Interesting Info: Part XX (Jackets-related "tidbits" here)

[The Jones Zone]

I want too as well, sucker

 

[Theo Von]

random tidbit:

the only teams the jackets haven't played so far this season are:

Boston
Minnesota
Nashville
San Jose
Tampa
Vancouver

 

[CBJWerenski8]

 

[Long Live Lyle]

Cheesy, but I smirked.

 

[Cowumbus]

In what world is Nick Foligno even close to being an all star? He is our teams player for the “last man in” vote. Foligno is a third liner at this point..

When you have Werenski and Dubois on the team too.. laughable

 

[ViD]

Considering how Jackets players are dropping like flies I’d skip that ASG completely if that was possible or send Wennberg only

 

[CBJWerenski8]

Korpi and Jones named to ASG

 

[EspenK]

Korpi an All Star. Wowsa. Says a lot about Metro goalies.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Korpi an All Star. Wowsa. Says a lot about Metro goalies.

I thought the same thing.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

nm

 

[thebus88]

Korpi an All Star. Wowsa. Says a lot about Metro goalies.

I thought the same thing.

Actually, it says more about the quality of goalie Korpisalo is, and even more about the lack of confidence the CBJ fans (and many others "around" hockey) had in him.

Starter Korpisalo >> All Star Korpisalo >> ??

Should have went with him last year with the team we had. A shame, really.

 

[KJ Dangler]

Korpi an All Star. Wowsa. Says a lot about Metro goalies.

The last 1.5 months pretty sure he’s been the second best goalie in the league .

 

[Xoggz22]

Korpi an All Star. Wowsa. Says a lot about Metro goalies.

Korpi has been quite good for a while now. Just look at his last 2 months. This is more about Korpi than the metro.

 

[Nanabijou]

Felt like this needed mentioning so I'll stick it here - it's the end of 2019 and Nyquist is the current points leader on the CBJ. I'm not sure the casual CBJ fan would have guessed that if they were given 3 choices.

Nyquist is one of those sneaky good players that just flies under the radar. You don't see a lot of posts about him, good or bad, on here or other social media compared to some of the other players. He's been a great pick-up and makes some key plays at critical stages of a game.

 

[Speedy Sanderson]

https://www.foxsports.com/ohio/stor...up-41-pacing-best-in-franchise-history-011020

Impressive. Hasn't come at the expense of in-game attendance either.

 

[NotWendell]

Felt like this needed mentioning so I'll stick it here - it's the end of 2019 and Nyquist is the current points leader on the CBJ. I'm not sure the casual CBJ fan would have guessed that if they were given 3 choices.

Nyquist is one of those sneaky good players that just flies under the radar. You don't see a lot of posts about him, good or bad, on here or other social media compared to some of the other players. He's been a great pick-up and makes some key plays at critical stages of a game.

He's really come on strong the past 12 games or so. This is another example of a player now being who many of us thought he was when we signed him.

 

[Viqsi]

We're evidently now in the phase where select advanced stats can be used by pessimists to say "see, the team isn't nearly as awesome as they look":

 

[cslebn]

We're evidently now in the phase where select advanced stats can be used by pessimists to say "see, the team isn't nearly as awesome as they look":

Is that WPG cratering in the background?

 

[ViD]

4 of those games from the trip, aren’t they ?I can’t really say we looked great in them apart from the last one, but managed to grind the points out

 

[Viqsi]

Is that WPG cratering in the background?

Sure is.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

18. Ian Clark was hired to be Columbus’s goaltending coach in June 2011. (Scott Howson was still GM then.) The Blue Jackets’ goalies in 2010-11 were Steve Mason (54 games); Mathieu Garon (36) and David LeNeveu (one). LeNeveu was one of six who played that year for AHL Springfield (along with Paul Dainton, Daren Machesney, Daniel Taylor, Gustaf Wesslau and Allen York). Those goalies played a total of 14 NHL games after that season (York 11, Taylor three).
The Blue Jackets knew they had to change the way they viewed and developed the position. In 2011, they drafted Anton Forsberg; in 2012, they traded for

Sergei Bobrovsky, then drafted Oscar Dansk and [URL='https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/players/joonas-korpisalo/680613']
Joonas Korpisalo the next day. Sometimes, a new regime will throw out the baby with the bathwater, but when Jarmo Kekalainen replaced Howson in 2013, he recognized the importance of this process. The Blue Jackets drafted
Elvis Merzlikins in 2014, signed Latvian[/URL]
Matiss Kivlenieks as a free agent from USHL Sioux City in 2017, and, one month later, selected six-foot-six Daniil Tarasov, who is still in Finland. (They’re pretty excited about him.)
Via text message, Kekalainen credited “teamwork” for their success in finding goalies like Korpisalo and Merzlikins, who have led the Blue Jackets’ surprising surge into the Eastern Conference playoff race. That’s true, because the scouting staff was given attributes to look for in netminders, and stuck to those criteria. Clark, who left for Vancouver in 2018, declined to comment, but I’d heard two of the key items were pure athletic ability and how they reacted when proper technique wasn’t enough to make a save. Did they find a way to make the save?

19. I asked current Columbus goaltending coach Manny Legace for a story about Merzlikins, on an 8-2 run after losing his first 10 decisions.
“In the winter, I’m at the rink. In the summer, I’m at the golf course,” Legace answered. “So we spent some time golfing to get to know each other.”
Who took whose money?
“Well, he hadn’t played before, so it wouldn’t have been fair. But after we got back to Columbus, I was at the rink one day. I got a text, and it was a photo from his girlfriend. It was raining outside, and she was sitting in their car while he was hitting balls at the range. He hated not being good at it.”

20. Merzlikins arrived in Columbus last spring to get to know the city/organization in general and Legace in particular. In November 2018, the Athletic’s Tom Reed did an excellent feature about the goaltender. His father disappeared when Elvis was very young, and it took a few years before his mother (who he credits with being a superb parent) revealed his father had died. In that, we have something in common. My mother died when I was 11, and I recognize how that changes you. You live to your fullest, knowing existence is fleeting.
“We heard things about him, that he had a tough childhood and trust issues,” Legace said. “But we didn’t pre-judge him. There’s an edge to him, no doubt. But we love that. The way he treated people, with respect. He studied video, was a total professional. He’s just an unreal human.”
His NHL debut was a 7–2 loss to Pittsburgh. How was he when he came off the ice? Legace starts laughing. “He said, ‘In my dreams, this is not what I expected.’”

21. He was sent to AHL Cleveland a couple of times, and the key was that the Blue Jackets made it clear these were not lengthy demotions. With Korpisalo rising to all-star levels, Merzlikins was stapled to the bench. They wanted him to play. While he didn’t get an NHL win until New Year’s Eve, Columbus saw progress.
“I saw him lose a few times, but you could tell he was good,” a scout said.
Were they ever worried about his confidence?
“Have you ever met Elvis?” Legace replied.
(No.)
“He developed faster than I thought. Credit to him. He only had one or two bad games. We just couldn’t score.”
Led by the now-injured Korpisalo, Merzlikins and Kivlenieks (who won his debut on Sunday), Columbus is right in the race in a year we’d given them as much of a chance as the Tennessee Titans.

22. One more good Legace quote. On Nov. 23, Columbus lost 4–3 to Winnipeg when Merzlikins gave away the winner to

Andrew Copp with 1:54 to go.
“I looked at him, and he said, ‘Ah, I (bleep) up.’”

31 Thoughts: What really happened with Connor McDavid's knee rehab - Sportsnet.ca

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

31 Thoughts: What really happened with Connor McDavid's knee rehab - Sportsnet.ca

There's good stuff in there. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

Do you think the Columbus Blue Jackets are good enough to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs? Or is this just a little streak that will wear out? -- @TJRinger1
Let's not call their 15-2-4 run since Dec. 9 a little streak. That's more than a quarter of the season, enough of a sample size to believe the Blue Jackets are good enough to make the playoffs. They understand their identity of being a simple, structured, defensive, disciplined team. They know when they stray from their identity how bad it can look, and they seem like a team that is honest in assessing its play. For example, they defeated the New Jersey Devils 5-0 on Saturday, but they didn't like how they played, feeling that they were noncompetitive at times in the game. They were good enough to score that night, but on most nights the Blue Jackets have to rely on their identity and excellent goaltending to win. They are 24th in goals per game (2.68), 23rd in power-play percentage (17.1 percent) and 27th in 5-on-5 shooting percentage (7.2 percent). Those ugly numbers would be the undoing of the Blue Jackets if they weren't second in goals against per game (2.50), ninth in penalty-killing percentage (82.3 percent), eighth in penalty minutes per game (7:27), third in times shorthanded (136) and first in 5-on-5 save percentage (.933). All the latter stats speak to their identity.

Mailbag: Blue Jackets' playoff chances; Kubalik's case for Calder Trophy

I still see way too many offensive deficiencies to make this a playoff team.

But they have an identity and they are playing to it expertly. Torts has done a magnificent job with this squad.

 

[Monk]

Mailbag: Blue Jackets' playoff chances; Kubalik's case for Calder Trophy

I still see way too many offensive deficiencies to make this a playoff team.

But they have an identity and they are playing to it expertly. Torts has done a magnificent job with this squad.

If Cam and Bjork play to their abilities, I have some hope for the offense. If Bem and Milano and others continue to improve and contribute, even more so. Fingers crossed Anderson remembers how to score while he's healing up, also.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

Mailbag: Blue Jackets' playoff chances; Kubalik's case for Calder Trophy

I still see way too many offensive deficiencies to make this a playoff team.

But they have an identity and they are playing to it expertly. Torts has done a magnificent job with this squad.

I still believe a lot of their offensive deficiencies are due to the injuries and the depth of the injuries. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a top 10 offense by any means, but I see no reason it couldn't/shouldn't be in the mid teens. We've got good goal scorers (Atkinson, Bjorkstrand), guys who drive the net (Anderson, Dubois, Jenner, Foligno), playmakers (Nyquist, Wennberg, Milano) and young players who can provide a spark everywhere (Bemstrom, Texier). And that's just talking about the forwards. The top end talent leaves more to be desired, but I think our offense is decent when healthy.