A recap of the Jackets History

[CBJWerenski8]

Click to read more...

 

[Cyclones Rock]

A must read article.

Much to be taken from it, but a piece of information that adds to my disdain of having JD having anything to do with the GM search was in the article. Namely, that Jarmo was the ONLY candidate that JD interviewed for GM in 2013. Perhaps Babcock was the only seriously interviewed candidate for HC last off season.

Hell, I'm on the board of a small time 501c3 and we've interviewed 4 flipping candidates to manage the property. I'm not impressed by JDs thoroughness in the job search/interview process Me thinks JD is a lazy a$$ who needs to be shown the gate yesterday.

McConnell needs to have a sit down with Mike Brown of the Bengals. Very similar situations and Brown finally got his act together. Well, he got a bit lucky with some guy name Joe who was the #OA pick, too.

 

[EDM]

The thing about the Porty article is that it shows there was not just one of two things that went wrong. Rather it was almost a systemic attempt to as many things wrong as possible.

 

[squashmaple]

The thing about the Porty article is that it shows there was not just one of two things that went wrong. Rather it was almost a systemic attempt to as many things wrong as possible.

"Out of out blue, we rise?" Nah. "If it can go wrong, it will" should be our slogan. About to use AI to generate posters for that.

 

[cbjthrowaway]

The thing about the Porty article is that it shows there was not just one of two things that went wrong. Rather it was almost a systemic attempt to as many things wrong as possible.

it read more like a greek tragedy than anything.

maclean in charge = guy who overestimates how smart he is constantly going with his gut, always to his detriment, against the advice of those around him

howson in charge = small moves that work out, followed by big moves trying to capitalize on that which hilariously backfire, then he essentially signs his own death warrant by recommending JD

jarmo in charge = clear initial plan to tank, only for them to get good, but not good enough. lots of good moves undermined by atrocious luck (horton), then they finally break through only to get unlucky again (playoff seeding in 16-17 and 17-18, then panarin/bob leaving), then a comedy of errors to try to get back to that level

it's like, every time a GM tried to defer to other voices, it didn't work. every time they ignored those other voices, they made the wrong decision. every time one of their decisions did work, it was canceled out by bad luck somewhere else.

 

[EspenK]

All teams suffer losing seasons. The Columbus Blue Jackets' futility is different

Read and weep as screwup after screwup befall the Jackets.

 

[JacketsDavid]

Here is what I know:
-Something is wrong with J-Mac, No specifics but health is declining. A friend of mine (and keeping this vague for intentional reason) said he has ran into him at kids hockey tournaments across the US/Canada and asked about players (on the CBJ) and J-mac acts like he hasn't heard of them. Now maybe he doesn't want to talk hockey and he's in pain but seems odd. But my friend said Mr Mac and his kid and a couple others (parents, kids) flies to these tournaments in the jet, rest of their team drives. So he likely has a very tight circle keeping him insulated from internet trolls like me
-I've stated my disdain for JD before. He left us for his "dream job" where his brick-by-brick mentality got fired from very quickly. Then for whatever reason we hired him back. He needs to be shown the door but with an owner who doesn't care it likely won't happen.
-They only thing I liked about the Babcock hire was it showed that ownership knew they needed a coach to take charge. They continually hire "yes" men since Torts left and we don't have enough talent to overcome terrible coaching.

I just think since IDWT it's been a Cancer of an organ-I-zation. Only real success has come with veteran coaches who pushed the players (Hitch and Torts) which tells me most of the other coaches don't get enough out of what they have and/or Management is giving them too many pieces that just don't fit. It's likely a combination of both (poor coaching and poor roster assembly).

 

[MoeBartoli]

All teams suffer losing seasons. The Columbus Blue Jackets' futility is different

Read and weep as screwup after screwup befall the Jackets.

This was a great article by Porty. And as he said, there’s so much more that could have been included.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Here is what I know:
-Something is wrong with J-Mac, No specifics but health is declining. A friend of mine (and keeping this vague for intentional reason) said he has ran into him at kids hockey tournaments across the US/Canada and asked about players (on the CBJ) and J-mac acts like he hasn't heard of them. Now maybe he doesn't want to talk hockey and he's in pain but seems odd. But my friend said Mr Mac and his kid and a couple others (parents, kids) flies to these tournaments in the jet, rest of their team drives. So he likely has a very tight circle keeping him insulated from internet trolls like me
-I've stated my disdain for JD before. He left us for his "dream job" where his brick-by-brick mentality got fired from very quickly. Then for whatever reason we hired him back. He needs to be shown the door but with an owner who doesn't care it likely won't happen.
-They only thing I liked about the Babcock hire was it showed that ownership knew they needed a coach to take charge. They continually hire "yes" men since Torts left and we don't have enough talent to overcome terrible coaching.

I just think since IDWT it's been a Cancer of an organ-I-zation. Only real success has come with veteran coaches who pushed the players (Hitch and Torts) which tells me most of the other coaches don't get enough out of what they have and/or Management is giving them too many pieces that just don't fit. It's likely a combination of both (poor coaching and poor roster assembly).

I do not know what IDWT is.

 

[majormajor]

I do not know what IDWT is.

I always wondered if it was a special way of spelling idiot, since it seemed to be referring to Doug Maclean. But then someone told me recently that it was "In Doug We Trust".

 

[Viqsi]

FYI, some discussion of the article was already taking place in the Line Combos thread, so I moved that over here.

 

[Viqsi]

And also while I'm here, I'll point out that if one reads that article and still comes back with "somebody specific must be to blame for doing us wrong", what with all the crazy shit that has just not gone our way no matter what, then I dunno what else to tell you. Low probablility is not the same as impossible. Sometimes there's nobody you can point the finger at and label as The Bad Guy. Folks end up having to move on nonetheless, not because they Were Evil/Incompetent All Along, but because the adversity gets to people after a while and it starts negatively affecting their work and decisions.

And the distinction matters because when that's the case, complaining about it doesn't make it any better. (Just another hint to those who still think the protest was ever anything other than a tremendous embarassment.)

 

[EDM]

IDWT stands for "In Doug We Trust" which was the mantra used by early Doug supporters on another Blue Jackets Site that was in competition with this one. That other site eventually folded and some people transferred to this site. I was one of the few people on that other site who caught on very early that Doug was a blithering moron who happened to be an excellent carnival barker so I started the chant IDWQ, "In Doug We Question". Needless to say, as time moved on, IDWQ won out in the great debate how Doug could fall in love with Gilbert Brule.

 

[EDM]

V, I don't agree that nobody could be labelled a bad guy. Doug certainly was. Priest with his heavy involvement in the Jeff Carter deal was definitely a bad guy. Arnell with his crazy coaching ideas could also carry that label. To me the problem is not that there was one person who could be labelled "The Bad Guy". Instead there were multiple person who at various times earned that title.

 

[ThisIsMyAlibi]

A must read article.

Much to be taken from it, but a piece of information that adds to my disdain of having JD having anything to do with the GM search was in the article. Namely, that Jarmo was the ONLY candidate that JD interviewed for GM in 2013. Perhaps Babcock was the only seriously interviewed candidate for HC last off season.

Hell, I'm on the board of a small time 501c3 and we've interviewed 4 flipping candidates to manage the property. I'm not impressed by JDs thoroughness in the job search/interview process Me thinks JD is a lazy a$$ who needs to be shown the gate yesterday.

McConnell needs to have a sit down with Mike Brown of the Bengals. Very similar situations and Brown finally got his act together. Well, he got a bit lucky with some guy name Joe who was the #OA pick, too.

Yep. That’s really what it comes down to. The fact that JD is still working for the organization is a joke. nothing good will be done until the team is sold. Bad ownership means you’re destined for failure.

 

[Viqsi]

V, I don't agree that nobody could be labelled a bad guy. Doug certainly was. Priest with his heavy involvement in the Jeff Carter deal was definitely a bad guy. Arnell with his crazy coaching ideas could also carry that label. To me the problem is not that there was one person who could be labelled "The Bad Guy". Instead there were multiple person who at various times earned that title.

My point was less about from moment to moment and more about throughout the whole of franchise history. Indeed, check out the post immediately below yours (and above this one) and you'll see a prime example of exactly what I was railing against.

Well, okay, that and the Retroactive Condemnation of folks we also sometimes have around here ("Jarmo was horrible and terrible in everything he did all along" and the like).

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

This article might explain why I own a ton of bourbon.

 

[Indy18]

My point was less about from moment to moment and more about throughout the whole of franchise history. Indeed, check out the post immediately below yours (and above this one) and you'll see a prime example of exactly what I was railing against.

Well, okay, that and the Retroactive Condemnation of folks we also sometimes have around here ("Jarmo was horrible and terrible in everything he did all along" and the like).

Everyone is trying to get their scapegoat to take the pound of flesh but really its just we are the Charlie Brown. We didn't do anything completely wrong and we always make the attempt but NOTHING goes our way. Its easy to be an expert when your evaluating something with 20/20 hindsight.

 

[koteka]

Well, okay, that and the Retroactive Condemnation of folks we also sometimes have around here ("Jarmo was horrible and terrible in everything he did all along" and the like).

I think most people think there was good Jarmo (RyJo for Jones, skipping Puljujarvi) and bad Jarmo (not having a single defenseman who can play defense). I was a huge Jarmo fan until I wasn’t. I’d compare Jarmo to U2, which was a great band until they thought they were a great band and then started making crap music. Jarmo was good until he thought he was the smartest guy around, and then we ended up with a crap team because of his moves.

 

[NotWendell]

This article might explain why I own a ton of bourbon.

And why I no longer do.

I think most people think there was good Jarmo (RyJo for Jones, skipping Puljujarvi) and bad Jarmo (not having a single defenseman who can play defense). I was a huge Jarmo fan until I wasn’t. I’d compare Jarmo to U2, which was a great band until they thought they were a great band and then started making crap music. Jarmo was good until he thought he was the smartest guy around, and then we ended up with a crap team because of his moves.

Jarmo was great when he had Bill Zito as AGM. Then he wasn’t.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

And why I no longer do.

Now that is funny.

Why is the bourbon gone?

 

[Napoli]

Now this may be controversial but since we can't/shouldn't blame individuals per say, should/could we blame the one constant in all of this, Ownership?

At the end of the day, they're hiring and putting people in these roles.

 

[Indy18]

Now this may be controversial but since we can't/shouldn't blame individuals per say, should/could we blame the one constant in all of this, Ownership?

At the end of the day, they're hiring and putting people in these roles.

This is what I was talking about earlier...people are wanting a villain here to assign blame to get their pound of flesh. You know sometimes in life you can do everything right but not just luck out, not everything has to have an designated villain to blame all the problems on.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

And why I no longer do.

I guess I don't drink as fast. Or a buy too much.

 

[Crede777]

This is what I was talking about earlier...people are wanting a villain here to assign blame to get their pound of flesh. You know sometimes in life you can do everything right but not just luck out, not everything has to have an designated villain to blame all the problems on.

This is a league in which parity is key. The Jackets are near the bottom in terms of franchise value when they should be near the middle based upon potential market size and relative lack of competition for major league sports revenue in the city.

At some point, the team needs to stop playing nice and just accepting "bad luck" from the league. Think of pretty much any other owner or ownership group. Do you think they would quietly sit by and watch the franchise get passed over by talent, lottery luck, and national attention or would they become a pain in the league's side until something was "miraculously" done to even out that luck?

This is the major failing of Mike Priest to me. As the voice of ownership, he is too quiet and way too complacent when it comes to advocating that the team get its due.