This and that

This was sent to me from Dave and its an article from the Toronto Sun. It takes some shots at Columbus and gives a little more detail on how the Jackets front office as reacted to the Toronto Gong Show:

First here is the shot at Columbus in their "sneak peak at hockey headlines in 2009":

July
Usual free agent lunacy as Blue Jackets, Coyotes and Kings get into multi-million dollar bidding war for Staffan Kronwall.

Now some nuggets:

With Derick Brassard out a few months with shoulder surgery, the Jackets could be looking at Doug Weight as a replacement...The Jackets burned up the phone lines to NHL HQ last week after a disallowed goal against Dallas. A Manny Malhotra overtime breakaway shot hit Marty Turco’s pad and went in off his skate as he dove to avoid a collision. It was ruled to be kicked in from the war room in Toronto, even though most replays showed it to be unintentional and some Jackets were told by officials on the scene that the goal would surely count once it was reviewed. No less than four team officials, general manager Scott Howson, coach Ken Hitchcock, president Mike Priest and majority owner John P. McConnell called the league office to voice their displeasure, amid past mutterings that the small-market Jackets never get a break. “We have very difficult calls to make, and we make them,” NHL senior vice-president Colin Campbell said. “It doesn’t matter who the player or the team is.”...

Weight makes some sense on a variety of levels. He's affordable, he's a UFA after this season, can run the point on the PP and shouldn't cost a whole lot to obtain (I'm thinking 2nd round pick). That said he is 37 and after watching him play the Rangers tonight looks very slooooow! He would be a band aid that I don't think would heal much if any of the Jackets wounds.

After reading some reports of what Scott Howson had to say in the season ticket holder meeting this past weekend I wouldn't bank on him going after Weight anyway.

First off he said he would prefer a younger player but has to work with what teams are willing to part with (which certainly won't be a whole lot of young talent).

Howson said he will not part with any of his young blue chip talent in Brassard, Voracek, Filatov or of course Mason. He said he would be willing to deal his #1 but only for a young talented player that would add to the nucleus of the team -- again teams typically hang onto those players.

So if he doesn't want older players and won't part with young assets where does that leave him? Not with a whole lot of options which is why I don't expect him to do much if anything regardless of how this team performs on this road trip. That certainly can't make a guy like Hitch happy who even with Brassard has had big holes in this lineup that aren't going to disappear.

That said keep your eye on Toronto. Their GM Brian Burke certainly isn't afraid to make a deal and he'll look to start putting his stamp on this squad sooner than later -- he's got some tasty talent likely to move in Nik Antropov who is a center and a couple of d-men in Pavel Kubina and Tomas Kaberle. The Jackets won't part with what it will take to land Kaberle but they may have enough ammo to land a Antropov or Kubina -- both of whom could help this lineup.

Here is another shot at Columbus...this time courtesy of the NYTimes as they take their turn predicting headlines in 2009...granted this article spares nobody in the NHL:

Columbus misses the playoffs again but the Nationwide Arena was filled every night after the Blue Jackets began a promotion in which 18 randomly selected fans suit up for each game.

The Syracuse Crunch finally ended their 10 game losing streak against the Hamilton Bull Dogs this past Saturday winning 5-4. Guess who was in the opposition's net? Marc Denis.

Speaking of the Crunch Maksim Mayorov ended a 15 game goal-less streak when he notched one. John Vigilante also ended a 12 game goal-less streak when he notched a couple.

It also looks like Stephan Legein will resume his hockey career when he meets with Howson and co. in Columbus on January 5th. Speculation is he'll get assigned to Sryacuse and will probably be in their lineup for their game on the 6th.

This actually works out in Legein's favor I think. Legein will be joining a struggling Crunch team are struggling and could use a spark. If he can bring a strong work ethic and attitude he should have no problem finding a spot in this lineup with ice time unlike last year where he was joining a hardened tight knit Crunch lineup that was on a tremendous roll.

Its a great opportunity for him to get his hockey career back on track. Now he needs to seize it.

If your looking for a hockey fix this week don't forget the Ohio Hockey Classic kicks off Friday Jan 2nd at the Schott. Ohio State will take on Army while Miami will take on Clarkson. The winners of those games will meet on Saturday at 8 p.m. with the losers playing for 3rd place at 5.

The full schedule can be found here.

-LTL