History’s Shadow Darkens Fans’ Perception of Jackets
By Steve Sirk

If there’s one thing the Columbus Blue Jackets have historically excelled at, it’s extinguishing optimism. And they don’t waste much time doing it. Through the years, the Jackets’ Octobers have been more frightening than Halloween; their Novembers more injurious to the human spirit than campaign attack ads.

The 2006-07 began with familiar optimism. Doug MacLean once again hopped on his horse and galloped through town shouting, “The playoffs are coming! The playoffs are coming!” Though wary of such sunshiny pronouncements, even skeptical fans ran their fingers down the roster sheet and wondered if maybe, just maybe, this might be the year that the Jackets crack the top eight in the Western Conference. Even Linda Cohn thought so, and she, like, totally has a job at ESPN and stuff.

And then the season started, as it inevitably must. This was immediately followed by the farty sound of the air gushing from the “playoffs or bust!” balloons. Sergei Fedorov missed time with an injury. Anson Carter had his minutes cut. Rick Nash went on a scoring drought of Robert Kron proportions. And through it all, Jackets coach Gerard Gallant shuffled his lines so relentlessly and thoroughly that it could have been mistaken for a new Ohio Lottery game. (“And tonight’s mid-second period combinations are: Nash-Fritsche-Vyborny, Carter-Svitov-Zherdev, Shelley-Fedorov-Foote, and Modin-Brule-Norrena. If you guessed all four of these lines, you have won $200,000!”)

MacLean has preached patience. Thanks to the NHL putting the Jackets on a schedule more befitting of a football team, Columbus has had plenty of games in hand. With three games in four nights this week, the Jackets were presented with an opportunity to make up six points in short order. Things got off to a promising start with a 4-2 win in St. Louis on Thursday night.

Friday’s crowd knew that a win against the Edmonton Oilers, coupled with a win over the bumbling Blackhawks on Sunday, would propel Columbus back into the race. Sure, it’s a bit early to worry about The Race, but when a club routinely loses sight of the field by Turkey Day, hanging around is considered a vital early season accomplishment.

After a spirited first period, the Jackets dug themselves a quick 2-0 hole in the second. Goalie Pascal Leclaire evoked memories of the best and worst of former Jacket Marc Denis. On the ice, he evoked the worst by quickly following a savable goal with a soft goal to make it 2-0. Off the ice, he evoked the best of Denis’ character by holding his head high and accepting the blame. “I think I gave up two bad goals,” said Leclaire. “On a normal night, I save those two shots and we’re not behind 2-0. Those are shots I have to stop. I can’t blame anybody. I saw both shots.”

Gallant was not concerned with the play of Leclaire. He was more focused on the ongoing impotence of his offensive stars. “You can’t blame Pascal for the loss,” he said. “We need to play better than that. Our top guys need to play better. And that’s the bottom line. Our top guys need to play better.”

Gallant indicated that he plans to stick with is current lines to see if they eventually gel. The three-names-out-of-a-hat-every-30-seconds approach wasn’t garnering results, so now it’s time to stick the big guns together to see if Nash can regain his once-dominating presence, Zherdev his schwerve, and all of them their scoring touch. Or even show up as a unit.

“Our top players didn’t show up enough to win,” Gallant lamented. “(Edmonton’s) Ryan Smyth scores two goals for their team by going to the net. We talk about it all the time—it takes character to go to the net. It takes a big man to go to the net and score goals. In the NHL today, that’s where you’re going to score them. You’re not going to score them on the side of the net or behind the net. It’s in front of the net, and we don’t have enough guys going there. When you work hard, good things happen. We didn’t work hard enough in the second half of the game tonight.”

Mental lapses, not working hard enough, not paying the price in front of the net-- this recurring nightmare was met with displeasure by the 16,902 paying customers in attendance, who in the course of the evening switched allegiances from the Blue Jackets to the Boo Jackets. They saw Edmonton, a #8 seed in last spring’s playoffs, work their way to within one game of a Stanley Cup championship. On a big weekend for the Blue Jackets, the Oilers were a tangible reminder of the small-market dream, and in the course of 60 minutes, underscored the home team’s deficiencies in replicating that dream. Thus, the boos drowned out the final horn.

There are plenty of games left in the season. There is much hockey to be played. It is still early in the season.

It’s all true. It’s all very, very true.

But fair or not, for fans who have personally witnessed Blue Jackets history, such facts and clichés are not cause for temperance.

They are cause for concern.