Forgot the barbeque sauce...

Just some late night dipping sauce to go along with today's nuggets (courtesy of Kevin G.).

Hockeysfuture.com has ranked the CBJ 5th in their organizational rankings:

Strengths: The Blue Jackets graduated a couple of their top prospects – Calder front-runner Steve Mason and winger Jakub Voracek – this season on way to earning the franchise’s first postseason appearance. The cupboard is still stocked with several talented forwards, headlined by an elite scoring winger in Nikita Filatov. Derick Brassard will also look to fill the net following an injury-shortened rookie season. Beyond the top two forwards, Columbus has some nice depth with players like Maxim Mayorov, Jake Hansen, and Tom Sestito on the wings. The defense also features solid prospects in Cody Goloubef, Teddy Ruth, and Andrei Plekhanov. Weaknesses: The Jackets are particularly thin down the middle with only three center prospects. Although the system recently graduated Mason, it now lacks a top-flight prospect in goal. Top 5 prospects: 1. Nikita Filatov, LW, 2. Derick Brassard, C, 3. Cody Goloubef, D, 4. Maxim Mayorov, LW, 5. Teddy Ruth, D. Key losses to graduation: Steve Mason, Jakub Voracek.

How about this quote:

"We'll be farther away from the podium than ever before -- but that's a good thing, right?" -- Blue Jackets hockey operations director Don Boyd, on the club picking No. 16 in this summer's entry draft and picking in the top eight in each of their first nine drafts.

Very true. This will be the first draft that the Jackets haven't picked in the top 8. They have been getting better of late at mining picks in later rounds so hopefully that can roll over to fnding a capable NHLer in the middle of this year's first.

Also check out this Stanley Cup Final opening from Hockey Night in Canada:



According to this site Game 1 of the Finals drew a 4.5 ratings last night. Of course that team that cannot be named won.. ugh.

Marc Berman from Mediaweek’s Programming Insider is going to be our friend for the next couple of weeks. NBC beat our prediction of 3.8 million by quite a bit. The game drew an average of 4.5 million viewers, and a 1.7 in the all-important Adults 18-49 demo, winning the night for NBC.

The game won it’s time period from 8-10 PM (finished 2nd from 10-11) in total viewers and won all three hours of primetime in Adults 18-49. The game peaked in the 9:30-10PM half-hour with 4.94 million viewers and a 1.9 in the demo. The 8-8:30 PM half-hour hurt the ratings quite a bit, as hockey fans seem to have figured out how loaded with pre-game it is. It only drew 3.8 million viewers and a 1.4 in the demo.

-LTL