The View from 210

If you have ever watched any of Skrauts videos, you know what fine work he does.  I know I am ready for some Blue Jacket Hockey every time I see one.

The good news is he is working on another one, this time he needs our help.  Here is what he has to say:

As a way of saying thanks to everyone I met at CannonFest, and all the kind words I’ve received over the years for my videos, I’d like to create a video which incorporates the work of my fellow Blue Jackets fans. Instead of putting together something comprised solely of video, I’d like to include photos taken by Blue Jackets fans.

What I’m looking for:
The theme for the video is “A Call to Arms” and I would be interested in seeing the photos that Jackets fans have taken which could fit the theme. Have pictures of the players during the game? Send them in. Photos of fans taken around Nationwide Arena on game day? Great! “Artsy” pictures of your jersey or the CBJ logo? Cool. Ever been to a Civil War Reenactment? Send me your pictures of the guys in blue. Any other thing that says Columbus Blue Jackets to you.

What I’m not looking for:
Pictures taken by somebody else. Please don’t Google Image Search your favorite player and submit the first Getty or AP Image you find. The goal of this is to be something put together BY and FOR Blue Jackets Fans. I don’t care if it’s your favorite photo, or if you think it’s cool. If you didn’t take it with your own camera, please don’t submit it.

How to Submit Your Photo:
Please email your photo to the temporary email addresscbjCall2Arms@gmail.com. Also please include how you would like your name to appear in the credits.

I have a few visions for how this video may look when it is done, but a lot will depend on what kind of pictures I get. This is pretty exciting for me as I’m going in a bit blind. I’ll know what my options are when I see what has been submitted. I can’t promise every photo will be used, but if I can work it in, I will.

Thanks everybody for your help with this, I hope to have something together for the season opener.

I know I am going through all of my photos, and will get them to him this weekend.  The more we can send him, the better the video will be.

In the wake of last weeks Puck Daddy article on banning bloggers from logger rooms, some important questions have to be answered.  The main one is who, exactly, are the media?  Of course, your newspaper writers are the media, as well as those on television and the radio.  Lets toss in those who work for the major news organizations.  So far, all these people have one thing in common, they get paid to cover the team or sport.  They most likely went to school for that as well.

Another form of media, which is ever growing, is what you are reading right now, the blog.  We cover the team, and we report what we see.  We all see things differently, as we are all looking for different things while we watch.  Thats one reason that we all spend so much time reading all the articles on the team that we can, to get all the different views, to learn more.

What do the bloggers have in common?  First thing is we root for the team.  As out Dispatch reports have let us know, they are impartial, they dont root for the team.  It is just easier to cover the team when its winning. (Just to throw this out there, I dont buy that line one bit.  I believe that they root for the team, they have just learned to suppress it and look to be impartial.  But thats just my opinion, no facts to base it off of.)

Second, we pay to get in the game.  We pay to eat, we pay to drink.  Nothing is provided for us.  We are there because we want to be there, not because its our job.  Several of us CBJ bloggers have season tickets and are there almost every game.  We have a vested interest in what happens on the ice.  We don’t like to see our hard earned dollars wasted when the team comes out and under-achieves.

Bloggers do not get paid to do this.  We do this for the love of the team.  I personally do this just to get some of the thoughts about the team out of my head.  I work from home now, so I don’t have a water cooler to stand next to and talk to co-workers about last night’s game.  My wife can only take so many of my rants before I get tuned out.

The blogger world also does not have to answer to anybody.  We don’t have an editor who cuts things out because the Buckeye coverage ran over and space was needed.  We don’t have to worry about upsetting the advertisers.  On the other side of that coin though, we don’t have to go back into the locker room the very next day after writing a very critical piece on someone’s poor play the night before.  We can write what we want.  I haven’t seen where that has been abused yet, but its a possibility.  But the bottom line is there no one to answer to.

So the question that teams face is where to draw the line on who can be credentials, and all the access that goes with it.  Do you go with just the ‘traditional’ media, TV, radio and wire services?  If so, which ones?  Does it have to be Hockey related at least, or sports in general?  Does the media have to reach a certain number of audience?  What about the freelance writers?

Now add in the blogosphere.  Which ones do you allow, if any?  What guidelines do you use if you are going to credential any of them?  Number of articles they publish?  How many readers they receive?  How critical they are or aren’t?  How long they have been writing their respective blog?

I have been thinking alot about this since Cannonfest when I talked with Todd Sharrock, the Blue Jackets Vice President of Public Relations.  These are all items that the Blue Jackets are wrestling with right now.  They would like to do something with/for the bloggers, but questions have to be answered first.  Thoughts of putting them in the press box for a game or two came up, but the thought is that most folks have better seats down below that they pay for.  How do you pick and choose which ones get in, lest we have 18,136 bloggers cropping up wanting free access to the game.

The fact that the Blue Jackets are thinking these things through in the front office is nice. It will be interesting to see what becomes of it.

High School Football starts tonight.  At least it is something thats going to keep my mind off of the fact that it has been 140 days since we’ve had a Blue Jackets Hockey game.  We have got to start making  the playoffs and running deep into them.  These long breaks are a killer.

Not much going on out there, so we are just going to go over a few of the items that have hit in the last few weeks.

TV Schedules are out – The Jackets are on Versus 3 times this year, which is more than last year. Go figure.  One of those games is in Sweden.  Why the other game from there is not on , I have no idea.  It’s not going to be on FSN either.  I guess we’ll have to find a feed online somewhere to watch.  Speaking of FSN, the Jackets have 75 of their 82 games televised on the local channel.  Of the 7 games that arent, 4 are road games, the two Sweden games, December 15th at Vancouver, and March 31 at Washington, the others are at home.  # of the 4 road games are on Versus, so only two games have no TV coverage here in Ohio.  It is still unknown how many of the FSN games will be in HD, which tells me that for some unknown reason, we aren’t getting them all in HD.  Is this not 2010?  If the Reds can get all 162 games in HD, why cant we?  Come on FSN, get with the times.

Conditioning – More and more players are arriving in town trying to work on their conditioning with the new Strength and Conditioning Coach Kevin Collins.  I’ve always thought that those 3rd period meltdowns were attributed to not having as much heart and desire as the other teams did, but maybe there is something to this conditioning as well.  We shall see as the year play out.

NHLPA – Does the news that Donald Fehr will most likely become the head of the Players Union strike fear in you?  It does me.  Especially on the heals of the Kovalchuk ruling.  I do not think Hockey has recovered from the last stoppage, and there is no way that the NHL as we know it could survive another episode like the last one.

In case you have missed it, Dark Blue Jacket has a great breakdown of the Forwards of the Blue Jackets.  Be sure to check out the series here —–>http://darkbluejacket.blogspot.com/

Until next time, Ignite the Night, oh…wait, thats Carry The Flag!

Cannonfest was today.  The best part of today was putting faces with other bloggers, and fans, of the Blue Jackets!  Yes, it was great to talk about our passion, CBJ hockey, but we pretty much do that all year long.  At least some of us do.  We are the die hard fans.  We are the ones who read this blog, or any of the other (and better) blogs than this one.  We are the one who join the Jacket Backers.  We are the ones who follow every single move the local club makes, and argues whether or not it is a good move.

More importantly, we are the ones who gather a few miles away from Nationwide Arena on a day where the mercury hit close to 90 degrees to talk hockey.  Hockey, a winter sport,  in the dead of summer,  a couple of stones throw from Ohio State football practice.  and a full room at Buffalo Wild Wings in Grandview Heights!

Simply put, today was awesome!  Thanks to Greg and Tom for putting this on, and promoting the hell out of it.  It sure was a blast.  Greg, I am sure we can top this for a viewing party now, just say the word and I am sure the masses will get the word!

Here are a few of the pictures I took today during the fun!

For any trade to work, both teems need to receive something of value to them.  Sometimes, that value can be as simple as getting rid of a cancer in the locker room, but more often than not, it is to address holes or weaknesses in your team.  To be able to get the asset that will help your team, you need to give something away to help the other team, and it should be of fairly equal value.

It’s real easy to sit in the stands, and hear that someone is on the trade block and wonder, or even demand, that the Blue Jackets get that player without thinking about what we are going to offer up in return.  You just cant go trading a forth line winger for an All-Star talent (unless you are a former General Manager here in town who has been banished to a radio show.)

In a discussion on Twitter the other day with @CBJGreenSeater, author of the blog The Green Seat View, we were talking about which Jacket we thought would be less likely to be traded.  That kind of spurred on this post.  Who are the Untouchables in a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets?  Which players, if they were not here, would cause more problems losing them then whatever was gained by the returning player?  I have a list of three.

Rick Nash – The face of the franchise, the goal scorer, the highlight reel, and the Captain (not that being a captain here in Columbus has ever led to a long and prosperous life or anything.)  Say what you will about him taking shifts off, or even nights off, what he does do on the ice is unbelievable.  Plus, he is the name that most of Columbus recognizes.  I’m not talking us who go to all the games, or who read these blogs, but Average Joe, who goes to one game every other year, or who watches the game on TV when nothing else is on.

Antoine Vermette – On a team where you have been starved for a top 6 center pretty much it’s whole ten year existence, you simply can not get rid of the best center you have on your team.  Career highs in goals, assists and points last year, along with his 4th place ranking in faceoffs in the NHL make him very hard to replace.

RJ Umberger – The versatility that RJ has, along with how hard he play every night gets him added to the untouchable list.  He can play center, he can play wing.  Top 6 or checking line, no problem.  Just put him on the ice and he preforms.  Plus, in his two years here, he has become one of the leaders on this team.  A strong case could be made for him being the Captain of the team, if it wasn’t already taken by Ricky Franchise.

There are many others on the team that I would hate to lose, but that is a different category.  Maybe this time next year we can make a case for them being on this list, based on their play this year.  There are several who were close two years ago, but havent taken that step forward (some even went backwards).  Mason, Voracek, and Brassard come to mind.  We shall see what the season brings.

REMINDER – Dont forget folks, today is Cannonfest at the Buffalo Wild Wings on 5th Ave.  It starts at 2 and has no ending date.  All of your favorite bloggers will be there, Skraut’s new video will be debuted there, The Jacket Backers will be there with giveaways, plus food specials as well.  Its our chance to get out and talk about our favorite thing – BLUE JACKETS HOCKEY!  Hope to see you all there.

It’s been a long time since we have all got together as Hockey Fans!  Consider this OUR training camp!  Hope to see everyone there!

Last night was the second of two nights where the Columbus Blue Jackets powers that be, Mike Priest, Scott Howson and Scott Arniel, put themselves in front of season ticket holders and answered questions.  The Mrs and I were there, along with our 4 year old who was quite confused as to why we were at Nationwide Arena and there was no hockey.

For a recap of the first night, please read Matt Wagner’s excellent article over at The Cannon.  I wont go over the same things that Matt covered, but will try to cover other topics that came up last night.

Game Ops – This topic, on how much it sucked, was brought up.  Mike Priest totally agreed, and there will be noticeable differences in what we see this year.  A lot of the old items have been retired.  They will be trying new things this year, and are looking for people to provide feedback after the games to let them know how they did.  New music will be in store as well.  He did mention that they are contractually obligated to play some of the pieces from their Corporate Sponsors, but they are looking into changing when those are played so that they dont deflate the crowd during those rowdy moments.  They will also start moving to change the way those contracts are written to get away from those types of ads.

Conditioning – I only bring this up again because it was mentioned so many times last night.  This will be a major item through out camp and the season.  I counted no less than 5 different times where Arniel said that the players have been told to report to camp in the best shape possible.  Not sure I would want to see what happens in they dont.

Optional Practices – The topic was brought up about the number of optional practices last year, especially after games where we got it handed to us.  We got told that part of that was because of the condensed schedule due to the Olympics, and part of it because of the brutal travel Columbus has to do because we are in the Western Conference.  The Front Office and Arniel have just finalized the travel schedule for the year, so they know what games on the road they are staying over, and which ones they are traveling afterwards.  The interesting thing here is Arniel has come from the Vancouver system, where travel is supposed to be the worst of any team out there.  They have done all sorts of sleep studies there about when it is best to travel, or stay and sleep, and those results were used in some of the decisions here.  The coaches are getting together soon to discuss practice schedules, and while we wouldn’t comment specifically on the number of optional practices, he did say you only learn by repetitions in practice.

Bad stretches of games – Howson was asked about when do you pull the trigger if we take another nosedive like we did last year, because we waited too long to make the decision that was finally made.  Howson doesn’t foresee another failure like that, but he did say that if it happens again, this time it will be players leaving, not the coach. That got a smile and a thumbs up from Arniel.

All Star Game – Continuing with the thought process from Matt’s column, with what looks to be an end in sight to the Arena Lease issue, and ground being broken on the new hotel downtown, Priest believes that the All Star Game will be coming here.  His hope was the year 2013.

Winter Classic – Again, Priest said that we would love to have it here.  The problem being the weather.  While Ice can be kept at 45 degrees, the rain that we can experience here in Columbus on New Years Day would make the game very difficult.  It’s been brought up to the league offices, but it most likely is a dead issue.

Springfield – A question was brought up about what we are going to do to make sure the same thing9sour relations) that happened with Syracuse does not happen with Springfield.  The standard line of working close together was brought up, but it was also mentioned that it is only a one year deal, with a mutual option to extend.  Howson also mentioned that ultimately, you want your farm team a 2-3 hour drive, so if there is a call up made because someone is sick, its a quick drive.  Personally, I believe they are setting up for Cleveland to be the minor league affiliate next year, but that is just my opinion.

Leo Welch - Leo Welsh will be back this year, and, from the sounds of it, the job is his as long as he wants it.  They are very pleased with his performance, and love the fact that the tradidtion of “LEO” has grown on it’s own.

Overall it was a nice get together.  There was criticism, but it was rather civil.  I think the answer to a lot of things could be summed up by just winning.  That would solve a lot of problems.

Personally, a deep run into the playoffs work for me.  The off season is way too long without hockey games to go to.

Mike Priest

Scott Howson

Scott Arniel

In case you missed it, the Blue Jackets picked up LW Ethan Moreau off the waiver wire today.  Moreau, 34, is the second former captain of a team that the Jackets have picked up in less than a year.  The first thoughts that run through my mind are ‘is Nash not getting the Captain’s job done?’ and ‘just how bas is the locker room that we have to keep bringing in locker room guys?’

I thin the one thing that bothers me is the -18 stat he had last year.  The Jackets were near the bottom of the league in both scoring goals and allowing goals.  You would like to think that any off season move would take a step in solving either of those issues, but it doesn’t look like it to me.

With very few moves to be expected between now and the beginning of the season, we pretty much have the same team that we went into last season with.  Expectations were high last year, coming off the first ever venture in post season play for the franchise.  The question remains, which team will show up this year, the over achieving team from two years ago, or last year’s disappointing team?

Personally, I think we will be closer to the playoff team.  This is a young team for the most part.  Youngsters want to go make things happen, not sit back and take your chance when a break goes your way.  I believe the new, up-tempo style will be a big benefit, and we are going to see goals scored at a rate that we haven’t seen here in Columbus.

I do believe there will be some rough times at the beginning of the season, as everyone adjusts to the new system.  With any kind of luck, we wont have dug ourselves to deep by the time everything clicks.

Now, if we can only address the Goals Against.

The view from 210

Welcome to my blog about the Columbus Blue Jackets.  Hopefully what I will have to say here on this blog will keep you entertained.

Lets start with some basics, like what does the title mean?  I am a season ticket holder that just so happens to sit in Section 210.  We bought the PSL at the conclusion of the season right before the lockout, so I have been sitting there since they have come back.

The section is one of three sections (209-211) that are the ‘cheapest seats in the house’.  I’ve sat many other places in the arena, and there really is not a bad seat in the house, but it’s what I can afford.  I personally go to about 75% of the games, usually with my wife, or one of the kids.  The games that I am not there are usually because of other family commitments.  I try to make sure that if we cant make it, there are CBJ fans in my seats. Very seldom do the seats not get filled though.

What can you expect to find on this blog?  My opinions.  You might agree with them, you might now.  Thats why they are opinions.  Everyone has one.  I don’t have insider information.  I read the papers, I read other blogs and websites.  I don’t believe everything I read.  If I did, Cam Fowler would be playing for Kevin Deneen here in a few years.  We all see how well the beat writers got that one, dont we?

I am not against the beat writers. They do an outstanding job covering our team.  It just seems to me, and I have been guilty of it myself, that we all tend to take what they write and treat it as gospel, when it usually winds up in the same pile of books as Mother Goose.

So basically, this blog is going to be where I get my thoughts about my favorite hockey team out in the open.  Feel free to join in on the discussion, just try to keep it civil.