No Excuses Now

For the past 16 months, Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson has had the charge of cleaning up the organization that was in shambles after the departure of Dough Maclean.  I’d like to take a moment to discuss where the Jackets were when Howson took the helm:

1. No team identity

2. Bloated contracts on underachieving players

3. Lack of prospect depth

4. Lack of locker room leadership

5. Lack of conditioning

Let’s go through them one at a time and see what old Scotty did.

1. Identity - before Howson arrived, the Jackets were a hodgepodge of players with a goal of simply trying to win.  With the arrival of Hitchcock came the beauty and simplicity of a system.  One where every player knows their role and what is expected of them.

2. Underachievers - not all players at the age of 36 have lost their spark.  Look at Joe Sakic.  Unfortunately for us, Feds turned out to have lost a step or three.  To be sure, he was a valuable player, but was he worth $6 mill?  Hell no.  I’m not even gonna touch Foote.  In the end, we’ve weathered the storm and sat on $10 mil in open cap space that Howson divied up between the likes of Huselius (4.75), Umberger (3.0) and Mike Commodore (3.75).  I won’t even ask which package you’d take.

3. Internal Depth - Call it poor scouting, drafting, development, whatever you want.  The Jackets have had some sour luck in the department of internal prospect development.  Want proof?  2004 first rounder Alex Picard has officially been labeled a 4th line grinder.  A far cry from the scoring and fighting phenom that management proclaimed him.  As for 2005 6th overall Brule?  Well, he’s gone to Edmonton where even there he was sent down to the AHL. 

And now?  We have the likes of Derick Brassard, Jake Voracek, Nikita Filatov, Maxim Mayorov and a slew of young defensement swelling our ranks (I include Brassard because even though he was a Maclean pick - his development was facilitated by Scott Howson.  Under Maclean there is no doubt in my mind that he’d have been rushed into a position that he wasn’t ready for; just like Brule.)

4. Leadership - I don’t think that Maclean ever really get the right veteran players who could make a difference in the locker room.  Nash has always been the captain in waiting, but to make him the lone voice of leadership - even this year - would have been a stretch.  The addition of Michael Peca last offseason was a huge step, then the maturation of Klesla, and additions of Commodore and Huselius give this year’s dressing room a lot more veteran leadership.

5. Conditioning - this was sort of under the radar at this point, but I remember when Hitchcock first joined the organization and the club was barely in shape.  In fact by mid-season, most of them had checked out physically.  Not under the Hitch regime though!

With these issues addressed, and the departure of such players as Zherdev (who was enigmatic at best), Fristche (just couldn’t make the transition to a scoring line), Veebs (god bless him, he gave us a great couple years but REALLY dropped after the hit in the preseason from Erat), Hainsy (not worth his paycheck), and a few others, the Blue Jackets have finally seemed to move beyond the point where they can point fingers at the past.  While they still had the “losing” brand at the last free agency, the remnants of the old reich is pretty much gone. 

This team is molded as Hitch and Howson want it to be.  The dead weight is gone.  No more excuses.  If this season does not produce a playoff berth, there’s no one to blame but the guy in the fancy hat (my way of saying the commanding officer).

Posted in Bluejackets buzz   Tagged: Season Prediction