The Blue Jackets just wrapped up their best October ever. Thank god.
In case you’re not up to speed, there have been several other Octobers in team history. Several other Octobers that were, in fact, a hell of a lot worse than this one. Count your blessings that this Blue Jackets team is a much more competent group than those that have come before…because there were some ugly starts along the way. Many of you remember them.
Where do we start?
Fresh in mind is October 2015. Holy shit...what a nightmare.
The Blue Jackets lost their opener in humbling fashion, blowing a late lead to the Rangers and failing to even get a point. It was all downhill from there and they were 0-7-0 before John Tortorella stepped in to try and collect the pieces. They finished October at 2-10-0 with wins over the Colorado Avalanche and New Jersey Devils. There was nothing to smile about other than the fact that November would eventually arrive, but by that time, the Blue Jackets had long sunken themselves from contention.
What about 2011-12? The fall of Scott Arniel was a loud, disastrous thud.
Like so many others, that Blue Jackets team entered the season with the “E” word. Much was expected of a team that had spent money in the summer to bring in Jeff Carter and James Wisniewski, add a guy like Vinny Prospal and bank on Steve Mason to stop a few pucks. The plan, in theory, was a good one but not a single element of the plan came to fruition.
It fell apart like a drunken game of Jenga. Carter was hurt, probably milked it, and Mason put the “ugg” in struggle. Arniel was fired in January — in the middle of a road trip (!) — and Todd Richards was named interim coach. The Blue Jackets finished that year respectably, then missed the playoffs in the ensuing lockout-shortened season on a tiebreaker. They were slow starters under Richards, too, and that late run in 2013 came after they won only five of their first 20 games.
The good thing about the lockout season? There was no October (well, there was, just not that included hockey), so their poor start doesn’t count in this story.
Those recent examples, which derailed an entire season only three weeks in, made last season’s 3-3-1 start seem like a revelation. The Blue Jackets were a) not completely out of it and b) playing decent hockey, both representing significant strides after the catastrophic starts they’d endured in years prior. Under John Tortorella, the days of brutal starts appear to be over; it’s no longer an option to not be ready or not be prepared, especially at the start of the year.
Before we switch topics, let’s remember the 2007-08 Blue Jackets, who previously held the franchise record for best October before this year’s team won its eighth game on Monday night. That team finished October with a 7-3-1 record and looked to be well-positioned to make noise, but it would invariably fade away and lead to another long season.
The names on that roster? Hopefully you’re seated for this.
Ole-Kristian Tollefsen. Jiri Novotny. Kris Beech. Michael Peca. Andrew Murray. Dick Tarnstrom. Jody Shelley played 31 games that year before being traded to San Jose.
Let’s pour one out for October collapses and the Blue Jackets, as it appears they’ve broken up for good.
NO SOLO EFFORT
Wait a second…Ron Howard had to re-shoot nearly ALL of Solo?
This better be the best Star Wars movie ever made. Disney prints money from the franchise these days so the budget isn’t a concern, but the pressure’s on to get a respectable product out the door in time for a late May 2018 premiere. Howard is known as a workaholic and will probably spend entire days in the editing room to get the movie ready, but I just hope it’s not at the expense of the story. Han Solo is the perfect character for a Star Wars anthology movie, and don’t even come at me about Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Han is everyone’s favorite smuggler. He’s the every man, the regular dude who gets caught in a fight he wants no part in. We gravitate toward him and his persona, and it feels like we’ve known him our entire lives. But Han would have it no other way — we actually don’t know anything about him. His family, his story, his childhood. It’s all a shrouded mystery and finally we’re going to get some answers.
YOU SHOULD BE READING
- Tyler Motte is forcing John Tortorella to keep him in the lineup.
- The Blue Jackets' penalty killing has been really darn good.
- It's a busy, challenging week ahead for the 8-4-0 Blue Jackets.
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