The Jackets had a tough 65 minute practice (according to Twitter) yesterday after their 5-0 shellacking on Tuesday. Richards said he was planning on some lineup changes for Friday when the Bruins come to town. Oh, what’s that coach, you want my opinion? Play your best players. Skille and Calvert come in, sit down a bottom 6 guy. Just not Boll because we’re 23% of the way to watching Dan eat a ghost pepper. Maybe give Connauton a look if the D continues to look shaky.
On to the links:
The Columbus Dispatch dropped a bombshell report this morning with Jack Johnson apparently bankrupt. Arace’s commentary highlighted just how crazy it has been, as just seven months teammates made a human shield of sorts to protect Jack Johnson from being served a subpoena. It’s a tough situation all around with no winners. While not exactly wise to fire your agent and hand over your finances to your parents, most kids also don’t expect their family will take financial advantage of them to the point of being bankrupt. Jack’s play has been criticized almost all season, but that is a tough burden to bear. In case you missed it, he shut down all social media activity this summer which makes sense with this news coming out. It’s tough to imagine what he’s going through as Arace and Portzline both report he has cut ties with his family.
Injury Update – Cody Goloubef will either be fine in three weeks or done for the season. Combine this news with Tyutin on the shelf for at least a month and Ryan Murray’s weak knee, and the Leopold and Connauton moves make more sense now. Goloubef has a slight tear of his ACL, which the team is hoping can heal on its own. If not, he will have season-ending surgery.
Here’s a fun stat from the link above (Jarmo speaking): “Someone sent me an email today saying we have seven man games lost, on average, per game this year,” he explained. “One of my colleague’s upstairs told me that if you have 300-something (man games lost) you have no chance at making the playoffs. We’re on pace for 600 this year. I hope the pace gets down a little bit.”
Lots of notes on current and former CBJ players in this TSN post (prior to Tuesday’s game). Wisniewski had 5 points in the 6 games since coming back from injury (before Tuesday) and Blake Comeau has 4-5-9 for Pittsburgh in 15 games and is moving up to the top line with Kunitz and Crosby.
Want to buy some Blue Jackets tickets without those extra fees? Here you go.
Pour one out for Michael Chaput, who was assigned to Springfield yesterday. He was one of five skaters to play in all 18 games (it was five through 17 games – Chaput, Boll (#ghostpepperfordan), Johansen, Hartnell, and Savard). He had a couple of assists with a -7 rating to go along with 8 penalty minutes. But, when your wingers are mostly Tropp and Boll what more could he do? A bit of a surprise, in my opinion, as he was decent on the 4th line and some PK duty but his game had tailed off. Still, he has basically the same (or better) stats as Wennberg who is getting significantly more ice time and in all situations with better linemates. I don’t think this is the last we will see of Michael Chaput in Columbus but he’ll get a chance to improve his game with Springfield for now.