Good morning!
We’re now Jeff Carter days away from the start of the Jackets’ regular season. Getting excited?
This is going to be a bit rough and tumble – I overslept and you’ve got to get to work. Just get some coffee on the way, OK?
First, let’s just step back to last night’s 4-2 win over the Wild in the final home preseason game – starting with a recap from enemy territory. We’ve also got our recap, puck-rakers, some good game day coverage from DBJ, Columbus Wired, and Bluejackets.com
The Columbus Wired guys also brought in some post game reactions from a few of the players, and we had the post game press conference for you.
Out in LA, their long national nightmare is over – Drew Doughty is once again an LA King – and making a princely sum. Given that Doughty claimed to not want any deal longer than 5 years, and Dean Lombardi had said he would not give out a contract that paid him more than Anze Kopitar, the 7 year, $56 million deal feels like both blinked and agreed the other had won.
Over at TMM, Jeff talks about the Jackets youth taking over.
Bad news for Brendan Smith – not only did he have to go to New York for an in-person hearing, but Shanahan has yet to officially announce his ruling. There’s potential for this to be an even bigger suspension than the Wisniewski hit.
Aaron Portzline talks about Maksim Mayorov trying to take the next step. Given that he’s second behind countryman (and landlord) Fedor Tyutin in pre-season scoring for the team? He’s making a good argument.
Icethetics is not thrilled with the new helmet numbers. The Jackets have stated their new helmets will not be unveiled until the season opener.
Puck Daddy has started featuring anonymous columns by a current NHL player. The first subject? weight, the body, and how it’s dealt with in camp.
PHT took a look at the Jackets’ schedule, and thinks they can finish strong.
This is cool: A quest to play hockey in every Canadian province, and every US state. Notice he swung through Columbus on the day of the interview? I wonder if he did a drop-in at the ice haus.
Before last night’s game, Porty wrote about the team needing to move past the Wisniewski suspension. Seems like they did a good job of that. The real test, though, will be October 8th.
PHT takes an interesting look at when Trash Talk goes too far, and where the line is.
Puck Daddy has some fantasy draft advice – including an ice burn on Kyle Turris.
Some of the Jackets on IR / the non-playing group from last night did a photo shoot outside of Nationwide after the game. Steph Greegor grabbed a quick snap from her cell phone.
The New Jersey Devils‘ bus broke down on their way back from Philly. Insert joke here.
Finally, Puck Daddy talks about players who are shifting to different positions this season – I get why they talked about Carter moving between the wing and the middle in Philly, but they missed a trick by not discussing Derick Brassard’s shift to the wing.
Happy Friday! Jackets will be taking on Carolina tonight in their final preseason game – we’ll have more coverage later today and any developing news as it occurs!