A closer look at the Blue Jackets

Anyone who knows me, knows my cheering allegiance in the NHLs lies with a team that does not call the American Midwest home.

But I have been excited about the future for the Columbus Blue Jackets since the season ended for them in Pittsburgh a year ago.

The team made just the second playoff appearance in team history and made a successful debut in its first season as an East Conference team. Included in that playoff run was the team’s first ever playoff win and first playoff win on the road. In the end, they gave the heavily favored Penguins team all it could handle before finally going to the playoff sidelines.

Then, early in the off season the team pulled off what I expect will be the steal of the summer, landing Scott Hartnell who slides in on top of the left wing depth chart, for RJ Umberger. Not only will Hartnell be an offensive leader for this team he should have a solid presence in the locker room on a young team.

The team is still well under the cap and could be in a favorable position to land another player as there are four teams (Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston and Tampa Bay who need to shed some salary as they are over the cap. Generally though, the Jackets’ budget sees it closer to the Salary Cap floor than the ceiling.

Heading into camp the biggest stories surrounding the Jackets center around re-signing Ryan Johansen who enjoyed a breakout season with the Jackets this past year with 30 goals and 33 assists and another six points in the post season.

Team president has been so frustrated in his attempts to come to terms with the Restricted Free Agent he has recently begun airing his issues with the media. He played in all 82 games this past season and it’s clearly in the team’s best interest to have him continue that string on opening night.

The Jackets took part in the eight-team Rookie Tournament at Traverse City last week, beginning with a 6-4 win over the Minnesota Wild (Alexander Wennberg, Kerby Rychel, Marco Dano 2.), then earned a 5-3 win against the Red Wings (Josh Anderson, Markus Soberg 2,  Dano and Peter Quennville) , then wrapped up a perfect 3-0 record in its pool with a 7-2 win against the Blues (Oliver Bjorkstand 2, Quennville, Anderson, Dillon Heatherington, Rychel and Nick Moutrey).

That set up a tournament championship game against the Dallas Stars  won by the Jackets 3-2 in overtime after Josh Anderson tipped a shot by Austin Madaiskey into the Dallas net. The other Jackets goals came from Rychel and Bjorkstand.).

To this writer, the success at Traverse City shows that after years of kind of stumbling at the Draft, despite some high picks, the Jackets are starting to show strength in its system. I am telling you, the future is bright for this team.

The Jackets invited 55 players to its training camp which at Nationwide Arena, split into two pre-season teams. The camp began with Physical testing as all teams seem to do now, on Thursday, then practices on Friday and competition comes quick as the team will head in two directions Sunday — one team heading to Carolina to play the Hurricanes with the other group competing on home ice against St. Louis.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see the team make its first cut after these two games, with the Springfield Falcons beginning its AHL camp a short time after.

The other Columbus affiliate is the Kalamazoo K-Wings of the ECHL.