Jackets Sign Brookbank.

Yeah that's right the Blue Jackets DID sign someone yesterday he just wasn't one of the BIG names...actually he pretty much was nobody because everyone I told was like who? But, the Jackets are hoping that he will be someone in the NHL. Sheldon Brookbank signed a one year $500,000.00 contract. It is a two way deal but Mr. Howson isn't planning on him being in the minors.

"This signing was done with (the Columbus roster) in mind," general manager Scott Howson said. "I expect him to be part of our group of seven or eight defensemen, and how much he plays will be dictated by him."

"(Brookbank) is a character guy," Howson said. "He's competitive. He's not fun to play against, and that's what we're going to create here.

"We don't expect him to come in and put up the same points in the NHL he put up in the AHL. But he moves the puck very well."

Also, the Dispatch reported today that the Blue Jackets will announce today that they signed Ole-Kristian Tollefsen and Alexander Svitov to two year contracts.

"Svitov's contract will pay him $1 million in 2007-08 and $1.25 million in 2008-09. Tollefsen will make $600,000 in 2007-08 and $750,000 in 2008-09."

Also, Mirtle has a list of all the UFA's that are left...maybe the Jackets will do something today!!

Buh-Bye Smiley

Well, Scott Howson has decided Aaron Johnson is not in the mix for us Jackets. I am a little upset about it. We decided not to make him a qualifying offer. The Dispatch spoke to Howson about it saying, "It was a tough decision but (Johnson) was going to get a one-way contract in an arbitration hearing, and we just weren't comfortable with that decision. We like the player. That's not the issue, we weren't willing to sign a one-(way) contract at this time." (A one-(way) contract means he will get the same amount of money in the minors as he would in the NHL.) It's not that I am upset that Johnson is leaving, but you do get attached to these guys but when I think about what he did in the time he was here...he didn't do a lot. So, I am sure that Howson and Hitch chose the right thing. Svitov, Murray, Glencross, Tollefsen, Lindstrom, and Goertzen were all given qualifying offers. I'm not going to lie seeing Howson make a decision like this is really setting him apart from MacLean in a good way. And, I am confident that he made the correct decision. Now, I'm just wondering about Erikkson. Mr. Howson plans to offer long term contracts to Svitov, and Tollefsen which I think is great. Those 2 are great players especially Tollefsen who I even noticed developing over the course of the season.
I am pretty happy that we qualified Glencross too. I absolutely love that guy and it takes me back to the days when I was first falling in love with hockey. So I love seeing him down on the ice. Anyway, I'm proud of our organization and what they have done so far.

2002 Draft Picks

Round 1 ~ 1st Pick ~ Rick Nash

Round 2 ~ 41st Pick ~ Joakim Lindstrom
Round 3 ~ 65th Pick ~ Ole-Kristian Tollefsen
Round 3 ~ 96th Pick ~ Jeff Genovy
Round 4 ~ 98th Pick ~ Ivan Tkachenko
Round 4 ~ 119th Pick ~ Jekabs Redlihs
Round 5 ~ 133rd Pick ~ Lasse Pirjeta
Round 6 ~ 168th Pick ~ Tim Konsorada
Round 6 ~ 184th Pick ~ Jaroslav Balastik
Round 7 ~ 199th Pick ~ Greg Mauldin
Round 7 ~ 225th Pick ~ Steven Goertzen
Round 8 ~ 231st Pick ~ Jaroslav Kracik
Round 9 ~ 263rd Pick ~ Sergei Mozyakin
Everybody, even non Blue Jacket fans love Rick Nash. Why? Because, he is awesome. A bit injury prone, but he is getting to be the player everybody knew he could be. He was won the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy. He was the best fit for our club and has since become the face of the Blue Jackets.

Joakim Lindstrom has played in 12 games with the Blue Jackets. 9 in the 2006-2007 season. To be perfectly honest, I don't know why we drafted him. He really isn't that great and hasn't impressed me...like at all. He has a total of 1 goal in the NHL and 4 penalty minutes.

Ole-Kristian Tollefsen on the other hand, is great. He has really developed as a defenseman. He is gritty, a hard hitter, he has a ton of potential. I feel like he makes the right decisions on the ice and is a great guy to have around last season he was +2.


Jeff Genovy went to Clarkson University and played 4 years with them. Then during the 2006-2007 season he played for the CHL's Laredo Bucks. Ivan Tkachenko has spent his time since being drafted in Russia playing for the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv...he has done pretty well over there...and will probably stay over there. Jekabs Redlihs went to Boston University then started his professional career in 2005-2006...and in 2006-2007 he spent his time in between the AHL and ECHL but most of it was spent in the AHL. Lasse Pirjeta played 2 seasons with the Jackets and did ok, then he went on to play with the Pittsburgh Penguins and is currently playing over in Europe he seems to bounce from league to league so it's hard to say where he will play next year. Tim Konsorada has been bouncing around from the AHL to the ECHL. Jaroslav Balastik has bounced around from the AHL to the NHL to the SEL...in fact last season he played in all 3. After playing 6 games in the NHL Greg Mauldin has spent most of his time in the AHL until last season when he played in the UHL and then went on to play in Europe. Steven Goertzen has played 46 games in the NHL, and has 0 goals and 0 assists...and 54 penalty minutes...uhm...that's not so good. Jaroslav Kracik has spent his entire career over in the Czech League. Sergei Mozyakin has spent his entire career in Russia.

So that is the 2002 Draft. It was pretty much the best draft that I have covered so far. With guys like Ole and Rick it doesn't get much better than that does it?

RFA's and UFA's for the CBJ

Restricted Free Agents

• Alexander Svitov ~ $800,000.00 Center he is a great two-way center. He seems to be a little lazy and hangs out with Zherdev quite a bit. TSN says he "needs to cut down on the number of bad penalties he takes." I would say I would have to agree with that.
  
• Jaroslav Balastik ~ $525,000.00 Left/Right Wing he only played 8 games this year but from what I saw I was impressed. TSN has his potential as a third line winger. I would have to agree with that.
  
• Joakim Lindstrom ~ $700,000.00 Left/Right Winger needs to put on some weight before he will be successful in the league. Having met the kid...I won't lie he is pretty small but is pretty impressive to watch...he has lots of potential.
• Curtis Glencross ~ $665,000.00 Left Winger I have a thing for him. Watching him since his days as a Cincinnati Mighty Duck...he continues to progress and improve. He has a lot of potential and hopefully will be up with the Jackets soon.
• Steven Goertzen ~ $450,0000.00 Right Winger to be honest I haven't seen him as much as I would like to...or maybe I have and I just haven't noticed. Either way, I don't see him making it up to the big league for a permanent job anytime soon.
• Ole-Kristian Tollefsen ~ $526,000.00 D-man We'd be stupid to get rid of him. Aside from him being one of the nicest players ever...he is also pretty talented. He is a defensive defenseman and is a ton of fun to watch play. He doesn't take crap from anyone and is willing to stick up for his team.
• Aaron Johnson ~ $450,000.00 D-man great player but he still needs some work to play up in the big leagues. But, I like to think he has a lot of potential.

Unrestricted Free Agents

• Brian Boucher ~ $475,000.00 Goalie I seriously doubt we will be re-signing him. He was picked up off waivers from the Chicago Blackhawks and although he played decently for us, he's not what we need. Although, I won't lie, I like him a lot better than Leclaire.
• Derrick Walser ~ $450,000.00 D-man I don't think I can say anything about him...I have never seen him play. Anybody got anything on him?
• Anders Eriksson ~ $600,000 D-man I have already made my opinion on him pretty clear...we need to re-sign him...he leads our team in +/- and is a great defenseman. It would be a bad decision not to re-sign him...he is cheap...and we need the help on the blue line.
• Bryan Berard ~ $2,500,000.00 D-man See ya buddy! Has to many injuries, is blind out of an eye...and Hitch doesn't like him. Yeah, you're done.
  

WE WIN IN A SHOOTOUT!!!

So I decided since I just got my Center Ice thing that I would live blog the Columbus game…like I normally do but I wanted to watch it with the Dallas point of view. I am curious to see what is different. Also, if you are thinking about getting Center Ice but don’t know if you should or not…I have had it for a day and I LOVE it!!! You get every game out there. Me, living where I do, am really thankful for it. Is it bad that I’m already annoyed with the Stars coverage? Man I hope the Jackets crush them. What an obnoxious team with obnoxious colors. I wanna know which goalie is starting and I am anxious to see if they play Smith in the playoffs, because as we know Turco is a bit of a choke artist in the playoffs. Alright I changed my mind, I have on my Columbus guys. I just can’t stand to not hear the usual guys callin the game. Oh man, Foote just took a weird hit…and he is going to the dressing room. It’s Mike Modano’s fault!!! Grrr. I hate seeing Adam like that. Ole-Kristian Tollefsen is back…that helps a little bit. Oh man Glencross, Konopka, and Shelley are all in the line up tonight. That’s a scary line…a hard-hitting line also. Why is it that I love hard hitters? I don’t know why. Oh well. Columbus took the first penalty Nash took it…darn him. We were able to kill it off…thank goodness. Since Leclaire is out for the season (WHY CAN’T HE GO AWAY?!) Norrena who will be out number one goalie whom I love so dearly is in…and backing him up is Brian Boucher. So Adam Foote is having his foot x-rayed. I am sad. If Foote isn’t in for the game that I’m at next week I will be so sad. He is my mom’s favorite. Heck yeah, Manny Malhotra just scored the first goal of the game. When we score first we are 17-2-4 I think is what they said. So, that’s a good sign. Malhotra was tripped up and no penalty was called. I am really shocked at how quiet the Stars arena is. I watched the Kings vs Ducks game last night and it was loud in there. Where are the Stars fans at?! There may not be a lot of Jackets fans but we are at least vocal…or maybe I am bias. The Jackets outshot the Stars 10-7. And, the score is 1-0 Jackets. To be honest, I wasn’t going to watch this game because I’m going to the game on the 9th and I didn’t really want to see what it was going to look like…but I figure why not. May as well. Why is the NHL sponsoring this movie 300? It kinda scares me and I think it’s so weird.
GOAL: Malhotra (CBJ)
ASSISTS: Chimera, Brule
SCORE: Columbus – 1
Dallas - 0
Sergei Fedorov just scored. I wasn’t really paying much attention. I get so distracted with youtube. Tollefsen roughed up somebody after the whistle…I’m not really sure who. But man I love Tollefsen. The way he plays. He plays with a ton of heart and is very very entertaining. Columbus is going to take a penalty. Vyborny took it for hooking. Norrena is playing excellent tonight. But, with a 2-0 lead…they always say is the most dangerous lead in the league. Which I was right…with Dallas on the powerplay they scored. And, now right after that Mike Modano scored to make it 2-2. Man I hate that. Hopefully Hitch gets the boys together…he called a time out. Why is Modano not the captain of the Stars? That doesn’t make sense to me. He seems to be the leader. The Jackets tend to get all out of sorts when the team they are playing score like that. This is starting to becoming quite the game. It just keeps going back and fourth which I love especially when both teams are playing so hard. Dallas because they want to catch up to Anaheim and Columbus because we have our young guys up…they are trying to prove themselves and not doing too bad of a job. The future of the Jackets I think is looking quite bright. Next year is our year…I know I keep saying that but it’s the truth!! HAHA they just showed Turco mic’d up from the All Star game. That was hilarious. ‘Can you guys go celebrate somewhere else?’ Classic. Turco seems to have quite the personality. Foote has a high ankle sprain they just said. I am sad. Hopefully, he will be back soon. It seems like Columbus is the place for injuries. These refs aren’t very good. I have seen quite a few very obvious penalties and they just aren’t seeing them.
GOAL: Fedorov (CBJ)
ASSISTS: Methot, Modin
GOAL: Sydor (DAL)
ASSISTS: Ribeiro, Robidas
GOAL: Modano (DAL)
ASSISTS: Jokinen, Sydor
SCORE: Columbus – 2
Dallas - 2
Ya know trying to avoid a hockey game score when you’re watching a hockey game is hard as hell. I’m trying to avoid the Jersey game because I am recording it. Now I am watching an interview in Laraque. I like him. I like his style. He is a tough guy. How much do I love center ice? I love it…I keep flippin through all the games in the NHL…quite exciting. These Stars keep knocking down Nash. It’s starting to piss me off. The refs are clearly blind or mentally retarded…and know nothing. We can’t get a power play to save our life! We just took another one. I hate these refs! And, YES, I am being bitter. I know that we did have those penalties but it’s like the refs are choosing not to see the penalties that the Stars are doing. Stars should have had another penalty. Again we were able to kill off that penalty and limit them to only 2 shots on goal. Alright finally we are getting on the power play…hopefully we can make it effective. The last few minutes of this 3rd period is pretty aggressive. These refs are killing me…there have been at least 2 hits from behind this period and both of them were not called. That does not thrill me. That could hurt our boys…and we already have enough guys injured. It’s looking like this game is going to go into over time. It always makes me nervous when we go to over time…because that means that we have a chance of going into a shootout.
SCORE: Columbus – 2
Dallas - 2
Alright, here we go time for 5 minutes of 4 on 4 hockey. Nothing really has happened so far…but there is still 3:30 left. Modano just took a shot and Norrena made a great save. Zherdev had a breakaway and it went just wide of the net. 2 minutes left in OT…no other real scoring chances. Haha my mom just said, “Come on guys just score so you don’t have to go to the shoot out…you never win in the shoot out.” Maybe she’s not as clueless about hockey as I thought haha. This is just getting brutal…I want to win this game so bad. I get so emotion in over time games. I don’t know why. AHH!! It’s going into a shootout…and I hate it.
SCORE: Columbus – 2
Dallas - 2
SHOOTOUT!!!! Let’s see who is gonna come out.
Chimera - SCORE HOLLA!! Zubov - STICK SAVE!!
Konopka - MISSED THE NET!! Modano – WENT WIDE!! Klesla - Didn’t get to shoot… Jokinen - SAVE!!
SCORE COLUMBUS – 3
Dallas - 2

Well everyone…we went against the odds and WON!! That’s right we won in a shootout. Due in part to Ken Hitchcock’s wonderful idea of having a shootout competition yesterday. I LOVE HITCH!!! I am pumped!
My three stars of the game:
1. Fredrik Norrena WOOO!!! Atta boy
2. Jason Chimera
3. Sergei Fedorov