2013 tUB Awards: Mark Messier Leadership Award

By on May 23, 2013

The Mark Messier Leadership Award. As defined, the award goes to: “the player who exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team, on and off the ice, during the regular season.” there’s no question that the Blue Jackets had leadership appearing up and down the roster with the season they gave us. However when it came down to it, surprisingly there was hardly any variation in where we all cast our votes. Who did we pick? Read on.

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2013 tUB Awards: Frank J. Selke Trophy

By on May 22, 2013

The Selke goes out to the top defensive forward in the NHL. Usually this also carries with it the burden of being somewhat of an offensive player as well. Not so with the Blue Jackets nominees, as we nominated guys from the top of the lineup to the bottom (as it should be). Read on to see who this year’s Union Blue Selke winner is…

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2013 tUB Awards: Jack Adams Award

By on May 20, 2013

Like the Vezina, we didn’t really have a lot of options here. Todd Richards was the sole Blue Jackets head coach this season, and while Craig Hartsburg, Keith Acton, Dan Hinote, Ian Clark, and Dan Singleton make up the rest of the coaching staff, this post will primarily serve as a place for each tUB member to wax poetically about the job Richie did this season. Continue reading 2013 tUB Awards: Jack Adams Award

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2013 tUB Awards: Ted Lindsay Award

By on May 18, 2013

The Lindsay is given out by the NHLPA, and awarded to the most outstanding player as decided by the players. Since we couldn’t do the whole player votes part (what sets it apart from the Hart) we went in a slightly different direction. The tUB Lindsay is going out to the BEST player, irregardless of value to the team. So with that said, the shocking winner of the Lindsay is…..

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2013 tUB Awards: Executive of the Year

By on May 15, 2013

I tweaked the award a little here from GM of the Year to Executive of the Year. Essentially, this one came down to ranking the work of three men: current GM Jarmo Kekelainen, President of Hockey Operations John Davidson, and former GM Scott Howson. When I put this one out to the tUB team I was VERY interested to see how it panned out. And boy was I right. Some background on the process: each tUB member sends me their rankings with each nominee ranked from 1 to 3. The votes each get points: 3 points for a 1st place vote, 2 points for a 2nd, 1 point for a 3rd. Pretty straightforward. So for this award, we actually had a tie in points. An executive decision was made to use 1st place votes as the tiebreaker. So without further ado, your Columbus Blue Jackets Executive of the Year is…… Continue reading 2013 tUB Awards: Executive of the Year

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2013 tUB Awards: King Clancy Memorial Trophy

By on May 14, 2013

Here it is folks, the day you’ve all been waiting for. I bet every single one of you has been waiting on pins and needles to find out who wins the Clancy. It is awarded to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community. Generally, this one goes to players who do extremely awesome philanthropy. As we aren’t exactly privy to that information it took on a little different flavor. And your winner is….. Continue reading 2013 tUB Awards: King Clancy Memorial Trophy

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2013 tUB Awards: The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy

By on May 10, 2013

The tUB team was all over the place with the Masterton. We had eight players receiving a vote and only two players receiving multiple votes. This speaks to a few things, chief of which is no obvious Josh Harding-like candidate (the Wild netminder battling MS). But to me, it also shows that this is a team built around guys who are very dedicated to the game of hockey, with a number of players persevering through age, injury, doubt, or just losing. This is a resilient bunch, and there were a number of very worthy candidates who didn’t even get a vote (Jack Johnson, Adrian Aucoin, and Cam Atkinson come to mind). However, we did manage to choose a victor…. Continue reading 2013 tUB Awards: The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy

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AHL Eastern Conference Semifinal Preview

By on May 10, 2013

Greetings all! I’m here to offer a quick preview of the AHL Semifinals or as I’m calling it “The Mirasty Cup.” The matchup is the Blue Jackets’ current affiliate the Springfield Falcons versus the CBJ’s first ever AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch. Now of course there’s no one left from those days probably, except owner Howard Dolgan. The Syracuse Crunch could be classified as the defending Calder Cup champs. Why the clarification? The Crunch is currently the Tampa Bay Lightning’s affiliate. Last year, Tampa Bay’s affilitate was the Norfolk Admirals, and they won the Calder Cup and had a pro hockey record 28 game winning streak. After winning the Cup, Tampa transferred their affiliation to Syracuse. Now, only 10 players remain from last year’s champs – one being AHL MVP Tyler Johnson. The Crunch also had to deal with a coaching change as Head Coach Jon Stevens was promoted to the Lightning on March 25th after Guy Boucher was fired. Continue reading AHL Eastern Conference Semifinal Preview

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2013 tUB Awards: The Vezina Trophy

By on May 8, 2013

I swear we didn’t plan this. The order for the release of the tUB Award winners was set before we even started, before we had any idea of when the Vezina nominees would be announced. But here we are, as today this happened:

So now the Jackets have a Vezina nominee, and probably even a Vezina frontrunner. As any Blue Jacket fan is probably aware, the Vezina is handed out to the NHL’s top goaltender. I’m sure you are all sitting on pins and needles waiting to find out who the CBJ’s top goalie is. Well wait no more, as the tUB Vezina Trophy goes to……
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2013 tUB Awards: The James Norris Memorial Trophy

By on May 6, 2013

The James Norris Memorial Trophy, given to the best defenseman, is one of the awards that I was really looking forward to. I thought there was a clear winner and a clear top three, but I had assumed it wouldn’t be as clear once the rest of the tUB team weighed in. Fortunately (or unfortunately if you like in-fighting and drama), we had a consensus winner, with only three other players recieving votes. I think this really highlights the strength of the Jackets now, as they have three players who could play on most teams top pairs, a couple solid rookies, and stud prospect Ryan Murray on the way. Should be very exciting moving foward. Without further ado, the winner of the Norris is….. Continue reading 2013 tUB Awards: The James Norris Memorial Trophy

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