Picard cleared; PP deck shuffled

Puck-rakers is reporting that Alexandre Picard has cleared waivers. No report yet on what the Jackets plan to do with him but my guess its back to Syracuse for the former #8 overall pick.

Picard has 1 point in 49 career NHL games. He had a good camp and is in the process of trying to find his niche as a 4th line energy guy at the NHL level after being drafted for what the Jackets certainly had hope to be a top 6 offensive winger in the Ryan Smythe mold.

My guess is that the Jackets held onto Picard to see if perhaps their was market for him before sending him through waivers. Now that the need more roster flexibility and obviously not getting much interest the Jackets had to make a move.

Quite frankly Picard is probably a guy who could use a change of scenery and its a bummer for him that nobody picked him up. For the Jackets they keep his depth down on the farm while free up that spot on their 23 man roster for what I think will be a Derick Dorsett re-call with an off chance they may carry 3 goaltenders until they figure out what to do in that area.

Puck-rakers is also reporting that the PP is getting a much needed shakeup on the blueline. Jakub Vorack and Fedor Tyutin will man the points on the 1st PP unit while Christian Backman and Mike Commodore will see time on the 2nd PP.

All I can say is thank you for taking Backman off the 1st unit. I'm not expecting a whole lot from Tyutin but he can't be any worse at this point...can he? Commodore while certainly no offensive force is a right handed shot which is sorely needed.

Despite some rookie mistakes I love Voracek on the point. He sees the ice so well and does a really good job of finding the open man and makes such a crisp and clean first pass to gain the line.

Just keep it simple, have solid puck movement and get some pucks through on the net gentlemen. The forwards will take care of the rest.

Now we just need to up Brassard's ice time and I'm a happy fan (until the next loss of course!).

Pretty cool that the Jackets will be featured on Hockey Night in Canada tomorrow eh? They weren't originally supposed to be televised but were added this week. One has got to think the Jackets are finding some new demand with the way their young guns are performing.

For those that don't know alot about HNIC its like Monday Night Football in the states -- its a staple in Canada that many generations have grown up to. Its a big big deal, especially for the Canadians on the roster.

The Syracuse Crunch play 3 games back to back to back this weekend. They are away against the baby Sens tonight, at home against the Moose tomorrow and away against the Aeros on Sunday. Wow...now that is load of hockey and traveling in 3 days.

Will be interesting to follow how guys like Filatov, Mayorov and Russell perform over this stretch.

The Hockey Buckeyes take on #11 Michigan State tonight and tomorrow at home at Value City Arena. The Buckeyes are looking to bounce back after losing back to back against Michigan last weekend in Ann Arbor.

-LTL