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Game 71: Columbus Blue Jackets Thoughts

Written by Dani Toth | 17 March 2012

Before the start of every season, my ticket holder buddies and I get together to split up our pack of Canucks tickets. Everyone has their favorite teams they want to watch so the first few rounds of picks go fast and then you get stuck with the tickets no one wants. Sometimes the games picked last end up being good games to watch (Carolina a few years ago after that long losing streak) but most times they live up to expectation, which generally means they are boring. Minnesota anyone?

One of my picks ended up being this CBJ game tonight. I was hoping that Jeff Carter had grown up and would be at least a player I was interested in watching. Obviously I was wrong because he figured out that if he played shittily enough all year (with a multi-goal game here and here), he would get traded. That makes my upcoming Kings game more awesome, but it makes this tonight's game not something you get excited for. It's gotten to the point where my ticket holder buddy for tonight's game keeps asking if we have to go.

And as if I could not think this team could be anymore of a mess, I read this article from the Columbus Dispatch on Friday about how Steve Mason was wearing undersized pads (relative to league limits) and just recently changed his equipment to go bigger and looser.

“There were times with the old stuff when I was getting hit in the ribs and was full of bruises,” Mason said. “You almost become scared of getting hit with the puck so you’re turning your body, and … that’s not the right way to play. With the new stuff you have confidence that pucks aren’t going to hurt you, and because it is larger, some pucks that might have squeaked through before are now hitting a piece of equipment.”

Why didn’t he make the switch sooner?

“I never knew I could,” Mason said. “If I knew, I would have done it three years ago. I guess I was a little out of the loop on that kind of stuff. But we’ll make it work now.”

He never knew he could? How does that happen? So yeah...that organization is a mess.

But a bring spot for them has been their PR department of late. Just last week when the Kings visited Columbus for the first time since the trade, the Blue Jackets offered to change the nameplate on anyone with a Carter jersey to J. Johnson. It works out well since Jack Johnson ended up picking the same number as Carter when he got traded to Columbus, but let's not detract from how awesome of a story this was. I would have loved this if I was a Blue Jackets fan.



Elliotte Friedman posted in his 30 Thoughts this week that the total number of fans that took advantage of the nameplate change promotion was 43. Are we surprised that it is only 43? Or more surprised that 43 fans bought a J Carter Blue Jackets jersey knowing his attitude coming into the season?

And lastly, a couple of weeks ago the CBJ twitter account had some hilarious answers to questions that were asked on twitter.



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