Cannon Blasts: Welcome to the offseason

If I told you back in October that the 2019-20 Columbus Blue Jackets would end their season at the latest date in franchise history, you would have been thrilled. If I said this was August 19, you’d be confused.

It was a wild ride inside the Toronto bubble, but it came to an end way too soon. The Jackets played ten games (four went to overtime) in just two and a half weeks.

The eight teams remaining in the bubbles now move on to the Second Round. With no First Round series going the distance, the next round began over the weekend. At this pace, the Stanley Cup could be awarded before October:

Any picks for the conference finalists? I’d like to see Vegas/Colorado and Philadelphia/Tampa Bay. Vegas/Vancouver and Boston/Tampa Bay are the series in this round which interest me the most. Should be a lot of great hockey over the next month. You can use this post as an open thread while watching these games. We’ll keep having open threads throughout the rest of the playoffs, on a weekly basis or so depending on interest.

As for those eliminated teams, it’s time to start planning for next season. The NHL draft will be in early October, and the start of free agency will be shortly after (at least a week after the end of the Cup Final).

As for The Cannon, we have a lot planned to pass the time until next season begins, including:

• Season reviews for each player on the roster
• Trade proposals
• Draft prospect profiles
• More trips down memory as we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Blue Jackets

We’ll have something to talk about every weekday, so check back often.

The week that was

The postseason run came to a premature end with a blown lead and OT loss in Game 5.

MrSwift and I debated the future of John Tortorella. It was fun seeing the range of reactions to this in the comments and on social media.

Elaine started tracking who has already been added to the Cleveland Monsters roster, and which players are free agents.

On The Cannon Cast, Will and Elaine broke down the first four games of the Tampa series, recording shortly after the end of Game 4.

There are still CBJ shirts available for purchase from Breaking T, including four featuring Zach Werenski.

Around the League

After following a Cup season with back-to-back first round exits, the Washington Capitals fired head coach Todd Reirden.

Bizarre situation in the Golden Knights camp: After losing his starting job to Robin Lehner, the Marc-Andre Fleury’s agent posted a picture of his client being stabbed in the back by a sword with the name of Vegas coach Pete DeBoer. Fleury met with the media yesterday to address the situation and separate himself from the tweet.

RIP Dale Hawerchuk, a Hockey Hall of Famer and prolific scorer for the Winnipeg Jets in the 1980s.

Play me out