Interesting Info: Part XVI (All Jackets-related "tidbits" in here)

[pete goegan]

Is something up with Lori Schmidt? I haven't seen a blog update since prior to the Michigan game.

 

[Viqsi]

Is something up with Lori Schmidt? I haven't seen a blog update since prior to the Michigan game.

Still very active on Twitter.

 

[pete goegan]

Still very active on Twitter.

Thanks, Viqsi, that's why I don't see her.

 

[Tulipunaruusu*]

Kekalainen's Via Dolorosa good sentence Certainly I like Urheilulehti style
Via Dolorosa..

Maybe this is proper thread to continue the whole Urheilulehti-Kekäläinen-Columbus discussion.

Another take around the question whether coaches are Kekäläinen's blind spot:

http://www.urheilulehti.fi/jaakiekko/nhl/jarmo-kekalaisen-nhl-joukkueen-romahdus-oli-nahtavilla-ovatko-valmentajat-kekalaisen-s

Synopsis:

"It raised attention when 29-year-old Jarmo Kekäläinen from Kuopio was named HIFK's director of sports (sporting GM).

HIFK had a horrible first season 1996-97 under Kekäläinen hired head coach Mike Eaves and the team horribly missed play-offs.

Kekäläinen got lucky when Pittsburgh Penguins despite this hired Eaves as their assistant coach. This turned out to be lucky for Kekäläinen as who knows what would have happened if Eaves and his unorganized hockey had stayed in the organization.

Kekäläinen had to turn to emergency options which later on would turn out be the best coaching choices of his career. Summanen-Westerlund; couldn't leave Kekäläinen in trouble and HIFK's 100th season ended up in championship.

You can't deny Kekäläinen's impact on St. Louis Blues through scouting.

Already then Kekäläinen was described as tireless worker and pedantic man who puts full focus on things at hand. Already in his scouting days he would thoroughly find out, besides skill elements, everything about the player's background and made precise analysis on whether the to be drafted player's nature in question had enough determination for a career in top sports.

When the carrot was taken ahead of his nose in St. Louis Blues by Doug Armstrong Kekäläinen moved to Jokerit tempted by Hjallis Harkimo. Before being named as the Columbus GM, under five-year Jokerit contract you could see Kekäläinen had one foot over the NHL side as he was a regular guest at NHL summer drafts.

Some could see that as calculative, other as sign of a determinated human building his career. Kekäläinen had already said when announced at Jokerit on which side of the ocean his aspirations were.

30th. The greatest challenge a GM can take. Taking over a ship sank by others.

Kekäläinen inherited Todd Richards. Extended his contract despite having quite thin results. Kekäläinen saw Richards as the right man to guard the values of work.
Those are just frail values as 29 other teams in the NHL also have same values.
As important as professional culture is, in the year 2015 it won't add great advantage.

When was the last time when warrior hockey won Stanley Cup?

At the same NHL has advanced into a time where the best puck control teams play for the final places.

It is for the coach to take this step forward. And for whom chooses the coach."

 

[Derby]

Big crowd at morning skate, biggest I've seen for this kind of thing. The post practice Q&A with Torts should be interesting.

 

[MAHJ71]

Big crowd at morning skate, biggest I've seen for this kind of thing. The post practice Q&A with Torts should be interesting.

Saw a few pics.. good to see STH taking advantage of the benefits.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

Friedman: "No GM has tried harder to make a deal this year than Jarmo Kekalainen." #CBJ

 

[MAHJ71]

Friedman: "No GM has tried harder to make a deal this year than Jarmo Kekalainen." #CBJ

Don't know whether to be happy that it hopefully means he's trying to get awesome value in return or scared he budges and we get crap in return.. LOL

 

[JacketsDavid]

Friedman: "No GM has tried harder to make a deal this year than Jarmo Kekalainen." #CBJ

He should have put more effort in during the offseason when other teams would listen.

But great to know we have a hard working GM who can put together the worst team in the NHL with virtually no cap space. Takes a special GM to do that.

 

[CBJx614]

He should have put more effort in during the offseason when other teams would listen.

But great to know we have a hard working GM who can put together the worst team in the NHL with virtually no cap space. Takes a special GM to do that.

How can you make a statement like that? You literally have NO idea how hard he did or didn't try to get a deal done this summer. And then a gifthorse (Saad) showed up on his doorstep.

 

[Nanabijou]

How can you make a statement like that? You literally have NO idea how hard he did or didn't try to get a deal done this summer. And then a gifthorse (Saad) showed up on his doorstep.

I don't think it was necessarily a gift horse. From what has leaked, it sounded like it started with Jarmo hitting the phones with interest in Paliotta and then the deal got bigger. If true, it shows the importance of working the phones as it lays the groundwork for potentially bigger trades.

 

[JacketsDavid]

How can you make a statement like that? You literally have NO idea how hard he did or didn't try to get a deal done this summer. And then a gifthorse (Saad) showed up on his doorstep.

1. I put in a smily face. But I'll defend it
2. He needed a dman in the off-season, regardless of what he did or didn't try to do - the result was he got NOTHING done then.
3. So then after an 0-8 start he starts tearing up the phones trying to acquire a d-man.

The gift horse SAAD is a typical CBJ move - trying to make a big move (another guy with impressive stats on the back of his card) and acquiring another piece that doesn't quite fit and doesn't solve any problems.

Honestly I could care less how hard he's trying to fix this mess he caused. That's his job - if he's great an his job and works an hour a week more power to him. Bottom line he has the resources and he's failing.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

Jackets on pace for 62.57 points. On pace to tie 2nd worst season ever (03-04).

Worst season was 01-02....57 points.

Way to go, boys!!!

 

[Xoggz22]

He should have put more effort in during the offseason when other teams would listen.

But great to know we have a hard working GM who can put together the worst team in the NHL with virtually no cap space. Takes a special GM to do that.

Of course... Makes sense. I mean why work when everyone else is off right?

 

[CBJx614]

1. I put in a smily face. But I'll defend it
2. He needed a dman in the off-season, regardless of what he did or didn't try to do - the result was he got NOTHING done then.
3. So then after an 0-8 start he starts tearing up the phones trying to acquire a d-man.

The gift horse SAAD is a typical CBJ move - trying to make a big move (another guy with impressive stats on the back of his card) and acquiring another piece that doesn't quite fit and doesn't solve any problems.

Honestly I could care less how hard he's trying to fix this mess he caused. That's his job - if he's great an his job and works an hour a week more power to him. Bottom line he has the resources and he's failing.

What does a smiley mean? A would've gotten you left alone but idk what a simple means after all of that?

If you have to grossly overpay in a trade or in FA for anyone who was reported available than I'm glad nothing got done. It was reported he sent a better package to Boston than CGY for Hamilton (don't know if that was confirmed). Sometimes the best option is to do nothing.

And while we did need a defenceman, Saad is filling the whole which Horton was supposed to fill. Somehow we went from 12 in GF to 25th. Nobody thought our defensemen would suddenly stop producing points or that Bobrovsky would do his best Bryzgalov impersonation.

 

[We Want Ten]

http://nhl.nbcsports.com/2015/12/28/torts-calls-jackets-embarrassing-and-weak-mentally-blasts-veteran-leaders/

 

[CBJx614]

I feel like Johnson is gone this year. We needed him to step up ever since he's gotten here. He's seen huge minutes but he's not what we need him to be.

Package JJ and RJ and see what we can get.

 

[Jaxs]

A little meat to chew on.

http://bluejacketsxtra.dispatch.com/content/blogs/puck-rakers/2015/12/its-time-to-get-real.html

 

[major major]

I feel like Johnson is gone this year. We needed him to step up ever since he's gotten here. He's seen huge minutes but he's not what we need him to be.

Package JJ and RJ and see what we can get.

That could get you a huge return from either St. Louis or Nashville. Maybe even Colorado.

 

[major major]

What does a smiley mean? A would've gotten you left alone but idk what a simple means after all of that?

If you have to grossly overpay in a trade or in FA for anyone who was reported available than I'm glad nothing got done. It was reported he sent a better package to Boston than CGY for Hamilton (don't know if that was confirmed). Sometimes the best option is to do nothing.

And while we did need a defenceman, Saad is filling the whole which Horton was supposed to fill. Somehow we went from 12 in GF to 25th. Nobody thought our defensemen would suddenly stop producing points or that Bobrovsky would do his best Bryzgalov impersonation.

I don't know where you're getting this from. There was no hole in the top six. We've had Hartnell penciled in on the third line much of the time. That's a luxury many other clubs don't have.

I'm not against the Saad trade in particular. But Jarmo's approach in general seems to be more about bargain hunting rather than paying up to get the players you actually need. You do that for too long and you end up with a house full of mismatch stuff.

 

[CBJx614]

I don't know where you're getting this from. There was no hole in the top six. We've had Hartnell penciled in on the third line much of the time. That's a luxury many other clubs don't have.

I'm not against the Saad trade in particular. But Jarmo's approach in general seems to be more about bargain hunting rather than paying up to get the players you actually need. You do that for too long and you end up with a house full of mismatch stuff.

Maybe he's not filling a hole, but I feel like had Horton continued on healthy we wouldn't have made the move for Saad as we definitely wouldn't have needed a winger. And the only reason the hole got filled that Horton left was because Jenner has filled in as a top 6 winger and Foligno had a career season.

Basically Saad is what Jarmo wanted from Horton. Before we had Saad or Hartnell we didn't have (and still dont) have unanimously league wide top line wingers. Saad is the only one you could argue into that category, same could have been argued for Horton.

 

[major major]

A little meat to chew on.

http://bluejacketsxtra.dispatch.com/content/blogs/puck-rakers/2015/12/its-time-to-get-real.html

Lovvely. I can't wait for more dirty laundry to come out.

Warning: Captaincy/Room speculation ahead (none of us have good info on any of this):

I'm on the fence now about the whole nice guy v. bad guy in the captaincy debate. Short term I definitely want more of a Dubinsky type to set the unsparing tone. Long term though, if you don't know how to shut that off, and Dubinsky doesn't, you end up demoralizing people and they tune you out pretty quick. I'm sure we've all been in workplace situations where that happens. Maybe Jenner would make the best captain? But is he confrontational when he needs to be?

Part of why I liked Foligno being chosen as captain is because I thought it wouldn't interfere with Dubinsky and other vets playing their roles. But I could be wrong about that.

 

[CBJSlash]

Lovvely. I can't wait for more dirty laundry to come out.

Warning: Captaincy/Room speculation ahead (none of us have good info on any of this):

I'm on the fence now about the whole nice guy v. bad guy in the captaincy debate. Short term I definitely want more of a Dubinsky type to set the unsparing tone. Long term though, if you don't know how to shut that off, and Dubinsky doesn't, you end up demoralizing people and they tune you out pretty quick. I'm sure we've all been in workplace situations where that happens. Maybe Jenner would make the best captain? But is he confrontational when he needs to be?

Part of why I liked Foligno being chosen as captain is because I thought it wouldn't interfere with Dubinsky and other vets playing their roles. But I could be wrong about that.

There a whole world of gray in between. Dubinsky is a smart guy.

Teammates calling out teammates gets each of them ramped up and probably other guys on the team. You can't call someone out and dog it. If it stays in the room and it's controlled, there's no downside to me.

I think this may be the nail on the head. Our guys are more like brothers than professionals. The 86 Mets / 2015 Royals are the exception, not the norm.

Every great supervisor wants those she/he's supervising to manage themselves and set a strong work ethic and culture. This is no different.

 

[major major]

Maybe he's not filling a hole, but I feel like had Horton continued on healthy we wouldn't have made the move for Saad as we definitely wouldn't have needed a winger. And the only reason the hole got filled that Horton left was because Jenner has filled in as a top 6 winger and Foligno had a career season.

Basically Saad is what Jarmo wanted from Horton. Before we had Saad or Hartnell we didn't have (and still dont) have unanimously league wide top line wingers. Saad is the only one you could argue into that category, same could have been argued for Horton.

I disagree on that last point. I'm not sure what you mean by "unanimously league wide top line wingers", but by any measure Horton and Saad aren't clearly ahead of Foligno and Hartnell. Take a couple years sample and look at points or points per game or points per 60, and Foligno and Hartnell do very very well.

Foligno was above 2 pts per 60 at even strength the year before he broke out. That put him in the top 20 or 30 LW's in the league, which is interesting because there are 30 top line LW's at any given point of time. Incidentally, it was also higher than Horton.

 

[major major]

There a whole world of gray in between. Dubinsky is a smart guy.

Teammates calling out teammates gets each of them ramped up and probably other guys on the team. You can't call someone out and dog it. If it stays in the room and it's controlled, there's no downside to me.

I think this may be the nail on the head. Our guys are more like brothers than professionals. The 86 Mets / 2015 Royals are the exception, not the norm.

Every great supervisor wants those she/he's supervising to manage themselves and set a strong work ethic and culture. This is no different.

I don't know if you've ever had a boss that yells at you. It's great for a month or so here and there. But longer than that and people just shut him out.