Blue Jackets ready for the puck to drop
We get the anxiety among Blue Jackets fans as season No. 18 begins Oct. 4 against the Red Wings in Detroit. It’s a tough place to skate, but the Jackets’ bigger challenge looms in the front office at Nationwide Arena.
Top stars Artemi Panarin, the leading scorer, and Sergei Bobrovsky, an award-winning goaltender, will be on the ice but could end up leaving Columbus. Each is in the final season of his contract, with no extensions in sight.
The good news is that the management team responsible for three playoff appearances in the past five years is staying put. Coach John Tortorella consented for another two years recently, fueling hope for memorable seasons to come.
Tortorella, charged with molding highly paid athletes of various backgrounds and nationalities, “changed the culture from the moment he stepped into the building,” longtime Blue Jacket Cam Atkinson told reporter Adam Jardy. Tortorella, who coached the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup in 2004, knows the next step for the Blue Jackets is to win their firstever playoff series.
Upstairs, John Davidson, the president of hockey operations; Jarmo Kekalainen, general manager; and Bill Zito, associate general manager, all signed multiyear contract extensions earlier this month, ensuring that the season starts with its brain trust intact.
Stability is vital for any team preparing for 82 games in a grueling season where sometimes luck (injuries?) is as important as talent. If Bread (Panarin) and Bob (Bobrovsky) don’t re-sign with the club and possibly are traded midseason — so the team can get something of value in return — dependable coaching and management are priceless.
Credit for keeping a small-market, financially bound team on course goes to majority owner John P. McConnell and team president Mike Priest.
“We appreciate the vote of confidence,” Kekalainen said. “It’s an opportunity to stick to the plan and keep doing what we love to do.” If the team’s two biggest stars agree to hang around, even better.
Meanwhile, the city’s other major-league team, Columbus Crew SC, is anything but stable. The team is in the playoff hunt with a solid coach and credible players, but owner Anthony Precourt has a crush on Austin, Texas.
Major League Soccer gave Precourt an escapeto-Austin clause when he bought the team in 2013, which suggests he bought the team to move it.
The grass-roots movement #SaveTheCrew secured 11,000 seasonticket pledges and hundreds of business allies “to protect an emotional investment in the league’s first chartered club,” wrote Dispatch Sports Columnist Michael Arace.
Passionate volunteers even worked up a site plan and architectural renderings for a new stadium in the Arena District.
Meanwhile, the city and state have sued to block the Crew from moving, citing the state’s Art Modell Law, named for the reviled former owner of the Cleveland Browns. Talk about broken hearts. MLS reportedly has suggested “alternatives” for Columbus in case the team leaves, implying that an expansion team may be a possibility.
The motion from Precourt Sports Ventures and MLS to dismiss the suit is under consideration in court, so the goal here is clear: Stay massive and keep the pressure on an ungrateful owner and a compliant league.