OFFICIAL Columbus Blue Jackets Thread

[OSUScoonie12]

I've heard Gallant only has a few more games to turn it all around or he is out of here.

[jimotis4heisman]

Originally Posted by OSUScoonie12

I've heard Gallant only has a few more games to turn it all around or he is out of here.

ottawa sun, has rumors ken hitchcock is in the fold. this isnt the first time gallants been on the hotseat.

looking at the upcoming sched
la kings friday
sat in nj
wed avs
friday 3rd flames
sat 4th wings
thurs 9th at blues
friday 10th oilers

one would guess if it didnt happen early this week it wouldnt happen till the wings. i just dont see a one/two day adjustment period for a new coach. that being said im not a big gallant fan.

but somehow a message needs to be sent, how that message will be sent is yet to be seen. will it be coach to player, management to coach, or management to player...

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

Nash told he?s trying too hard
Fedorov says winger must relax in order to shake his slump
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Rob Oller
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
</IMG> Rick Nash, working for position against the Canucks, does not have a point in his last four games.


Sergei Fedorov missed twice around the net, hitting a skate and a post once each during practice yesterday, but the center didn?t miss a chance to fire some wisdom Rick Nash?s way.
Fedorov believes Nash has been pressing the past four games ? all Blue Jackets losses ? trying to do it all, which has led to the 22-year-old doing little.
"I said, ?Rick, when you try too hard, sometimes it doesn?t go in, either,? " Fedorov said. "I think he is looking for his game and when the team is not very successful, that is what you get. It?s a tough thing, but everybody goes through it at some point of the season."
This appears to be Nash?s time. After collecting six points through the first three games, the Jackets? top goal scorer the past two seasons is without a point in the past four, only the fourth time in the past three seasons that has happened. His longest drought is five games, which he will try not to match when Columbus plays host to Los Angeles on Friday.
The dry spell raises the question of whether the face of the Blue Jackets needs a shot of Botox to smooth things out?
"I?m not worried about it at all," Nash said. "Points come in bunches. You score a whole bunch and no one is on your case. As soon as you don?t, then everyone is on you. I?ve got to start working harder and playing better, I know that. We?re lucky enough that it?s not a seven-game season."
But hard work could be part of Nash?s problem, not part of his solution, said Fedorov, who explained that a fine line exists between relaxed focus, when the game tends to develop around you, and concentrating so hard on winning that you try to do too many things.
When the latter happens, execution often breaks down as players become individuals instead of teammates. Blue Jackets coach Gerard Gallant said as much after a 3-0 loss Monday to San Jose, calling out the most talented players to step it up.
He didn?t mention Nash or Nikolai Zherdev. He didn?t have to. It has become obvious that the Jackets? top two scoring threats are flat lining.
"Obviously, our star players have got to be better," Nash said. "Everyone needs to be better, but our big-time players have got to step up and lead by example on the ice. We?re not doing that now, and it?s got to change."
Among other issues, Nash and Zherdev are choosing the flashy play over the solid pass, which has led to too many takeaways. Gallant does not want to squelch those players? creativity, but he does want them to work on protecting the puck.
"The important thing is to protect the puck when you?ve got it," Gallant said. "I don?t want to tell Rick Nash to dump the puck in when he?s got a chance to score a goal. He?s a goal scorer."
But trying to score goals isn?t enough, especially when the puck isn?t going in.
"Rick would be the first to tell you that we?re a good team when we?re forechecking and it?s not lugging the puck over the line making fancy plays," Gallant said. "We?ve got skill players, but our skill works down low. That?s where our skill takes over."
The big question becomes whether Nash trusts that strategy. And what happens if he doesn?t?
Jackets right winger Anson Carter believes that no one, including Nash or himself, should be let off the hook if wins are not happening.
"It?s about holding guys accountable," Carter said. "I don?t care how many minutes you play, what you?ve done in the past, what your potential is. You should be held to the same standard as everyone else. I think we could be held accountable more, but that will always be my thought, whether guys are being held accountable or not."
Taking it a step further, there is a line of thought that says the best players should be held more accountable.
"I think that?s fair, and we?re not coming through at the moment," Fedorov said.
Nash finished with this thought: "Sometimes guys with talent are expecting their talent to work for them too much. I think everyone is a bit of a culprit the last couple of days."
roller@dispatch.com

[jimotis4heisman]

pic was sent to cuse
dan fritsche has been activated.

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

Jackets fans tired of same old song
Friday, October 27, 2006

BOB HUNTER
</IMG>


There are a lot of angry people out there. There are a lot of people who feel like suckers.
They succumbed again to the Blue Jackets? preseason sales job, believed every enticing adjective, eagerly devoured the tantalizing playoff talk. Now, a mere seven games into the season, they?re starting to feel like a shopper who discovers that that amazing, fat-burning, TV-weight loss machine removed only the bulge in his wallet.
The Blue Jackets have lost four straight. Three weeks into the season, they are 2-4-1-0 and judging from the buzz, there are a fair number of people who would like to see a giant broom sweep every Blue Jackets decision-maker into the dust bin of history.
They want this to happen now. Yesterday even. Before the Jackets have a chance to beat the Los Angeles Kings tonight and declare that everything is now all right.
Unfair? Well, yeah. Understandable? Definitely.
"Seven games out of 82 ? there?s a mentality here that it?s a 16-game season," Blue Jackets president Doug MacLean said. "It?s the strangest thing I?ve ever experienced. Fans have a right to be ? what?s the right word? ? uptight, disappointed ? but it?s not a 16-game season."
MacLean is right about his math but wrong about his perception. Fans aren?t upset about seven games; they?re upset about 417. They?re upset because they?ve been repeatedly promised better, and the franchise hasn?t delivered. They?re upset because they have seen the other member of the 2000 expansion class, Minnesota, make the playoffs way before Columbus, and they can see the Wild sitting there atop the Northwest Division standings at 8-1.
There is no question that seven games isn?t a fair slice of the season to make a judgment about this team, but what is? Twenty? Thirty? MacLean wouldn?t say yesterday and it should be obvious why: If the team is still struggling at that point, it becomes significantly harder to preach patience to angry fans.
"I think if you went back, San Jose may have won one of their first 10 last year," he said. "Vancouver was in first place in February and missed the playoffs. ? It?s all over the map over an 82-game season. Nobody likes to be two games under .500, which is where we are. We don?t want to be there, but let?s move ahead and see where we are."
This is true, certainly. Even the best teams can suffer a bad five- or six-game stretch, so it?s not fair to conclude that a Columbus team clearly more talented than its predecessors is a lost cause. If the Blue Jackets don?t finish better than .500 ? at least eight games better than last year?s team ? it will still be a surprise.
But people around here don?t want to be patient, and you can?t blame them. They?ve been asked to be patient before, and the promised rewards never came.
When you pay $75 for a ticket and the Blue Jackets look as if they spent the day shoveling rock in a local quarry, it makes you want to put in a call to the Ohio attorney general?s office. When the fun and frolic you were told you were buying turns out to be disappointment and drudgery, you feel as if you were sold a bill of goods.
To his credit, coach Gerard Gallant wasn?t as evasive as MacLean is when asked about judgment day. He isn?t thinking two or three weeks down the road; he?s thinking about now.
"I don?t know what the point is," Gallant said. "This weekend is a big weekend. L.A. is a big game, and I don?t want to come out of this weekend being 2-6. You get behind the eight-ball in any division right now and it?s a tough way back."
In my mind, the voices of a thousand fans answered in unison:
Been there. Done that.

Bob Hunter is a sports colum nist for The Dispatch
.
bhunter@dispatch.com

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

BLUE JACKETS
Gallant advocates simpler approach
Friday, October 27, 2006
Rob Oller
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
</IMG>


Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which explains why the Blue Jackets are trying to determine whether they want to be a Picasso or a paint by numbers.
It is a quandary. Some players want to create, and others want the finished product to be something more recognizable ? like a win, perhaps.
On one hand, there are the playmakers, whose talent teases everyone into thinking that individual skills should be saluted and not submerged. On the other is the thought that the most successful teams are those that play five-onfive, not one-on-five.
As the Jackets look to end their four-game skid tonight against Los Angeles in Nationwide Arena, it appears simplicity is winning out, that the push is being made to orchestrate the offense into something more resembling dump-and-chase than the attempted artistry prevalent the past four games.
Some, including veteran center Sergei Fedorov, don?t sound overly thrilled by what coach Gerard Gallant has harped on during practices.
"Every time I have the puck I can dump it in, which is not what I?m used to," Fedorov said. "Basically, if our team plan is to use a short dump, I?ll do it every time. I have to. It?s not necessarily what I think, but the team plan. I will do it. It?s easy to do. If I see I can play a play, 100 percent make it, I will take it. But I have to make that play."
Fedorov gave a nod to Gallant by saying that "it?s probably the right plan," but he also noted that he?s "playing with two guys (Rick Nash and Nikolai Zherdev) who are very talented with the puck."
Gallant stressed that his intent is not to stifle creativity but to convince players that grinding out goals is OK, too.
"A lot of goals from the blue paint ... not the pretty play," he said. "When you watch games when your team is not playing, it?s the same old thing. Good teams go hard to the net and are working. Teams having trouble are the ones turning it over in the neutral zone and trying to get fancy."
So expect to see more forechecking and less flair tonight, which wouldn?t bother winger Anson Carter.
"There?s a little too much one-on-one hockey going on right now. In the NBA, you can get away with that, with one talented player. The NHL is one of the ultimate team sports," he said. "We need to play as a five-man unit, and right now we?re not doing that. We?re reverting back to that individual style, trying to make something out of nothing."
Blue Jackets president and general manager Doug MacLean sees the same thing but emphasized that the top talents have the right intentions.
"When Nash is trying to do it, or Nicky or David Vyborny are trying to do it, it?s not a negative. It?s not a lack of trying, but trying in the wrong direction," MacLean said.
One possible explanation for the lack of offensive cohesion could be that some players have yet to adjust to the increased talent level around them, said Carter, an offseason pickup from Vancouver.
"I want to stay away from the word ?selfish,? " he said. "I think what may be happening is that in previous years I don?t think the talent level was as deep as it is this year, so maybe the tendency to do things on your own was more accepted because there wasn?t as much talent around. Now, we have some pretty talented guys on this team ... and you don?t try to do the other guy?s job. He gets paid to do his own job.
"But it takes time to get that. It?s not going to happen overnight. That?s what we have to keep reminding ourselves."
roller@dispatch.com