Mental Monday (11/28/11)

The loss on Sunday was like bitter beer face. A long, refreshing swig of winning hockey, followed by a horribly sour aftertaste of a loss. Hitch wins. Russell scores. I'm sure at least a few Jackets fans vomited in their mouths a little.

But we move on. Thankfully, there have been positive signs in the past couple of weeks. Curtis Sanford has delivered solid play and inspiration. Jeff Carter and Rick Nash have started to yin and yang. Derek Dorsett continues to elevate his game and fire us up with his grit, energy and attitude. And Ryan Johansen is proving that he belongs. It felt like it was raining cannonballs on Friday night as the Blue Jackets bombarded Buffalo 5-1. Wins and losses aside, it was a tremendous feeling and one that Blue Jackets fans so desperately want to experience more often.

So while there may be little or no hope of making the playoffs, there are still some compelling story lines for Jackets fans to follow. It's safe to watch games again and you don't have to worry that you'll be induced to vomit, at least when we're not playing the Blues.

Which brings us to the docket for this week, a swing through western Canada that kicks off tonight in Vancouver, with a back-to-back on Thursday and Friday nights in Calgary and Edmonton. Who knows what will happen when the NHL announces its realignment plan in two weeks or so. The Blue Jackets could use some good news, and good news would come in the form of less games in the west. But as it stands, this is the first of four trips out west this season for the Jackets. So strap it on.

Despite the disappointing loss to the Blues on Sunday, the Blue Jackets are a team that seems to be building confidence. If they can manage to keep it going on this four game roadie (they visit Montreal on December 6 after getting back from the west coast), the schedule becomes somewhat favorable. The Jackets will be home for five straight and seven out of eleven to close out the month of December and 2011.

If the Blue Jackets want the atmosphere in Nationwide to be festive this holiday season, two wins this week out west would really spike the punch bowl. It's a tall order as always given the long travel and the change in time zones. It's even taller when you consider that the Canucks are 7-3 in their last ten and have won four straight. And Calgary/Edmonton on back to back nights is no box of chocolates.

Oh well. Never say never! Here's to late night hockey and the snooze button. (This one's for you, Rick!)

Vinnie, Vidit, Vicit

Vinnie Prospal will play in his 1000th game tonight at Nationwide. Will you be there to acknowledge and celebrate this monumental achievement? Here's a link to my latest post, Live Long and Prospal, for The Dark Blue Jacket.

Note: For all of you out there that didn't take five years of Latin like me, the title translated (loosely) means: Vinnie came, he saw, he conquered.

Mental Monday (11/21/11)

As of today, I'm a contributor at The Dark Blue Jacket. I'm honored, thrilled and excited to join the staff of what I believe to be one of the best fan blogs in the NHL. I'm also a little torn. This blog has become an extension of me and my love/hate fanship of the Blue Jackets. I can't see folding it up completely. So I'll try to keep it going for as long as I am able. My first commitment will be to DBJ, so the content here might be sporadic. But there are still plenty of reasons to keep visiting Full Mental Jackets, like the sidebar, which has fresh links to great CBJ content 24/7, and FMJvision, your one-stop Blue Jackets Youtube page. And if you are a fledgling smart alec/CBJ fan/blogger wannabe who wants to start contributing here on this blog, hit me up.

Curtis saves.

There's been an ongoing debate among what I like to call dying hard Blue Jackets fans that is essentially the old chicken/egg conundrum. What comes first, good goaltending or good defense? There are still a surprising number of people standing and fighting behind Steve Mason. They claim that he is the victim of extremely poor defense and that he faces far too many "quality shots." On the other side is a growing legion of fans who believe that, while the defense has been far from pretty, the real problem is Mason and that the defense would be better if the team had any confidence in the goaltending.  After this past week, during which the Blue Jackets earned five points out of a possible eight, including a huge win at Nashville on Saturday night, expect the latter group to start in with a heavy dose of "I told you so".

On the year Steve Mason has a .875 save percentage (49th out of 49 qualifying goalies) and a 3.63 goals-against average. In the last two games, Curtis Sanford is at .930 and 2.00. Before being "rested" for Sanford, Mason was actually coming off of a decent two game stretch where he went a combined .932 and 2.00. So in the Jackets last four games, Jackets' goalies posted a save percentage of .931 and a goals-against average of 2.00. Compare that to the median numbers among the top 30 qualified NHL goalies, .923 and 2.39 respectively, and it is not to difficult to see how the Jackets went 2-1-1 in those four games.

To be fair, the Blue Jackets defense has also played much better during this stretch. But that just begs the question. Are they playing better because of the lift they have gotten in net, or have they started to figure out how to make life for their netminders a little less stressful. In the end, who cares? All Jackets fans will all be a lot happier if both sides to this debate can claim victory by the end of the season.

UPDATE: Now comes word that Steve Mason was injured today during the morning skate when he took one in the noggin off the stick of Rick Nash. Sanford had already been declared the starter for tonight's game vs. Calgary. No word yet on how long Mason might be incapacitated, but when asked Arniel said, "He's not good." And so I'm assuming the follow up question was something like, "We know, but how's his head?"

Mad As Hell

Right about the time the Wild scored their second goal in a 20 second span on Tuesday night, my blood pressure skyrocketed and I started to hyperventilate. Later I was in the kitchen when Billy Davidge said that Cal Clutterbuck had beaten Mason "high glove side" for the go-ahead goal. My left eye started to twitch. I started to look for something to break, or kick. The dog took note and quietly hid behind the couch.

Why? How? What the . . . .?  We as Blue Jackets fans do not deserve this crap! As one of my high school football coaches used to say when we were screwing up bad, "Ain't it about time somebody done sumpin?"

Why isn't anyone doing anything? Why does Howson keep stubbornly running Mason out there, or Arniel for that matter? The harm that it is doing to the fan base is monumental. The failure to act is inexplicable. 

The fans seem numb at this point. Where's the disgust? Where's the outrage? Where's the call to action? Then again, what can we as fans do? We could organize a sit-in and call it Occupy Suck Street. We can demand to be heard. We can announce to the hockey world that we are mad as hell and we aren't going to take this anymore! But first we have to get mad!

Which reminds me of a famous scene from a movie called Network. Even if you are too young to remember that movie, the scene might be familiar to you. Either way, I've adapted it to what is going on here in Columbus. It was either going to be this or a Youtube clip of Roberta Flack singing Killing Me Softly. The animated clip won out. 

Mad As Hell
by: gregin120

Mental Monday (11/7/11)

A lot of people in Columbus were shocked to wake up and learn that Ken Hitchcock was hired on Sunday night. By the St. Louis Blues! And so the curtain has closed on Act I of this tragedy of a season. There will be no more speculation about Hitch returning to coach the Blue Jackets. And, perhaps more importantly, there will be no more awkward situations like those witnessed recently at Nationwide, with Hitch in the stands watching practices run by his eventual successor, Scott Arniel, while sitting next to Arniel's boss, CBJ President Mike Priest.

CBJ fans to ownership: Can you do us a kindness please?

On the other hand, it now creates a very awkward situation for GM Scott Howson and maybe even Priest as well. Hitchcock replaces Davis Payne, who has guided the Blues to a 6-7-0 record so far this season. I wonder how many body organs would be donated by Jackets fans for a 6-7-0 record right now? If that's not good enough in the Central Division, then clearly 2-11-1 isn't either. So that can only lead us to one conclusion: Arniel's replacement isn't going to be selected until Howson's replacement is selected. And it's quite possible that Howson's replacement might not be selected until Priest's replacement is selected. Anybody up for a game of dominoes?

If Howson is as good as gone, that would also explain why the Blue Jackets keep running Steve Mason out there. Like Arniel, his fate might be sealed but his replacement is probably not going to materialize until Howson is replaced first. In fact, it seems clear at this point that no major moves are going to be made until ownership hires a new architect to rebuild this mess. In the meantime, they appear to have taken away Howson's car keys and his cell phone, and locked him in a broom closet down the hall so that he doesn't muck this thing up even more than it already is.

If I'm reading the tea leaves accurately, it could be some time before Arniel is let go. In the meantime, the CBJ marketing folks are going to have to get real creative to get people to come down to Nationwide to watch this circus. On second thought, maybe that's exactly what they should do. Embrace the fact that it's a circus and bill it as such:

Step right up people! See midget defenders and the Disappearing Goalie! See the Largest Inflatable Cannon in the World! Watch a team outshoot its opponent 40-20 AND LOSE! You won't believe your eyes, but you gotta see it live!

For those that still care, the Jackets are at home for two games this week:

• On Thursday night the Jackets welcome the Chicago Blackhawks to town. The Hawks start this week in first place in the Central division with an 8-3-3 record. The Blackhawks defeated the Jackets 5-2 in Chicago on October 29.
• The Winnipeg Jets, coached by former CBJ Interim head coach Claude Noel, come to Nationwide on Saturday evening. The Jets presently sit at 5-7-2, last place in the Southeast division. 

If you are still a Blue Jackets fan at this point, God bless you. As I've said before, laughter is always the best medicine. Accordingly, I'm sharing with you a video clip on this sober Monday morning, a video clip that always makes me laugh in those challenging situations, like this one, where it is difficult to be humored. I am not embedding the Youtube Player for this clip because you probably don't want to play it in an office environment or within earshot of children (or persons that are easily, and maybe even not so easily, offended by foul language). There's a good chance you've already seen it. Either way, I highly recommend the movie that was inspired by it.

Have a great week everybody!