Crappy @$%&$@%^ browser! It crapped out on me while posting my response to this. My typical, long-winded, thoroughly researched response...
Here's the short version:
The Jackets are 0-2-1 against the Canucks so far this season - that's 5 points we missed out on that should have been very achieveable. Coincidentally, we're also 5 points out of the 8th and last playoff spot, currently occupied by - you guessed it -the Vancouver Canucks. So we do indeed hate those bastards...
But our problems aren't Vancouver, they're Columbus. Despite adding Roenick, York, Orszagh, Aucoin, O'Donnell, Berg and Johnson this year, we're only playing .500 hockey - good enough for an 82-points season. Management had projected - perhaps too abitiously - a 94-point season and a playoff berth. Going 3-for-3 against the Canucks might have put the Jackets in the playoffs today, but wouldn't have assured us of a 94-point season...
Why all the pressure? After all, the Jackets have improved every season since I took the team over, we're playing .500 hockey and are in the thick of the playoff race. That's good, isn't it?
Not with the team leveraged to the hilt to make this run - our finances are in dire shape, and we've made moves this season that presumed certain things being accomplished. Things like making the playoffs... Like hitting 94 points... Like having junior-aged prospects that might actually achieve straightforward objectives... Like having more than 14,000 people showing up to home games...
If things don't turn around soon, heads are going to roll - and no one may be safe. Not the players, not Head Coach Mike Babcock, not even GM Doug Emerson.
No pressure, kids.
