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
Archive for the Columbus Blue Jackets Category
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
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
Finally! I can get back to work with the Falcons finishing off the Manchester Monarchs last night, even though I’m already a game behind in the OHL Finals.
Starting off in Springfield, the Falcons faced the Los Angeles Kings’ AHL affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs in a best of five series (only the first round is 5 games, each series become best of seven the rest of the playoffs). Starting off on Friday – after a scoreless first, midway through the second period, Blake Parlett would earn a penalty shot which was the Falcons first ever in the postseason. Blake must have watched Artem Anisimov because that’s the move he used to roof it backhand over Martin Jones. Midway through the third period though, the Monarchs would tie it. The game would go to overtime and midway through the period, after the Falcons kept the puck in for a good bit, David Savard would win a board battle getting the puck to Ryan Russell. Ryan would send a cross crease pass to Cody Bass who, with a Monarch all over him, scored the game winner. Curtis McElhinney made 29 saves in the 2-1 win.
Sunday brought game two. Early in the game, after Cody Goloubef took a slashing penalty, Ryan Russell bounced the puck off the boards sending Trent Vogelhuber off on a breakaway which, much like Parlett’s penalty shot goal, just bounced over Jone’s pads. The Monarchs would score twice to make it 2-1 with a goal in the first and second periods. After a scramble in front, Michael Chaput sent the puck to Jonathan Audy-Marchessault who got it to David Savard who sent a blast from the point past Jones for his first playoff goal. Late in the third, the Falcons would have a goal called back but, as usual with these, who know why? The game would again go to overtime and who else but Cody Bass would score the game winner off a point shot. Bass is the third player in AHL history with consecutive overtime goals in the playoffs. Curtis McElhinney would make 41 saves in the 3-2 victory.
Continue reading AHL Quarterfinal/OHL Western Conference Final Recap
The NHL Draft Lottery was held last night and the Jackets had the lowest chance of picking first having only a 0.5% chance to win the lottery. Based on their finish, and the rules of the lottery itself, the Jackets could only pick 1st or 14th having only a 1 in 200 chance to pick 1st. With those odds, to the shock of no one, the CBJ stayed at 14 giving the team its second lowest pick ever.
Heres the lottery order
- Colorado
- Florida
- Tampa Bay
- Nashville
- Carolina
- Calgary
- Edmonton(justice)
- Buffalo
- New Jersey
- Dallas
- Philadelphia
- Phoenix
- Winnipeg
- COLUMBUS
Now, I’ll admit, looking at a list of picks at 14 (since 1980) its not exactly murderer’s row: Brad May (90) and Sergei Gonchar (92) are probably the most well known but some of the better defensemen in the league have been picked 14th lately including ex-division rivals (how great is it to read that) Brent Seabrook (03) and Kevin Shattenkirk (07) along with Florida’s Dmitry Kulikov (09) and Islanders forward Michael Grabner (06). Continue reading Jackets to select 14th in NHL Draft
Ask yourself honestly – if someone had told you in January of 2013 that the Blue Jackets would be in contention for a playoff spot, would you have believed them? What this roster of players has done this year is nothing short of amazing. A group of guys that pretty much every major media outlet slotted into 30th in the league refused to listen to the naysayers. They fought their way through a compressed schedule, crisscrossing the country to play 48 games of hockey on little rest. Somehow, these guys, these Blue Jackets, now find themselves battling the Detroit Red Wings and Minnesota Wild for 8th in the Western Conference and last night, in the latest in a string of “must win” games, the team stepped up and delivered once again – bringing home the 3-1 win.
So pick your adjective – stunning, shocking, wonderful, amazing, timely, deserved, due – whatever you choose, the Blue Jackets are it. This isn’t the team we’ve seen in years past – where sometimes we as fans felt like we wanted success more than they did – this is the team that demands respect and demands success. So what is a fan base to do? Well, we wanted to find a way to send a love letter to this team – to let them know what it means to see them build this kind of season of hockey. We’ve stood behind this team for a long time, this kind of run is what we’ve hoped for. So what better way to do that then to help the community in which this team resides while celebrating all that the boys in Union Blue have done. Thus, the second Money on the Board was born, and it caught like wildfire.
As of this morning, the final tallies are in:
Continue reading Money on the Board Recap – Columbus @ Dallas 4/25
Yesterday, we shared with you “Money on the Board” to help rally behind our team as they play the Dallas Stars, and to also do some good for others. Suffice it to say, the response has been staggering – in the best of ways.
CBJ fans have come out in droves. As of this writing, 82 people have pledged a total of $1736 for a Blue Jackets Regulation win. $809 additional dollars for incentives have been pledged – and that number will only increase. Charities will receive an additional $140 if we see a shut*ut, and every single save by Bobrovsky brings in $6.65! He’s averaging 27 saves a game so that looks like another $179.55 in donations. So far, charities that will be receiving funds include the Blue Jackets Foundation, the Ronald McDonald House, the Mid-Ohio Food Bank, the Red Cross and One Fund Boston.
We’ve also had some creative submissions including:
- $20 if Dallas has a goal waived off for a B.S. distinct kicking motion (Joe Wilkins)
- $.25 for every use of profanity (Brett Ireland)
- $50 if Fox Sports Ohio airs the post game Foligno-Bobrovsky hug (Dave Cottone)
Had the team found out yet? Well we got our answer today courtesy of the tremendous Lori Schmidt from our CBJ flagship station, 97.1 The Fan (twitter). Coach Todd Richards and Marian Gaborik visited with her today and shared their thoughts after hearing the latest about our #CBJMotB efforts – take a listen!
Last week, long time Blue Jackets fan, Chad Garvin, came to us with an idea to revisit “Money on the Board” to support our team as they march towards the playoffs and also to find a way to support the great charitable efforts of our own Blue Jackets Foundation as well as any other charity you may care to honor – particularly in light of recent events. We welcome everyone to join us for #CBJMOTB to show support for our team and give back! Here’s more about it from Chad himself:
“Money on the Board” is a hockey tradition in which a player or coach will pledge money on a locker- room whiteboard as extra incentive to score a game-winning goal or win a key game. In the past, Columbus fans have used “money on the board” campaigns to try to change momentum and pull the Blue Jackets out of a losing slump. This time, let’s do it to help push them into the playoffs. Let’s put money on the board to help the Blue Jackets beat the Dallas Stars on April 25.
History:
The last CBJ money on the board campaign occurred on January 14, 2011, leading up to a home game against the Detroit Red Wings. The Jackets had a five-game losing streak and were sitting 13 th in the Western Conference. On Monday night, Tyler Schweinfurth tweeted, “For a #cbj game winning goal against Detroit, I have $20 for the charity of that player’s choice. Who’s in?” Apparently, lots of people were in. By Friday, fans had pledged more than $5,000 to charities as well as several acts of community service. After the Jackets beat the Red Wings in a shootout, the players made a matching donation to the Blue Jackets Foundation.
Continue reading Money on the Board – Thursday, April 25 vs Dallas Stars
“But Charlie, don’t forget what happened to the boy who suddenly got everything he ever wanted.”
“What happened?”
“He lived happily ever after.”
Is this real? Is this the team that every single national hockey pundit picked to be not only last in the Central, but last in the West and last in the League? Yep. This is them. A rag tag bundle of youngins, yeoman defensemen, and workman like offensive players, all with “potential” took to the ice in January as the latest Blue Jackets roster. What did we hope for? Burned by last season, all we could dare to dream was that we’d get entertaining hockey and that John Davidson just might be able to pull off this “never be outworked” thing. We grabbed on to that hard, didn’t we? After all it was all we had. No one really expected these guys to win a lot. We believed in our team, and we loved our team, but 2013 started off with a lot of quotes like these:
Another week in the world of Blue Jackets prospects with two prospects moving on to the Conference Final and another playing what probably was his final CHL game ever.
Starting off in Springfield as always, the Falcons went 2-1 last week with the team and some players picking up some hardware. Starting off on Sunday, the Falcons were off to Portland for a game against the Pirates. With the Falcons picking up a 4-2 victory along with some help from the Providence Bruins, Springfield was the first AHL team to clinch its division winning the F.G. (Teddy) Oke Trophy for the first time since 1997-98.
Jake Hansen opened the scoring with his second pro goal when he took an Alex Aleardi pass from behind the net and fired a slapshot past Mike Lee. Jonathan Audy-Marchessault scored his 20th goal of the season when he intercepted a clearing attempt and snapped a wrist shot by Lee. Blake Parlett scored his first as a Falcon to make it 3-1 when he fired in a Sean Collins rebound off the boards. Collins would make it 4-1 when he took a Matthew Ford feed for his 11th of the season. Curtis McElhinney made 19 saves for his 28th win of the season. Continue reading April 7-13 CBJ Prospect Week in Review