Hitch's coaches show starts today at 3!

We know the season is about ready to start when 1460 The Fan actually starts airing dedicated hockey programming again. To hear 1 of our 2 hours worth of this dedicated hockey talk per week be sure to tune into Hitchcock's coaches show today at 3 p.m. on 1460 The Fan either by radio or by online stream.

I will give them this, that graphic is pretty creative...and I shouldn't complain too much as that 2 hours worth of coverage is probably better than most US hockey markets.

Blue Jackets live season special starts today at 4:30 EST on FSN Ohio. It will air another 6 times after that.

I checked my DVR last night to record this today but it wasn't showing up in the 4:30 slot. The earliest I could find was 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. If you have better luck than me please post in the comments.

CBSSports.com's Wes Goldstein thinks the Summer overhaul puts Blue Jackets in legitimate position to contend for a playoff position.

I certain CBJ blogger (you may know him!) contributed to this blogger's Western Conference preview. Check out what he had to say about the CBJ here. The Eastern Conference preview can be found here.

There was a really good turn out last night at the season ticket holder event at the Columbus Zoo. In fact there seemed to be a lot more people compared to the similar event they held back in 2005 coming out of the lockout.

So with Torres out for 6 weeks who gets that extra roster spot? That is the question the boys at the Dispatch looked at in today's addition.

Before the scratch appeared to be one of Novonty, Malhotra, Murray or Chimera. All of those faces will be in the lineup now.

So who gets that 13th forward spot? The names tossed around in the paper were Filatov, Dorsett, Sestito, Picard, MacKenzie and Pinealut.

Depending on how Filatov does in his first pre-season action this Thursday or Friday (or both) I can certainly see the Jackets hanging onto this kid for at least 9 games fora taste before sending him down (which I think they eventually will do). The last thing I want is this kid playing in the bottom 6 when he could be getting prime minutes in Sudury while the Jackets also save a year on his contract. We've seen what the extra year or two has done for Brass and Voracek so why stray from the formula?

After the Filatov situation works itselft out my money is on Dorsett.

Why?

I just think this kid can add a lot to our lineup in a 4th line role. He's shown he can play at this level and this dude is a tough as nails to play against. Not only will he drop the mitts if needed but he hits, can pot a goal here or there and isn't afraid of doing the dirty work it takes to win.....and as Portzline stated yesterday, he's proud to be a Blue Jacket which is icing on the cake.

I think Picard has done a pretty good job this pre-season to make a case for himself and I did not realize he was waiver eligible which may tip the scales in his favor as I think he's got a decent shot at getting claimed. Derek MacKenzie has also shown well but he is center depth and with Novonty and Manny very capable of playing those roles I can't see him getting the nod (although I think we'll see him on the big club for a few stints) even though I'm sure he can play wing no problem.

All things being considered though if it were me making the decision right now its Dorsett.

-LTL