Columbus Blue Jackets 17-18 season

[Kgbeast 195]

Last season, I actually did enjoyed reading about teams I am not necessarily watch playing, good overall trolling and what not added to some entertainment, but this year, it has been pretty quiet, So I figured I write about Blue Jackets as not many here actually know who they are or care about them one way or another.

Obviously, some of you might go and say "I thought so" about the Artemi Panarin performance this far. After all 2 measly goals, bad timing penalty at Rangers a couple of days ago, going too fancy and too flat in his second shootout  attempt against Lightning. All and all, looks like a "blockbuster deal" gone bust. And I would have thought that way as well if I did not watch the actual games.

I tell you, this guy is pretty awesome and (imo) is the most skillful puck handler on the team and probably in the top 5 in the league. He got 10 assists so far on the paper, but I would give him an automatic assist for every game he plays. When he touches the puck, it is pretty common that a chaos breaks out and you can feel an intensity on the ice rising. It is quite a phenomenal to me that Jackets could not capitalize on more of his possessions that 12 times (probably 15-16 if you really count). His has been very difficult to stop from getting the puck at the boards, and his passes most of the time go exactly where he wanted them to go. Some chemistry problems are still there for sure, some lack of trust in him by the rest of the team is slowly goes away, but is still there. I have counted at least 4 or 5 excellent plays that he has put together that went flat for the lack of trust that he will pull them off. Easily a dozen of times he has pushed the puck through the low slot and there was nobody there (pretty typical of Jackets unfortunately) . Not only he leads the league in takeaways, he also has the one of the lowest giveaways which makes him a leader in turnover differential 21-to-5. I am not going to talk about some sneaky pocking and prodding, but he probably leads the league in the number of undetected dirty contacts, which is while a lot of fun for me to watch, it must be very upsetting to the fans of the team where he perpetrates against. Another thing that I see, is that he is much more involved in D with jackets than with Hawks. We might see him on PK towards the end of the season, because thieving bastards like that could be very helpful.

On the team overall, I love Seth Jones and Zack Werensky games, they are back where they left off, playing the rover parts - very exciting to watch. Josh Anderson is very outstanding and probably will be looking at his best season this year. Bob will be fine I think, he is slow to get going, but is doing pretty good giving the high risk defense that he has to rely on. Korpy is looking sharper this season than last. Jackets rookies are pretty exceptional, especially Dubois. Obviously Atkinson and Bjorkstrand are going to be in the spot light. Both are no longer far wings, they are now, getting down and dirty and loving it. I am pretty excited to see how they do in December.

[215BroadStBullies610 435]

I think what people who didn't see Panarin's numbers falling off as a realistic possible were ignoring that fact that hockey is a team sport. No one can deny the talent AP has. What can also say about him is that he benefited significantly by playing with Patty K. All he has to do know is figure out the NHL game with less talent surrounding him.

[Kgbeast 195]

Not sure about less talent. CBJ sits in #9 while Hawks are in #23. Kane also -2 rating, not bad, but he is on less production than what he used to with Panarin as a Hawk. This far it seem both of them benefited from each other and both of them have to adjust to "less talent surrounding" them. Panarin has scored lots of goals via his famous one-timer. Problem with one-timers, they need to be at least somewhat of a surprise. If goalie is already in the position and knows that one-timer is coming, it is a 50-50 at best. I think Jackets would have dome better, if instead of one-time that everyone in the arena expects, he'd faked it and passed the puck back to the right or put a writers far-side. Love that play when Kapitar did that a couple of games ago. Everyone was expecting one-timer, but sensing that, he faked it and wristed top-shelf instead. Goalie was frozen, d-were frozen... it was like picking up loose change. Panarin should try that nest game, get him an easy third of the season.    

[215BroadStBullies610 435]

CHI has the likes of Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith and Keith Seabrook playing first line/pair minutes for the Blackhawks. You're telling me Panarin didn't have more talent around him last year? The only position that has been upgraded, in my opinion, is in net. Even still, one could argue that. You can look at standings and +/-. At most, you only play with 4 other skaters. CBJ may be the "better" team right now (who only has THREE more points than the Hawks). CBJ can't put 4 better skaters on the ice than CHI.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Columbus isn't even close to Chicago in the talent department. Not even remotely. 

[Kgbeast 195]

I have heard all that about Blackhawks last year, but still have not seeing a way-way-way, not even remotely, better performance. As for the net change, last year that was a "not even remotely close" thing as well, so I guess it just will be that way for a while. I guess Jackets are in the dog house forever, regardless of what they do or do not. I am not saying that Blackhawks suck door knobs, I am just saying that stats do not show them being much better than CBJ as of yet (or better at all for that matter). I can not just say, well they are way better because they have Dunkan Keith and Brent Seabrook.... show me some wins, some points. Until then all this talent talk is just shooting breeze.     

[215BroadStBullies610 435]

Haha you're going to base your argument on the first month of the season and completely disregard recent history?

 

[Stewie 721]

I like how you can make the standings seem like theres a lot bigger of a gap then actuality. a team being 9th vs 23rd in the league currently doesn't really matter when its 16 games and that gap is 3 points. I guess I can draw the conclusion that the Red Wings are more talented than the Blackhawks too though, so lets run with that. 

[Kgbeast 195]

Read the post, I did not say Jackets are more talented, I just questioned statement about Jackets being less talented, and the statement that Jackets are not even remotely close to Hawks level of talent. That to me were two empty claims. As for recent history, I think 16 games now plus 2016-2017 season is enough history. Hawks came in first in the playoffs but also left first. While Jackets came in 4th and hang in there with 1 win against Cup winners. Not saying that either team did any good in playoffs, but I do not see a more talent in this let along a way way more talent. 

As I said before, show me some wins, some points. This far have not seeing much. That aside, this is not Hawks thread. If you want to write about how great Hawks are, start a thread for them.

[Kgbeast 195]

Jackets vs. Wings last night was a goalie battle ending in 9 rounds of shootouts. This was pretty nice to watch. I think Wings have deserved to win the game, but puck was just not going in the net. 

2 times wings had 2 on 0 against Bob in overtime and came up empty. This game will make a better part of Bobs highlight reel.  Both goalies performed stellar, but Jimmy was not able to stop Jack Johnson deke at the bottom of ninth, so Jackets were able to end their 3-game loosing streak.

[215BroadStBullies610 435]

On 11/11/2017 at 7:01 PM, Kgbeast said:

Read the post, I did not say Jackets are more talented, I just questioned statement about Jackets being less talented, and the statement that Jackets are not even remotely close to Hawks level of talent. That to me were two empty claims. As for recent history, I think 16 games now plus 2016-2017 season is enough history. Hawks came in first in the playoffs but also left first. While Jackets came in 4th and hang in there with 1 win against Cup winners. Not saying that either team did any good in playoffs, but I do not see a more talent in this let along a way way more talent. 

As I said before, show me some wins, some points. This far have not seeing much. That aside, this is not Hawks thread. If you want to write about how great Hawks are, start a thread for them.

The Hawks are relevant in this conversation due the fact that Panarin's cache was built in CHI. To compare last year's results in the playoffs and ignore regular season success and the prior seasons since both teams' cores have been in place doesn't make any sense. Read my comment again. AP, at most, can play with 4 skaters and 1 goalie for the majority of shifts on the ice. There is nothing that CBJ could offer that will stack up with what CHI has on their current roster. His numbers will take a dip based on the sheer fact that his has less talent around him. How you can't see that baffles me. Talent doesn't always translate to wins and favorable standing. You point out their current team standings and, at that time of  your comment, were separated by THREE points. The season ends in April. Let's hold off determining playoff seeding/qualification till March, eh?

[Kgbeast 195]

Cool...  

[Kgbeast 195]

These Blue Jackets struggle very hard to get anything going. They have started the season a bit slow, but in the last 4 games it is pretty much a halt Power-play, for all intensive purposes, is a fat zero although they do not really draw many penalties to build on. Their top players have scored probably about the same number of goals in a month combined as Kutcherov and Stamkos averaging per game. Thanks to the goaltender, they still manage to get a point or two out of many games that they should have lost by a land-slide. Looks like they put too much pressure on themselves which leads to missed shots and turnovers.

Quite a few teams seems to struggle this year, perhaps finding chemistry between players after a post season full of changes is very difficult

[Kgbeast 195]

Hopefully Atkinson signing a long term contract will start him playing.  

[Kgbeast 195]

Something new in CBJ gave is emerging. Over last three games, CBJ D appears to be as solid as it can be. They are killing opponents with their forechecking, sticks, and blocks. In the last two games, Bobrovsky has seeing quite a low numbers of pucks, going into 3rd period with low teens in shots on goal by opposing tram. Last night I was wondering if Sens will break 2 digits in SOG going to 3rd. Our think they got 12. 

Being a strong believer into importance of defensive strength, this is a welcome difference to me. Jackets were riding on Bob last season and up until now, but balance starting to shift into more balanced ways. That said, Bob is awesome and despite of being an average  goalie in the opinion of many here, he managed once again  to get to the top of the league in basically all categories, especially GAA and SP, which are the only two cats in my opinion relevant to goalie personal skill level.

[Kgbeast 195]

As a Blue Jackets fan, I am watching everything there is to watch, games and all the interviews. A few days ago, when Torts put his top line as Panarin-Debois-Anderson for the second game in the row, there were some interviews with players in the locker room, one of which was with Debois. It looked like he was a little bit on the unhappy side that reporters were bombing him with questions about if he is excited to be on the line with Panarin, How is it to play with such talented player as Panarin, and this and that with Panarin. And Debois has basically said, that yes Panarin is very talented player but "we" (him and Andersen) are putting together some solid minutes and contributing in a big way (which is basically is true hence they are the first line). To me it looks like media and possibly the CBJ organization is shoving Panarin down the teams and fans throats as a some kind of superstar and the big bright future of the club. I think this creates some discomfort and difficulties on ice. I am not sure how the players really feel about it, but there has to be something to this. Last night after win vs Hurricanes, Panarin was proclaimed as one of the 3 stars of the game (something they do after each home game to highlight the most impactful on the game players). I think he had 2 giveaways and a shootout goal. To my mind, hardly an impactful day for him. He did some pretty dekeing and showed of some puck handling skills a couple of times in the regulation and a couple of in the OT, but neither of those resulted in even an attempt on shot. No takeaways, no points; never the less, he ended up throwing a stick to the fans, not Anderson who actually scored and had some solid minutes, not Atkinson who had multiple attmepts at the net, good D and deciding goal in the shootout. Does crap like that is just an unfair blowing up of a player in my mind alone, or this actually can create some contention within the team. All this players make good money and should be fat and happy regardless, but they are athletes and are competitive and i would think, can appreciate some well deserved pad on the back, but not for doing less than they can and are expected to do.

[Kgbeast 195]

always play to the whistle....