BT's 2008/09 NHL Season Preview: The Columbus Blue Jackets

Preface: It's raining outside, which I can only associate with one thing: October.

And as we all know, October is the beginning of the NHL season; like Christmas morning and Easter wrapped into one, except shredded beef atop a heaping pile of nachos replaces the turkey, and instead of an Easter Egg hunt it's "Go get Uncle Mel another beer"....

Or four.

Either way I'm pumped.

Alright, now that that's out of the way, we're back to the task at hand.

When you're the Columbus Blue Jackets, it's hard paying in the Central division.

For a long time, you were the laughing stock of a lot of people, as you just couldn't get over the hump, no matter what you did.

Me? I was a laughing stock too. You try cheering for the Blue Jackets when you're the lone fan of the team in London, Ontario—and that was before Rick Nash got drafted from the London Knights.

Much like a few other teams around the Western Conference, I still keep taps on the Jackets (Dallas, Nashville, Chicago, and Phoenix are some of the other I feel a little bit of warmth in my heart for), but I'm past the stage of calling myself a fan. I'm more of a Rick Nash well-wisher, just hoping he gets to be competitive one day.

Well, his day has arrived.

It seems that the Jackets made an extra effort this offseason in their attempts to pull away from the St Louis Blues and the Nashville Predators, and join Chicago and Detroit as the most-talked about team in the division.

Now, once again, it's time for the Jackets to "back up that smack".

Roster Additions: Mike Commodore-D (Free Agent), Kristian Huselius-F (Free Agent), R.J. Umberger-F (Trade, signed to four-year deal), Mike York-F (Free Agent), Raffi Torres-F (Trade), Fedor Tyutin-D (Trade), Christian Backman-D (Trade)

Roster Subtractions: Gilbert Brule-F (Trade), Nikoalai Zherdev-F (Trade), Dan Fritsch-F (Trade), Joakim Lindstrom-F (Trade), David Vyborny-F (Free Agent), Dick Tarnstrom-D (Free Agent), Ron Hainsey-D (Free Agent)

How did 2007/08 go? 34-36-12, 80 points, 13th in conference, 4th in division

2008/09 Goal: Top Ten in the conference—make the playoffs.

Let's break'er down...

If you were to look at the recent history of transactions for the franchise, you'd think that Rick Nash is the most fickle player in the NHL.

Gilbert Brule was drafted to one-day become Rick Nash's parnter in crime down in Ohio, but it didn't work out.

Sergei Fedorov was brought in, and the hope was that maybe he could rekindle some of that late-90's fire, and help the Blue Jackets boast a first line combo that would bemoan defenses around the league.

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