Something Building In Columbus
The Stanley Cup Playoffs are now a week old but whilst the first round is hotting up I wanted to focus one particular team that just missed out on the party. On the penultimate night of the regular season with two spots in the West still undecided it didn’t take much deducing to find that most of the neutral support was directed towards the Columbus Blue Jackets. Although they held up their side of the bargain with a win over Nashville, both Minnesota and Detroit also picked up victories to hold them off and make the postseason. It was an agonizing end to their season after what was almost a remarkable turnaround, on March 1st 20 games in the Jackets were five points adrift at the foot of the West.
Whilst the immediate downside is that this often mocked franchise is still without a playoff victory in their 13 year history, the momentum created by this season surely means that curse will be vanquished sooner rather than later. There’s been a lot of roster turnover in the last three years and it was perhaps surprising to see it come together this quickly. In fact only six of the current roster were with the team before 2011, though I think the good work started from getting Jack Johnson at the 2012 trade deadline.
In the following summer they finally parted with Rick Nash who had been the face of the team for so long, getting Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov and Tim Erixon in return provided depth rather than a focal point. Dubinsky in particular is a strong two way center as well as a good guy to have in the dressing room and I think we will see his influence on this group grow further. What looks to be the masterstroke of that offseason though was taking Sergei Bobrovsky from the Philadelphia Flyers. I’ve already said he would’ve got my vote for the Vezina Trophy and perhaps I wouldn’t be writing this article if the Russian hadn’t played lights out in the second half of the season.
At the beginning of 2013 the predictions of another year in the running for 1st pick were only solidfied by a poor start, then came some more drastic changes. General Manager Scott Howson lost his job less than three weeks in for the years of stagnation, being immediately replaced by Jarmo Kekalainen who became the first European GM in NHL history. His appointment was well endorsed at the time and the upturn of form came in at the start of March, that placed extra importance on the trade deadline and Kekalainen’s first in charge was a dramatic one. Dericks Brassard and Dorsett along with John Moore were all deemed expendable to acquire two time 40 goal scorer Marian Gaborik. As we know now it wasn’t enough for them to make the postseason but the extra significance was a star name joining them willingly, we hadn’t seen that before.
That said I personally wasn’t too keen on the value of the trade, I still feel now they gave up too much to get a player on the decline and going without a star offensive player was working because it was all about team ethic. Brassard and Moore were both first round picks with a lot of potential upside and it was certainly a high risk move. To be fair it’s still too soon to judge after just 12 games for Gaborik in a Columbus jersey, he could easily discover his form of past seasons in the right environment.
Bobrovsky was undoubtedly the Jackets’ MVP this season, however it’s unfair to say he didn’t receive any help from what has the makings of an excellent defensive core. This is an area they look really strong in for the future and should define their approach in the coming years as a defence first team. Johnson is the standout number one guy who will eat up the majority of minutes alongside the likes of Fedor Tyutin and James Wisniewski who make contributions to their offense too. Somewhat of a forgotten man is Ryan Murray, the 2nd pick in the 2012 who was unable to play this year because of shoulder surgery. Should there be no long term consequences of that injury he is a superb prospect who could go on to become their most important player.
Moving forward to the summer, perhaps now prospective acquisitions will want to be part of what they are building just like Gaborik. They look to be potential players in the free agent market this summer with a number of high profile players provisionally available. Bobrovsky and Anisimov will have to be resigned whilst they must also decide what to do with veterans Adrian Aucoin, Blake Comeau and Vaclav Prospal (who was their leading scorer for the 2013 season). Taking all that into account there should be enough cap space left for Kekelainen to pursue some extra offensive talent if he wishes.
As a neutral I genuinely hope the Jackets make the playoffs next year, and for all those reasons I think they will be respected as having a chance at the start of the 2013-14 season. Their fans have had to be patient and will have to be for a little while longer, but at the very least there’s finally some positivity again in Columbus.
