Columbus Blue Jackets: 2008 and Beyond

This year, my friends, is a perfect example of when the best plan of attack is to start training camp early.

The Columbus Blue Jackets should round up guys like David Vyborny and Michael Peca, put them on the pine for three to five minutes a game, and put in some calls to Syracuse, where the real team is patiently waiting their turn.

The draft this year is devoid of any real talent. If you take Steven Stamkos and Drew Doughty out of the mix, you are left with one of the thinnest drafts to ever grace our poor hockey-fatigued retinas.

At least the Jackets have already started moving in the right direction by getting rid of Old Man Winter (Adam Foote) and Father Time (Sergei Fedorov).

The average age on the team after those two moves alone went from 40 to 28. This set of moves earns management high marks from me.

So what is the plan of attack?

It’s pretty simple. Call up all the same guys you would if this were the preseason and you were trying to fill your backup goalie, your last D spot, and a winger or center on the 2nd line.

I’ll state the obvious. Get Steve Mason in the net for five or six games to finish the year.

He has no shot against LeClaire—he has been the No. 1 star as many times as Nash has, which means a lot—but it would be a great test for Mason.

All the playoff-bound teams are bringing their A game, so he could get a great chance to see what roaming the crease for an NHL squad looks like, and he wouldn't have to suffer through 60 or more regular season games if his performance comes up short.

He’s got the summer to find his game again. Too bad for the OHL, big boy hockey comes first.

I had the opportunity to watch Matt Marquardt during his time on the Moncton Wildcats with the QMJHL, and he is a machine.

This kid dominates every shift and is a man playing with boys. When he is patrolling the wing, guys just get out of his way.

His thunderous checks have left many a defensemen wondering what time zone they had been in, and, consequently, which one they had been knocked in to.

So it’s set then.

Let’s get the jump on the whole training camp garbage that will still happen come September. The summer should focus on tossing aside the elder statesmen.

I am a firm believer that talent wins over experience. Whether a game is played tonight, or 15 years from now the mechanics are the same.

Score more than you let in and you win.

I don’t need a veteran-laden team grasp that concept.

So instead, give me youth. I want the guy who can leg it out and negate the icing, not the guy telling me about the days of wooden sticks.

I am resigned to to the fact that the Blue Jackets have indicated to me that they are not planning on playing very far into April this season. So, at the very least, let’s see what’s down on the farm.

My hope is that we can start the season in October with a significant youth movement. There's no time like the present to see if the kids can skate.