The Jarmo Thread

[Cheddarcheese]

my only fear is now that he wasn't picked he wont let BJ be a choice for him

 

[Indy18]

i am friends with Labrie and played with him. hes married to Patrick Roy daughter. Roy was runner up for the head coaching job. would have been awesome to have him coaching again

That's quite the revelation if true. Sorry if I have concerns this is a "My dad works at Nintendo trust me bro" but if it is that's a fascinating concept of what could have been. Does meet the requirement of breaking the country club atmosphere with the team under Larsen and teaching younger players while managing veterans if he can keep the outbursts under control and not wanna break through glass a punch another coach in the face.

 

[Monstershockey]

i am friends with Labrie and played with him. hes married to Patrick Roy daughter. Roy was runner up for the head coaching job. would have been awesome to have him coaching again

Thats cool. The thing I remember about Labrie was when he was with Milwaukee and the team was in Grand Rapids. His wife back in Milwaukee was pregnant and started going into labor. He had no way back to Milwaukee, so the Grand Rapids goalie, who was still coming back from their own road game, set him up with his truck to drive back to be with his wife. Cool story.

 

[majormajor]

I don't think Larsen got a fair shot with Columbus. His first year wasn't awful, and if you think his second year was all on him, well, I don't know what to say.

It's not that the team was bad, the more obvious problem with Lars was that he never pushed his players. He was just another guy hanging out at the country club. The bad habits piled up and overflowed the cup.

again, the plan wasn't to make torts' roster suddenly stop fitting with his style. the plan was to build around PLD-jones-werenski, with atkinson, foligno, savard, gavrikov, bjorkstrand and anderson as the supporting cast. that's a team built for tortorella.

then anderson gave his "1 year or 8 years" ultimatum and PLD demanded a trade out of nowhere. jarmo presumably took the best offer they got for each guy, and suddenly the roster stopped fitting the coach.

With Domi that was a choice to take the player on, that was Jarmo deciding to go in a new direction. I didn't anticipate how bad of a fit it would be, but it was obvious that Jarmo was trying to remake the roster in a more soft-skill direction. With Laine, Jarmo passed on the offer originally, so perhaps he didn't want to soften the team that way. But he was giving up what people thought was a 1C at the time, so he had multiple plausible reasons. I personally would not have taken on Laine regardless.

no NHL-caliber coach would be 100% out of a playoff spot by mid-november with this roster. vincent's proven plenty already.

It's wild that there are so many young teams that by your definition must have sub NHL caliber coaching. While coaches with older rosters seem to weather every storm. Almost like inexperience can't be fixed with coaching.

 

[NotWendell]

This franchise won't be more than sh** as long as Jarmo is here.

 

[EspenK]

This franchise won't be more than sh** as long as Jarmo is here.

I just hope that he is not allowed to extend any of the impending FA's before he is canned. I have no faith in him being able to get it right. At he moment my thinking is bridge deals all around which will let the new GM figure who needs to stay long term and prevent Jarmo from adding to long term woes.

 

[koteka]

I heard two different local radio shows just blasting Jarmo and the front office over the last couple of days. They should go ahead and fire him now. It is one thing when message board weirdos like myself call for his firing. But everyone around Columbus is ready for him to go. I was at one of the Chillers yesterday when the game was on and there were plenty of derogatory things being said about the team. (People were already pissed about the Browns and weren’t holding back.)

 

[MoeBartoli]

I backed Jarmo for a long time as I thought his rebuild/retool strategy was incorporating a lot of good pieces. But aside from his drafting, virtually all of his other moves, beginning with convincing Torts to stay on, have been poor with the disastrous Babcock hiring maybe the pinacle.

It’s not just that his decisions have been poor, rather they’ve too often led to complete embarrassment over the last two years. It’s Jarmo’s time to go. And sadly it’s JD’s time, too, as his job should be to prevent the franchise from becoming the embarrassment of the league. Whether it’s today or the the day after seasons end I don’t care, just so it’s goodbye.

 

[cbjthrowaway]

With Domi that was a choice to take the player on, that was Jarmo deciding to go in a new direction. I didn't anticipate how bad of a fit it would be, but it was obvious that Jarmo was trying to remake the roster in a more soft-skill direction. With Laine, Jarmo passed on the offer originally, so perhaps he didn't want to soften the team that way. But he was giving up what people thought was a 1C at the time, so he had multiple plausible reasons. I personally would not have taken on Laine regardless.

i don't think that the anderson-domi swap had anything to do with jarmo wanting to fully redo the shape of the roster. they had:

1. a massive hole at center behind PLD
2. a lack of playmakers (one year after panarin left, wennberg no longer on roster)
3. an oft-injured winger coming off a 1-goal season asking for an 8-year, $40+ million contract
4. a young(ish) core that had just made some noise in the bubble

so… the domi trade made sense given what they were hoping to accomplish – theoretically it gave them a proven playmaker who could play center, had some jam to his game, theoretically made the roster better, and wasn't a long-term albatross like anderson's contract would have been.

it wasn't the right move, but it was also just one single move that wasn't a weathervane for a full roster re-shape/identity change.

undermining/changing the roster identity was never the goal, it was the outcome of the PLD trade triggering a full rebuild and the front office going into "acquire assets" mode.

It's wild that there are so many young teams that by your definition must have sub NHL caliber coaching. While coaches with older rosters seem to weather every storm. Almost like inexperience can't be fixed with coaching.

pascal vincent wasn't exactly set up to succeed, given that he only got the job the day before camp opened, but imo he has not done a good job with this team.

brad larsen, who was terrible, did a lot more with a lot less in his first season. they're a young team but there are still plenty of veterans here, and pretty much all of those guys are playing the worst hockey of their careers. i'm not saying this team should be in the divisional race or anything like that – but this is not a bottom-five roster, either.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

I backed Jarmo for a long time as I thought his rebuild/retool strategy was incorporating a lot of good pieces. But aside from his drafting, virtually all of his other moves, beginning with convincing Torts to stay on, have been poor with the disastrous Babcock hiring maybe the pinacle.

It’s not just that his decisions have been poor, rather they’ve too often led to complete embarrassment over the last two years. It’s Jarmo’s time to go. And sadly it’s JD’s time, too, as his job should be to prevent the franchise from becoming the embarrassment of the league. Whether it’s today or the the day after seasons end I don’t care, just so it’s goodbye.

I’m not sure why it’s “sadly” JD’s time to go. Dude is an empty suit who bailed on Columbus and only came back because the organization was stupid enough to let him.

 

[Jovavic]

I And sadly it’s JD’s time, too, as his job should be to prevent the franchise from becoming the embarrassment of the league

Sens have a firm grasp on number one with them losing a 1st rounder and losing a good player for half the season due to gambling.

We're probably number 2

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

Sens have a firm grasp on number one with them losing a 1st rounder and losing a good player for half the season due to gambling.

We're probably number 2

Sabres is right there too.

 

[MoeBartoli]

I’m not sure why it’s “sadly” JD’s time to go. Dude is an empty suit who bailed on Columbus and only came back because the organization was stupid enough to let him.

I have a higher regard for JD than many on this board. His initial hiring added some needed gravitas to this organization, an ingredient they’d not had since Hitchcock. Early in his tenure he brought in Jarmo who was a positive up through 2019. During that period, IMO he helped balance some of Jarmo’s interpersonal shortfalls.

Yes, he left for NY but his regime rebuilt that roster and his (nor his GM’s) firing wasn’t deserved in my mind. Admittedly return to Columbus hasn't provided what was needed, the shortcomings addressed in my earlier post. Thus I appreciate what he did in his first stint, but realize he‘s been part of the current problem and needs to exit with Jarmo.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

I have a higher regard for JD than many on this board. His initial hiring added some needed gravitas to this organization, an ingredient they’d not had since Hitchcock. Early in his tenure he brought in Jarmo who was a positive up through 2019. During that period, IMO he helped balance some of Jarmo’s interpersonal shortfalls.

Yes, he left for NY but his regime rebuilt that roster and his (nor his GM’s) firing wasn’t deserved in my mind. Admittedly return to Columbus hasn't provided what was needed, the shortcomings addressed in my earlier post. Thus I appreciate what he did in his first stint, but realize he‘s been part of the current problem and needs to exit with Jarmo.

Let’s just say I agree with you that I wish he hadn’t been fired by the Rangers.

 

[ViD]

At this point it’s crystal clear to me that short of a miraculous play off push or an unexplainable stupidity by the ownership Jarmo is gone in the mid season

The Gaudreau experiment has failed
Babcock shenanigans
The Severson - Provorov defensive all in attempt did not have a significant impact
Goalies are still a big issue
Laine is in limbo
The team is on course for another lottery pick with no bright light at the end of the tunnel the way they are playing nowadays

 

[Jive Pawnbroker]

Just when you think that this organization couldn't be any more screwed up than it is in its current state, they prove you wrong and screw it up even more later down the road. I agree with the poster who said earlier that this organization does not deserve the fans it has. We deserve better and I hope that another management team comes in and gets the team back to being competitive again. If the DETROIT LIONS can do it, so can the Jackets.

 

[koteka]

Just when you think that this organization couldn't be any more screwed up than it is in its current state, they prove you wrong and screw it up even more later down the road.

Even Dancing Kevin seems unhappy with the team.

 

[cbjthrowaway]

posted a longer version of this, but since the "jarmo is on thin ice" statement from ownership:

• abysmal performance
• out of the playoff race before thanksgiving
• high-profile benchings of key veterans (laine, gaudreau, severson)
• healthy scratches/demotions of key young guys (johnson, jiricek)
• public spats with laine and merzlikins, the latter of which culminated in a trade request
• weird roster management (carrying three goalies for such a long time)
• inability to move dead weight contracts he signed (peeke)

now they're trusting him to pull off an elvis trade, without any leverage, which will likely require heavy retention and cost them, personally, millions of dollars?

i get that they didn't cut him loose when they should have, and that now every issue that pops up seems minor by comparison, but what do they possibly have to gain by not firing jarmo right now, smoothing things over with elvis, and letting a new regime take over the roster?

 

[Napoli]

posted a longer version of this, but since the "jarmo is on thin ice" statement from ownership:

• abysmal performance
• out of the playoff race before thanksgiving
• high-profile benchings of key veterans (laine, gaudreau, severson)
• healthy scratches/demotions of key young guys (johnson, jiricek)
• public spats with laine and merzlikins, the latter of which culminated in a trade request
• weird roster management (carrying three goalies for such a long time)
• inability to move dead weight contracts he signed (peeke)

now they're trusting him to pull off an elvis trade, without any leverage, which will likely require heavy retention and cost them, personally, millions of dollars?

i get that they didn't cut him loose when they should have, and that now every issue that pops up seems minor by comparison, but what do they possibly have to gain by not firing jarmo right now, smoothing things over with elvis, and letting a new regime take over the roster?

My only thought is that they somehow believe Jarmo is still the man for the job despite abundant evidence that they need to go in a different direction.

I hate to speculate but appears there's a personal spat with Elvis ongoing, I'm not sure how that's professional in any industry.

Regardless if there is or not, Elvis has played well enough this year to play and not be sat for multiple games. Time to move on from Jarmo.

 

[cbjthrowaway]

My only thought is that they somehow believe Jarmo is still the man for the job despite abundant evidence that they need to go in a different direction.

ownership either:

1. truthfully stated that jarmo was on thin ice, but is too cheap/detached/incompetent to follow through on that threat
2. believes, despite the evidence, that jarmo is the right guy, in which case they lied to the world when they put out that statement

ownership is either incompetent, untruthful, or uninvested. or maybe a combination.

I hate to speculate but appears there's a personal spat with Elvis ongoing, I'm not sure how that's professional in any industry.

Regardless if there is or not, Elvis has played well enough this year to play and not be sat for multiple games. Time to move on from Jarmo.

portzline had the best point on all of this. basically: even if the jackets wanted to move him before this, they are going about it all wrong. they could have just kept playing him, quietly worked to find suitors, and moved him while maintaining leverage.

now they have no leverage, a(nother) major distraction/storyline, and an expensive asset that will get a minimal return and require retention.

they could have just eaten the rest of jarmo's contract and found a new GM after the babcock stuff. it'll almost certainly cost them more to retain on elvis's contract.

 

[TaketheCannoli]

This franchise won't be more than sh** as long as Jarmo is here.

We agree and disagree. I think this franchise won't be successful with Jarmo as GM. Beyond that, and I don't know a fix for it, this franchise won't become successful with the current ownership.

As much as Columbus hockey fans owe gratitude to Mr. McConnell, his hiring decisions were questionable at best. His son has continued this. It seems like they continually fall for BS artists.

Good franchises have owners who have different styles: some are hands off, hiring people they trust and letting them do their job, others are hands on getting involved in day to day operations, yet others are somewhere in between. It seems to me what they do have in common is they hire well and remain committed to them. We CBJ fans don't have an ownership group that makes good leadership hires. That's how we end up here and have ended up in this very position since 2000.

 

[TaketheCannoli]

BB88 said:
Funny how that doesn´t matter when you are praising other teams.

This place is crazy and nothing they´ll ever do will be good enough.

From 2018 they´ve drafted a foundation of

Johnson- Fantilli- Brindley
Chinkakhov- Voronkov- Marchenko
x - Sillinger- Dumais

Mateychuk- Jiricek

And all I hear is how bad they are at drafting and how bad they are at developing.

I understand your position and you have some good points. I've always enjoyed your posts, even before you started posting on the Blue Jackets board.

I think a lot of the negativity comes from a different place, and it's the worst kind of negativity, the kind I've adopted. I've been a Blue Jackets fan since opening night 2000. I remember the hope I had that first night and the first 5-6 years, in spite of poor on ice results and insanity in the front office. I remember how much hope I had when Mr. Mac forced MacLean to hire Hitchcock, only to see it fail. I remember the hope I had when they hired Scott Howson, I was sure they had a path to respectability, only to see it fail. I remember my optimism when they hired JD, who fired Howson and brought in Jarmo- then hired Torts. I was finally seeing some movement. This team had a chance to be a Cup competitor! only to see it implode. Then of course the Larsen experiment followed by the legendary CBJ coach Mike Babcock.

It's not so much the individual decisions made, or the promise or lack thereof of the current young guys. This franchise has just beaten the hope out of many of their fans.

How did I deal with that? First after years of spending too much for season tickets, I stopped buying them. I intended to purchase tickets to 10-15 games per season. I think I did that for one or two seasons. Slowly I stopped going and watched every game on TV when they were available. The franchise just kept driving the hope out of me. Now I watch them on occasion and care very little about their success or failure.

The Blue Jackets, not posters or fans of any sort drove me away. I wonder how many there are like me?

 

[majormajor]

ownership either:

1. truthfully stated that jarmo was on thin ice, but is too cheap/detached/incompetent to follow through on that threat
2. believes, despite the evidence, that jarmo is the right guy, in which case they lied to the world when they put out that statement

ownership is either incompetent, untruthful, or uninvested. or maybe a combination.

I'm not sure you remember the statement properly.

Where did they say anything that would verifiably imply "thin ice", and which of the words are lies?

Detached would be the right word to describe our ownership, they don't meddle with the GM decision, they choose a President of hockey ops (JD) and let him chart the course.

portzline had the best point on all of this. basically: even if the jackets wanted to move him before this, they are going about it all wrong. they could have just kept playing him, quietly worked to find suitors, and moved him while maintaining leverage.

now they have no leverage, a(nother) major distraction/storyline, and an expensive asset that will get a minimal return and require retention.

they could have just eaten the rest of jarmo's contract and found a new GM after the babcock stuff. it'll almost certainly cost them more to retain on elvis's contract.

The fact that they would like to move Elvis is known the minute Jarmo starts talking to teams about him, that isn't news. And the weirdness of Jarmo's comments on Elvis, relative to what any goalie scout would tell their GM about who the Jackets best goalie is, might have a paradoxical effect where it makes Jarmo look like a mark and Elvis look like a potential steal. Either way, I'm not sure there is an effect.

I think it's possible we were close to a Campbell ++ for Elvis swap and the Oilers backed off since Stuart Skinner hasn't lost a game in like a month. That might have been why Elvis wasn't playing. I think it's very unlikely Tarasov was actually the reason why.

 

[ThisIsMyAlibi]

I don’t know how you let this guy make major transactions at the trade deadline. The team is done. Clearly, he’s done. JD should be done.

It’s time to find executive level upgrades.

 

[Long Live Lyle]

I don’t know how you let this guy make major transactions at the trade deadline. The team is done. Clearly, he’s done. JD should be done.

It’s time to find executive level upgrades.

If you want to keep Jarmo through the TDL and fire him right after, I guess at this point that’s fine (presuming you can keep it under wraps and he doesn’t find out). I’d prefer probably to dump him now, but whatever.

My order of preference of firing:

1) Right now.
2) Day/week after the TDL.
3) Day/week after CBJ’s season ends.

If he’s employed by the Jackets on May 1, there’s a major problem. And I’m not a “hater” of his and am appreciative of the run in the early-mid of his tenure. But it’s four straight years of no playoffs. No conference finals appearances in 11 years. Only once out of the first round. One of the most embarrassing incidents of any team I’ve ever been a fan of with the Babcock fiasco…

It’s time.