It Starts Now (Hopefully For Real This Time)

As you can see, I've been taking the off-season literally - off. I'll be honest, my passion for hockey and the Blue Jackets was waning by the time the last painful games of the 2010-11 campaign were played. I went into hibernation and for the most part turned to baseball to feed my sports lust. I make no apologies. I only do this blog for fun. And it just wasn't fun once the Blue Jackets playoff chances had evaporated yet again.

Jeff Carter will realize that his loyalty to the Flyers was a one way street. Shame on them. Good for the Blue Jackets.

Then came The Trade. And then The Other Trade. In the span of a few days my hockey fire has been relit. Kudos to Scott Howson for doing what needed to be done. Was it painful to see Jake Voracek traded? Absolutely. Jake has always been a personal favorite of mine. Was it painful to finally admit that the Fialtov pick was a big mistake? At least for those who have been more patient and were still holding out hope (like me), yes. But Howson made a bold move and as a franchise the Blue Jackets find themselves in a position where bold moves are necessary.

Not everyone in the hockey world is heaping praise on Howson and the Blue Jackets. Puck Daddy says the CBJ were one of the losers on Draft Weekend. From a public relations standpoint, maybe they were. But these times call for action, not face-saving. The only opinions that truly matter are from those on the inside looking out, not vice versa. And if R.J. Umberger's opinion matters (and it does), both the move to acquire Jeff Carter and the Filatov trade were well received. I'm willing to bet Umberger's opinion is not a dissenting one in the locker room. There's no question that the Blue Jackets just got better on the ice, but if they also just got better in the locker room that, in itself, makes them a dramatically better team (emphasis intended).

There's still the issue of getting Jeff Carter to come to grips with the fact that he just got fisted by the Flyers and is now a Blue Jacket. There's no reason to freak out just yet. Umberger himself stated that it took him months to accept the same fate and move on. Let's be honest. Columbus is not a prime destination from the perspective of most players. That doesn't mean it sucks to play here. That doesn't mean that Columbus will always be looked down upon by the game's elite players, but things need to change. We need to win and win consistently. We need to have top-tier talent to win. It has to start somewhere. It just did.