite teams doesn't exactly support your assertion.

The anonymous responder on that was kind of harsh; but he is right in that most of the assembly was done before JK got here. I'll give Howson more credit for the drafting than the roster. I think he was forced into the Nash trade; otherwise I think we'd still be sitting around with Nash and who knows where we would be at. He got a bit lucky on the Carter trade as well.

Thanks for the link and hopefully we don't disappoint.

I'm more offended by the conclusion and the grammar/syntax in that comment than anything else.

Personally I think it's interesting that even in a post-Luongo and post-Schneider landscape, the idea that Howson basically got lucky in his two biggest trades even exists. The four biggest returns on a trade involving a major player under age 30 in the last five years have been Philadelphia twice (Carter and Richards) and Columbus twice (Carter and Nash). Yet the widespread perception is that Holmgren fleeced other teams through....well, whatever. Generally it's "shrewdness", while the widespread perception is Howson just doddered along and fell into a fortunate return twice.

 

[blahblah]

Personally I think it's interesting that even in a post-Luongo and post-Schneider landscape, the idea that Howson basically got lucky in his two biggest trades even exists. The four biggest returns on a trade involving a major player under age 30 in the last five years have been Philadelphia twice (Carter and Richards) and Columbus twice (Carter and Nash). Yet the widespread perception is that Holmgren fleeced other teams through....well, whatever. Generally it's "shrewdness", while the widespread perception is Howson just doddered along and fell into a fortunate return twice.

I'm not going to go over this again. Howson got very lucky. It's not perception. It's a very debatable opinion.

I never thought Howson "doddered".

Yes, I will forever say he was very, every fortunate. He didn't plan out either deal; his hands were all but forced in both cases. Credit to him for holding out on Nash (I doubt there was much holding out with Carter, that deal probably came together pretty quickly. I have little doubt that LA wanted to get rid of Johnson's cap hit) for a while. But if Nash hadn't requested a trade he wouldn't have been looking to move him. That isn't skill on his part. That is making the best out of a bad hand.

I just as equally surprised that anyone can look at what happened that last couple of years and realize that it was actions initiated by others that got Howson to make the deals he should have been considering all along.

 

[Nordique]

I'm not going to go over this again. Howson got very lucky. It's not perception. It's a very debatable opinion.

I never thought Howson "doddered".

Yes, I will forever say he was very, every fortunate. He didn't plan out either deal; his hands were all but forced in both cases. Credit to him for holding out on Nash (I doubt there was much holding out with Carter, that deal probably came together pretty quickly. I have little doubt that LA wanted to get rid of Johnson's cap hit) for a while. But if Nash hadn't requested a trade he wouldn't have been looking to move him. That isn't skill on his part. That is making the best out of a bad hand.

I just as equally surprised that anyone can look at what happened that last couple of years and realize that it was actions initiated by others that got Howson to make the deals he should have been considering all along.

He fired the puck at the net and good things happened

 

[blahblah]

He fired the puck at the net and good things happened

I would say it was more like he was in the right place for a rebound with a wide open net. Enough skill to put it home, but otherwise didn't do much leading up to the goal.

But funny analogy.

 

[Mayor Bee]

I'm not going to go over this again. Howson got very lucky. It's not perception. It's a very debatable opinion.

I never thought Howson "doddered".

Yes, I will forever say he was very, every fortunate. He didn't plan out either deal; his hands were all but forced in both cases. Credit to him for holding out on Nash (I doubt there was much holding out with Carter, that deal probably came together pretty quickly. I have little doubt that LA wanted to get rid of Johnson's cap hit) for a while. But if Nash hadn't requested a trade he wouldn't have been looking to move him. That isn't skill on his part. That is making the best out of a bad hand.

I just as equally surprised that anyone can look at what happened that last couple of years and realize that it was actions initiated by others that got Howson to make the deals he should have been considering all along.

And yet Nash has said that he didn't ask out until he found out that he was being shopped, which would seem to indicate that the front office was seriously considering making a move involving him.

You know who else got "very lucky"? Mike Gillis. He had a goaltending situation that needed resolved, and yet he didn't get anything of note for two All-Star goalies. Jay Feaster in Calgary got little for Jay Bouwmeester and Jarome Iginla. Dallas got basically nothing for James Neal. San Jose got nothing for Christian Ehrhoff. And so on. Whether a situation is forced on someone or they initiate it is basically irrelevant.

 

[NotWendell]

I've been writing for 3 years. I have thick skin.

You'd have to! sports commenters rival political commenters in being mean-spirited at times.

 

[bizzz*]

And yet Nash has said that he didn't ask out until he found out that he was being shopped, which would seem to indicate that the front office was seriously considering making a move involving him.

You know who else got "very lucky"? Mike Gillis. He had a goaltending situation that needed resolved, and yet he didn't get anything of note for two All-Star goalies. Jay Feaster in Calgary got little for Jay Bouwmeester and Jarome Iginla. Dallas got basically nothing for James Neal. San Jose got nothing for Christian Ehrhoff. And so on. Whether a situation is forced on someone or they initiate it is basically irrelevant.

I'd include Columbus and Gaborik in that list.

You'd have to! sports commenters rival political commenters in being mean-spirited at times.

And I'm both sports and political commenter. Now you know where some of my comments are coming from

 

[major major]

I think teams will not want to play us because we will punish them physically. On the scoresheet it's hard to argue that we're all that dangerous.

 

[EspenK]

Well, Toronto took the Bruins to the 3rd period of game 7 before doing their best Jacket el foldo. The '69 Jets won the Super Bowl,the '69 Mets won the World Series (hmmm, they really turned things upside down). Miracles do occur. If we beat Boston it would rank very high on my list of all time "I can't believe that just happened" events.

 

[JACKETfan]

Howson simply proved that being a good judge of talent and being making all the right moves is not the same thing.

 

[Crede777]

I'm starting to think the most dangerous Jackets player in the playoffs will be Boone Jenner.

He has that "playoff" style to his game and every time someone raises the intensity he matches and surpasses it.

 

[FlaggerX]

Howson did pretty well for us, it wasn't his fault we had nearly nothing when he took over.

He drafted Johansen (epic win) Savard (win)
Murray (epic win, aided by the fact he was the #2 pick), Jenner (big, big win, maybe epic) Prout, Calvert, Camsanity, Got us Foligno, Dubinsky, Arty, Tyutin, JJ, Wiz and of course Bob. Really Howson did far more to build this team than anyone. Was he a genius? No. But this is really his team.

 

[Mayor Bee]

Out of 1,600 man-games played by Columbus this year, players acquired by Howson accounted for 1,387 of them (86.7%). That includes 203/226 goals scored (89.8%) and 2,158/2,258 saves (95.4%).

No transactions were made between the hiring of Davidson and the firing of Howson.

(For those wondering about 2008-09, it was 911/1640 man-games, making that team 55.6% Howson)

That would be an unprecedented amount of blind or dumb luck to randomly stumble into, if that narrative were true.

 

[major major]

Out of 1,600 man-games played by Columbus this year, players acquired by Howson accounted for 1,387 of them (86.7%). That includes 203/226 goals scored (89.8%) and 2,158/2,258 saves (95.4%).

No transactions were made between the hiring of Davidson and the firing of Howson.

(For those wondering about 2008-09, it was 911/1640 man-games, making that team 55.6% Howson)

That would be an unprecedented amount of blind or dumb luck to randomly stumble into, if that narrative were true.

I think this argument is unnecessary, and understates your case. Even the staunchest Howson critics will yield that almost the entire team, and certainly all the important players, were acquired by Howson. Who thinks Tropp, Skille, Schultz, Comeau, and Frattin are among the more important half of players on this team? No one.

 

[Robert]

Out of 1,600 man-games played by Columbus this year, players acquired by Howson accounted for 1,387 of them (86.7%). That includes 203/226 goals scored (89.8%) and 2,158/2,258 saves (95.4%).

No transactions were made between the hiring of Davidson and the firing of Howson.

(For those wondering about 2008-09, it was 911/1640 man-games, making that team 55.6% Howson)

That would be an unprecedented amount of blind or dumb luck to randomly stumble into, if that narrative were true.

All true, change in general is based on many factors though, trading Rick Nash might be a huge factor as well. Howson's picks are doing quite well under current MGT, I wonder if they would be doing as well if the Howson and Priest MGT was still in control. These are things we will never know...

 

[Fro]

Out of 1,600 man-games played by Columbus this year, players acquired by Howson accounted for 1,387 of them (86.7%). That includes 203/226 goals scored (89.8%) and 2,158/2,258 saves (95.4%).

No transactions were made between the hiring of Davidson and the firing of Howson.

(For those wondering about 2008-09, it was 911/1640 man-games, making that team 55.6% Howson)

That would be an unprecedented amount of blind or dumb luck to randomly stumble into, if that narrative were true.

good stats...i gave you credit and thru out on twitter...lots of interest in them...