From contraction to Commodore

Hey guess what? There is an article about contraction and the Columbus Blue Jackets aren't mentioned. Who woulda thunk it?

1. Less is more: We're talking contraction here, fewer teams means better quality of play and so much more. Ding six franchises to get the league down to 24 teams (12 per conference, six in each of four divisions). Who goes? Atlanta Thrashers, Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals and Nashville Predators. Hey, look at that, no more Southeast Division.

I know its a slow hockey month and it inevitable that the somebody will dust off and recycle the ole "contraction" article, stamp a new date on it and call it interesting. Personally I will never take any of these contraction blog/articles/whatever seriously until the writer suggests that his favorite team gets contracted.

Caps head man Ted Leonis had a nice response to this writer on his blog here.

I really don't think people understand all that goes into a pro sports franchise and it certainly isn't nearly as easy as driving some moving trucks up to an arena, packing up some hockey equipment and hauling ass to a new city which Leonis illustrates well in his rebuttle.

I won't sit here and say that hockey works in all its current markets but to me the biggest guage of success/failure of a market is if the support isn't their if a team is actually contending. As a Columbus fan that is when I would start to get nervous.

College hockey fans its being reported that CCHA is going to a shootout according to this article.

"The shootout has proved to be an exciting addition to hockey at a variety of levels and we are anxious to bring it into college hockey. The drama it creates is very popular with fans, and importantly, today\'s players love it," said CCHA Commissioner Tom Anastos.

"At the same time, the NCAA rules and ice hockey committees have allowed us to implement this tie-breaker protocol so that every regular-season league game will have a winner while preserving the integrity of the national rankings because CCHA games decided by a shootout will still be considered ties for NCAA purposes. Bonus points awarded will impact the conference standings only."

The article goes on to say that a total of 90 games ended in ties over the CCHA's past three seasons. They will use a "NHL style" three person shootout format.

As I've stated before I'd rather see the teams decides it in game play but for the regular season only I'm just fine with shootouts. I just wish the teams I root for were better at em!

Funny story. A friend of mine, who believe it or not is a bigger CBJ die hard than I am, is getting married next Saturday. Many may know him as the "Blue Hair Guy" who has spent many a long night at the R Bar. There will be plenty of Blue Jacket "flavor" to his wedding ceremony including exchanging vows underneath the arch down in the Arena District across from Nationwide, to a Stinger appearance at his reception to having Mike Todd DJ the reception among many many other things - hell he's even got us wearing blue tuxes.

Part of the plan was to have some custom jerseys made for the reception for he and his bride but unfortunately after placing a call to the Blueline downtown he was told they were out of the letter 'O'.

Now think about this for a sec -- why would they be out of the letter 'O'? Apparently new Jacket Mike Commodore stopped in and ordered 50 jerseys for what I"m sure is for friends, family and charities.

So if your looking to customize a jersey and you've got an 'O' in your last name you may have to wait a bit. Your killing us Mike! Although one of those jerseys would sure make a nice wedding gift!

P.S. That pic of him never gets old...

-LTL