Since it's possible the "blame ownership" topic in here began with a post I made, I am just going to come back in long enough to say that most of what's being argued back and forth on the topic of ownership is not related to anything I posted but I'm not going to reiterate my comments because why bother? Have an nice day everyone.
If I understood your post, you seem to be saying the Jackets never took on the McConnell's "personality."
If I understand your point, I would disagree a little. Going back to John H. whom I prefer to call Mr. McConnell, his personality was of someone very focused on helping others and "paying forward," very much like bringing and NHL team to Columbus as an act of paying forward to the Columbus community. The Blue Jackets have done a lot of community work and charity work in Central Ohio, from building playgrounds, to hosting disadvantaged kids in large numbers at Jackets games and raising a lot of money in various ways for good causes.That's Mr. McConnell.
Additionally, Mr. McConnell had a history of hiring ex-athletes and coaches into Worthington Industries. He hired many ex-college athletes and mentored them into management roles throughout the organization. A good example was Ed Ferkany. Ed was a great guy, an ex-football player and a college football coach. Ed's coaching career took him from several high schools to Western Michigan, the US Naval Academy and finally to Ohio State. When Ed wanted to leave coaching, Mr. McConnell hired him to sell for Worthington Industries. McConnell mentored him throughout his time with the company and Ed ended up as president of Worthington Steel. The Jackets have hired many ex-athletes to work in the Jackets' organization. It's not unusual in the NHL, but it IS Mr. McConnell's personality.
As an aside, some people might remember the story about Woody Hayes on a recruiting trip in Michigan when supposedly his car was dangerously low on gas as Woody was heading back to Ohio. The story goes on to claim Woody said he would push the car over the border if he ran out of gas before he would buy anything in that State up north. Ed told several of us sitting around after a round of golf that the true story was that Woody had hired him because of his experience in Michigan, and they had gone together to see several kids to recruit them. Ed said yes, they were heading back home when going down the road in southeast Michigan and the car WAS dangerously low on gas. According to Ed, Ed told Woody they needed to buy gas and Woody told him he was not going to buy gas in Michigan. Ed then said, "Woody told me, if we run out of gas YOU are going to push this f***ing car across the border!"
