The 2013 NHL Season Thread

[HedleyLamarr]

Duh. I thought of everything except for the schedule on the site itself.

EDIT: And the last one before that was December 26, 2008. Damn other tenants.

Actually, it's also part of an agreement from when the Ducks came into the NHL, if I remember correctly.

In a normal season (I haven't bothered to check this year, but it seems the same), the Ducks and Kings kind of alternate the nights they played at home. Ducks are usually Wednesday/Friday/Sunday with an occasional Monday. Kings are usually Tuesday/Thursday/Friday. It's not always a steadfast rule, but I remember being told that it was part of the deal when the Ducks came in, so as not to split the market's hockey audience on any given night.

Yeah, I noticed a few years ago that Anaheim seemed to play just about every Sunday night (mostly home games). Also, it seemed like whenever an east coast team was doing a west coast trip, they would play Anaheim on Sunday and the Kings on Monday.

[Sport]

Wasn't/isn't the biggest problem with the organization the guy above Howson, Priest or whatever his name is, who is like an emissary from the rest of the ownership's business interests and basically an incompetent bean-counter? Am I making any sense here?

I'd agree that Howson put a lot of bad money on the books. That stood out to me last year. All that money committed for a long time.

That was the biggest problem. John Davidson is the first guy they've ever had at the President of Hockey operations who knows anything about hockey. Mike Priest is a businessman with less hockey knowledge than you or I so when Howson would go to them with an idea for a trade or a new deal he wanted to sign there was nobody that knew whether or not it was a good move and they let him have at it.

The McConnells are good owners in that they love the city and they'll pour money into the team and lose money year after year to keep the team in the city, but they don't know how to own an NHL team. Some of the dispatch reporters have said that the league may have strongly hinted to CBJ ownership to hire a president of hockey ops with actual knowledge of the game. I think the league basically said, "enough of this, here's John Davidson's card".

[FGM13]

That first Dalls goal was uuuuuuuugly! Off the glass behind the net and bouncing in off Dubie-Dubie-Dubnyk's back? Come on.

[The_Admiral]

The McConnells are good owners in that they love the city and they'll pour money into the team and lose money year after year to keep the team in the city, but they don't know how to own an NHL team. Some of the dispatch reporters have said that the league may have strongly hinted to CBJ ownership to hire a president of hockey ops with actual knowledge of the game. I think the league basically said, "enough of this, here's John Davidson's card".

Predictably, even this hit a snag when the Beej briefly hired the former host of Hollywood Squares instead.

[Sport]

CBJ thoughts (for those of you who aren't tired of reading my CBJ thoughts):

Where do I begin?

Scott Howson wasn't a bad hire at the time. He was young and had done some things as assistant GM with the Oilers. If the Blue Jackets hadn't hired him, somebody else would have. He inherited a mess left by Doug Maclean with almost no prospects in the pipeline and in his first two years nearly every decision he made worked out. (See: Pascal Leclaire for Antoine Vermette) The team made the playoffs in his second year with a hot young goaltender but that may have been a detriment to the team's development in the long run. It put us in the middle of the draft order and Howson developed an unhealthy trust in Steve Mason based off one good half-season who he held onto for far too long. Most GM's would've tried to move him and try a new goaltender. Howson's insistence on sticking with Mason was probably a big reason he lost his job.

Howson managed to re-sign Rick Nash to a 7 year deal after their playoff appearance when everyone thought Nash was going to walk to a bigger market, but Howson failed to match Nash with the kind of player he needed. Rick Nash is the wrong kind of player to build a team around, but Howson really didn't know what he was doing in that regard. He never knew what the identity of the team was and he was not a good talent evaluator. The trade for Jeff Carter doomed the 11-12 season from the day Carter hid at the Jersey Shore. He was the wrong player for that team and his attitude in the locker room was cancerous from day 1. That trade was one of the three worst decisions in team history.

He also made some trades that made you go "Whaaaaaaa". Jason Chimera for Chris Clark and Milan Jurcina is one that sticks out in my mind. He let Manny Malhotra walk, but then began signing guys to contracts that made you go "Whaaaaaa". Probably the most lasting legacy that Howson will leave in Columbus is the mess of horrible contracts that sit on the books. They're STILL paying Mike freaking Commodore a million dollars a year. RJ Umberger is gonna make 4.5 until 2017, Fedor Tyutin, James Wisniewski, Derek Brassard, Steve Mason all have difficult to move contracts. Prior to the 10-11 season he locked up a "core" of guys that had never actually won anything and they're paying for it today.

Like his predecessor, he struggled with draft picks and was impatient when it came to development (see: Nikita Filatov, and maybe Ryan Johansen though it's a little early to say).

Oh, and then there's the coaching decisions this guy made. Ken Hitchcock got them to the playoffs with a team that had no business getting to the playoffs. Howson never delivered a team that worked in Hitchcock's system and he fired him for it. Then he hired Scott Arniel, who save Barry Melrose in Tampa was easily the worst NHL coach of the past decade. I've never seen a coach in any sport who knew less what he was doing and knew less about the game he was coaching than Scott Arniel. Todd Richards has so far been a decent hire and I like him.

Scott Howson is a very nice guy and a father who loves Columbus, Ohio and the Blue Jackets and I feel bad that a man lost his job. I went to training camp in 2011 and he got on the elevator with me and a few other fans and asked us who was impressing us in camp. I told him Cam Atkinson and he agreed. Nobody wanted Scott Howson to work more than me, but I just don't think he knew what he was doing. He was very much in over his head, especially with ownership and a front office who didn't understand enough about hockey to check his balances.

Perhaps shining a light on the dysfunction in the organization, they first let Howson handle the biggest decision in team history (the Rick Nash deal, which has for the most part looked good. Love Artem Anisimov. Like Brandon Dubinsky) and then let him drive the bus for last summer's draft with only Craig Patrick advising from afar. The team lost the lottery, not his fault, but there's an argument to be made that he botched the trade with the Islanders. The Isles proposed trading EVERY SINGLE PICK IN THEIR DRAFT including the 4th overall pick for Ryan Murray and Howson said no. How do you say no to that!

Howson was gone the day they hired John Davidson and I'm sure he feels a bit of relief. It couldn't have been easy going to work as a lame duck GM. The team's been around since 2000, but today begins the John Davidson/JARMO KEKELAINEN era and today will the be first day they'll be run as a competent hockey organization. Look out, NHL, Columbus is coming for you. I've been waiting for this day for a long time.

congrats if you actually read all of that. I'm at work, trying not to work.

Holy damnit. We went from Niles Crane

to a Bond Villain

[The_Admiral]

Is this the first Finnish general manager? First European at all? The Blackhawks had a Finnish coach once. He really didn't take. He mostly just pontificated on the metaphysics of "home." True story.

[BLUELANDbeliever]

[Sport]

First European GM in NHL history.

[youcan'tseeme]

Good on the Blue Jackets, getting a real hockey guy in there and now someone he trust. Columbus deserves to be competitive. Always felt them being successful would be good for hockey in the US, hopefully that is now the case and they are successful.

[IceCap]

to a Bond Villain

Now if only they could land Guy Boucher as coach....

[BLUELANDbeliever]

I understand that the media has to do their job, but as a close family member of someone with MS I feel they need to just leave it alone. It's a very uncomfortable topic to talk about and when Mike Yeo said that Harding wasn't feeling well, the media should have just left it at that.

http://video.wild.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=849&id=201153&cmpid=embed-share-video

[Kramerica Industries]

Holy damnit. We went from Niles Crane

That would explain why he was an incompetent GM.

[The_Admiral]

I understand that the media has to do their job, but as a close family member of someone with MS I feel they need to just leave it alone. It's a very uncomfortable topic to talk about and when Mike Yeo said that Harding wasn't feeling well, the media should have just left it at that.

So you're saying the media has to do their job, but shouldn't do their job? Not following.

The last thing the hockey media needs to be told is to "leave it at that." More than any other beat writers, their natural setting is to be deferential and protective of the people they cover. It's a real problem that doesn't get enough attention.

[zpqmaowl]

First European GM in NHL history.

I can add "saw the first game of a team with a European GM in NHL history" to the miscellaneous sports milestones file.

[Brass]

Rangers up 3-1 with 1:31 left in the third period and the Bruins score two goals with Tuukka Rask pulled to tie it up, but lose in the shootout last night. At least they get a point. Best third period team in hockey.

[BLUELANDbeliever]

Jets call up goalie Ed Pasquale: http://jets.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=655472

Pens trade Eric Tangradi to Winnipeg: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=655564&navid=nhl:topheads

I first saw Pasquale play a few years ago in his first pro season for the Gwinnett Gladiators. Was his first pro win and won in the shootout against the Wheeling Nailers I believe. Been a fan of his ever since. Ironically, his goaltending partner from those days, Chris Carrozzi has been called up from his loan from the Ontario Reign (obviously to fill his spot with the Ice Caps).

[charger77]

Evander Kane says criticism toward him is racially motivated.

[spartacat_12]

Saying something like that is only gonna draw more attention and hate to yourself. With that being said, I don't think he's completely off-base. Of the major North American sports hockey is definitely considered the "whitest". While there have been black players that have had success in the league, they are all what some people would call "white-washed" (Jerome Iginla comes to mind). Most traditional hockey fans think that players taking pictures like Kane's in Vegas and shaving intricate designs into their head belong in the NBA or NFL, not the NHL. While most hockey people aren't racist, there are certain racial tendencies that come up (I constantly here analysts talking about Kane's "swagger", yet I rarely hear the word applied to white players; similar to Russian players and the word "enigmatic").

[Funky Bunky]

Duh. I thought of everything except for the schedule on the site itself.

EDIT: And the last one before that was December 26, 2008. Damn other tenants.

Actually, it's also part of an agreement from when the Ducks came into the NHL, if I remember correctly.

In a normal season (I haven't bothered to check this year, but it seems the same), the Ducks and Kings kind of alternate the nights they played at home. Ducks are usually Wednesday/Friday/Sunday with an occasional Monday. Kings are usually Tuesday/Thursday/Friday. It's not always a steadfast rule, but I remember being told that it was part of the deal when the Ducks came in, so as not to split the market's hockey audience on any given night.

I believe you mean Saturday.

And I'm pretty sure I've heard of that agreement before too, but I'm confident they did away with it for this year, as the Ducks have had a few Saturday games already.

[Still MIGHTY]

Duh. I thought of everything except for the schedule on the site itself.

EDIT: And the last one before that was December 26, 2008. Damn other tenants.

Actually, it's also part of an agreement from when the Ducks came into the NHL, if I remember correctly.

In a normal season (I haven't bothered to check this year, but it seems the same), the Ducks and Kings kind of alternate the nights they played at home. Ducks are usually Wednesday/Friday/Sunday with an occasional Monday. Kings are usually Tuesday/Thursday/Friday. It's not always a steadfast rule, but I remember being told that it was part of the deal when the Ducks came in, so as not to split the market's hockey audience on any given night.

I believe you mean Saturday.

And I'm pretty sure I've heard of that agreement before too, but I'm confident they did away with it for this year, as the Ducks have had a few Saturday games already.

You're right. I meant Saturday haha.

And yeah, I know the actual days have been thrown out this season, but the policy seems to still be in effect. There are still only two days when the Ducks/Kings both have home games, February 27 and April 27 (both of which, interestingly, have one of each nationally on NBCSN. Kings/Wings on 2/27 and Ducks/Yotes on 4/27. (BTW, the Ducks only true national broadcast if we take out the NHL Network games )). Heck, there are only four days (all in March) they have road games on the same day. If you look at the home schedules, there is a huge string of alternating dates once we get to March and April.