yave1964 Posted August 26, 2023 Share Posted August 26, 2023 FINAL RECORD 25-48-9 59 points dead last in the East. Whopping minus 116 goal differential. ADDITIONS Werenski essentially missed the whole season, great having him back. Stevenson was a cap casualty in Jersey fits in nicely on second paring. Texier returns after a season of self imposed exile in France. Provorov also fits in nicely in the top four on blueline. Fantilli slipped to them and gives the CBJ their first ever true 1C. High first rounders Mayeychuk and especially Jiricik will push for roles on the back end. Babcock returns from exile as a quality coach SUBTRACTIONS none. Oh some very minor junk pieces but nobody they really wanted. IN THE SYSTEM Fantilli, Jiricik, Mayeychuk will all be quality regular performers for years. Sollinger and Ceulemans headline a second tier of quality prospects. The Jackets have quite a few ready now good to excellent prospects. SOO, ARE THEY READY TO COMPETE? No, too young and too raw but the talent is there. Fantilli could and should push Jenner to the 3c spot where he belongs behind fantilli and Kent Johnson, the defense is a strength, Gaudreau and Laine warts and all are quality scorers. What holds them back is awful netminding with Elvis as the lead arsonist, inexperienced kids in key roles as well. I like their future but this year I expect a modest turnaround with around 80 points battling Washington for the cellar. Lots to like here tho. 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruxpin Posted August 26, 2023 Share Posted August 26, 2023 6 hours ago, yave1964 said: FINAL RECORD 25-48-9 59 points dead last in the East. Whopping minus 116 goal differential. ADDITIONS Werenski essentially missed the whole season, great having him back. Stevenson was a cap casualty in Jersey fits in nicely on second paring. Texier returns after a season of self imposed exile in France. Provorov also fits in nicely in the top four on blueline. Fantilli slipped to them and gives the CBJ their first ever true 1C. High first rounders Mayeychuk and especially Jiricik will push for roles on the back end. Babcock returns from exile as a quality coach SUBTRACTIONS none. Oh some very minor junk pieces but nobody they really wanted. IN THE SYSTEM Fantilli, Jiricik, Mayeychuk will all be quality regular performers for years. Sollinger and Ceulemans headline a second tier of quality prospects. The Jackets have quite a few ready now good to excellent prospects. SOO, ARE THEY READY TO COMPETE? No, too young and too raw but the talent is there. Fantilli could and should push Jenner to the 3c spot where he belongs behind fantilli and Kent Johnson, the defense is a strength, Gaudreau and Laine warts and all are quality scorers. What holds them back is awful netminding with Elvis as the lead arsonist, inexperienced kids in key roles as well. I like their future but this year I expect a modest turnaround with around 80 points battling Washington for the cellar. Lots to like here tho. Yeah. All of this. Tarasev is still waiver exempt. I know they have $5M+ invested in Pelvis, but they seemingly have everyone signed and $4M in cap space ($5M+ if they send Tarasev to the Monsters). It feels like there should be better options than Pelvis still out there if they wanted to make a move. Unless they feel like they're just not there yet either way so wait. Gaudreau isn't getting any younger, though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegx.ca Posted August 27, 2023 Share Posted August 27, 2023 I think they'll be way better than last year since it'll be hard to be worse than last year... I like their team I think they'll be as good or better than Detroit and Ottawa and behind Buffalo fighting for playoffs... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruxpin Posted August 27, 2023 Share Posted August 27, 2023 10 hours ago, thegx.ca said: I think they'll be way better than last year since it'll be hard to be worse than last year... I like their team I think they'll be as good or better than Detroit and Ottawa and behind Buffalo fighting for playoffs... Yeah, I like the team itself. If everyone meshes well together, they're a nice team with crap goaltending. Ottawa--who actually got the lesser of the Diarrhetic Duo--also has a descent lineup with questionable goaltending. I kind of like Sogaard, but I don't want him starting 50 games. He'll have to with Korpse as his creasemate. Gotta think Columbus finishes better than Ottawa but they'll be in the same neighborhood. Good comparison to Detroit, too. I like their goaltending better. Detroit has some nice things going on with their lineup, but as was said on the Detroit write-up thread: their defense is a huge question. Things could go well and they're the best of these three. Or they're right there. If Columbus's defense can improve and hold and Merz can at least stay healthy then who knows? They're headed in the right direction as a team, and will be better than last year, but I think likely still bottom ten. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brewin Flames Posted August 28, 2023 Share Posted August 28, 2023 The Babcock factor could make them slightly better, or slightly worse.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted August 28, 2023 Author Share Posted August 28, 2023 1 hour ago, Brewin Flames said: The Babcock factor could make them slightly better, or slightly worse.... I think better. By far. I can think of no coach more over his head as a head coach than Brad Larsen. He never established a regular lineup, he was unable to adjust on the fly and reset during a game. Just dreadful. IMHO Larsen gone is 5 points, Babs coming in is 5 points. Normally I think coaching changes are only good for a few points but following Babs for years, he is an incredible on game coach, compared to Larsen who never made in game adjustments. Ten points better IMHO with the coaching change. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Math Posted August 28, 2023 Share Posted August 28, 2023 I think there are significant reasons to be optimistic. Still a major painpoint in goaltending (at least they didn't overplay for Korpisalo) but my major concern is the hire of Babcock as coach: I'm really not sold on him. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted August 28, 2023 Author Share Posted August 28, 2023 4 hours ago, Math said: I think there are significant reasons to be optimistic. Still a major painpoint in goaltending (at least they didn't overplay for Korpisalo) but my major concern is the hire of Babcock as coach: I'm really not sold on him. Agree to disagree on Babs, one hell of an in game coach, probably the best in the game at thaaspect if not certainly on the very short list. Bowman was the best counting everyone at getting an edge by switching lines around and searching for the correct combo in a particular situation, Al Arbour was right there as well. Of modern coaches i have never seen anyone capable of getting the edge in game as well as Babcock. The off ice stuff, yeah a big issue as his ego grew. Hated by his Toronto players, Mike commodore makes a living talking about what a piece of Sheeat Babs is/was. Franzen says that Babcock is the worst human he has ever met in or out of hockey. But he won, the Ducks became a power under him. Detroit won a cup with him and were right there year after year. Toronto didnt climb all the way up the mountain but they became a huge contender under him. We have gone soft in this Country. Give me a coach who is a jerk but wins over a kinder gentler hugging type who doesnt. Leo Durocher was despised by his players but he won and famously said "nice guys finish last." That is Babcock. If he wins in Columbus I wouldnt care if he kicked a puppy every day on the way into the arena. Winning is the only thing that matters and he wins. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegx.ca Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 15 hours ago, yave1964 said: Agree to disagree on Babs, one hell of an in game coach, probably the best in the game at thaaspect if not certainly on the very short list. Bowman was the best counting everyone at getting an edge by switching lines around and searching for the correct combo in a particular situation, Al Arbour was right there as well. Of modern coaches i have never seen anyone capable of getting the edge in game as well as Babcock. The off ice stuff, yeah a big issue as his ego grew. Hated by his Toronto players, Mike commodore makes a living talking about what a piece of Sheeat Babs is/was. Franzen says that Babcock is the worst human he has ever met in or out of hockey. But he won, the Ducks became a power under him. Detroit won a cup with him and were right there year after year. Toronto didnt climb all the way up the mountain but they became a huge contender under him. We have gone soft in this Country. Give me a coach who is a jerk but wins over a kinder gentler hugging type who doesnt. Leo Durocher was despised by his players but he won and famously said "nice guys finish last." That is Babcock. If he wins in Columbus I wouldnt care if he kicked a puppy every day on the way into the arena. Winning is the only thing that matters and he wins. Agree with this except the puppy thing I'd rather him kick another dude that can fight back instead haha but anyways totally agree about the tougher coach thing and that's why I'm depressed as a Calgary fan losing Sutter and his Sutter boys... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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