Blue Jackets, part deux
Drew at End of the Bench has his preview up and he starts with his thoughts on Scott Howson, who is Columbus’ new general manager.
I’m excited for the change at the top, if only to see how things will be different. A lot of candidate names were bandied about, and every time a name was withdrawn you could feel the knife turning in the guts of many CBJ fans. All that is behind us, and we must support our team and let them know that we expect a plan for competitiveness. Howson will not have the seven-year leash that MacLean had, let’s hope that things work out for him and the patient fans.
As I mentioned yesterday, there will be one very clear and simple way to measure Hitchcock’s and Howson’s tenure: the playoffs. If they make the playoffs - even if they squeak in as an 8th seed - it will be viewed as a success. Anything less will be seen as a disappointment.
It was definitely time to put an end to Doug MacLean’s tenure with the BJs. I am not very familiar with Howson but the little I’ve read sounds at least vaguely positive. That’s better than MacLean right now so hey - progress!
I also like the addition of Michael Peca. He’ll be a natural fit on a Ken Hitchcock team and will help improve their draws and penalty kill. Like I mentioned yesterday when I discussed Sarah’s preview, the Blue Jackets are almost certainly going to be a better defensive team and will surrender fewer goals than they did last season. But they are probably going to struggle to score enough goals to win enough games. Even the top line that features two very good players in Rick Nash and David Vyborny could struggle a bit if Nik Zherdev isn’t up to the task of playing center. If he is they’ll have one great line and most teams will focus their top defensive pairings on shutting that line down.
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