Here’s something I’ve considered a few times over the years: The Columbus Blue Jackets need a true rival.
Sure, there’s Detroit, a rivalry first born out of geographic convenience, divisional competition and a one-sided playoff matchup.
Then there’s Pittsburgh, a rivalry more recently born out of, well, geographic convenience, divisional competition and two one-sided playoff matchups.
And then there’s the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers, rivalries born out of a new division setup and the rather surprising number of trades made between the two teams.
But there’s no one true rival for the Blue Jackets, a team that not just the Columbus fan base but the opposition’s supporters really get pumped up for when that date comes up on the calendar.
Wait… is that… the Buffalo Sabres music?
OK, stop.
Despite what NBC Sports Network would have you believe, there's no real enmity between Columbus and Buffalo that would get you to think tonight’s game is anything resembling a rivalry despite appearing on the channel's “Wednesday Night Rivalry” broadcast tonight.
I’m not going to goof on NBCSN too much – it’s hard to work the schedule to find a historic rivalry every week, even with the NHL’s help, and as much as the network would probably like to show the Blackhawks or Rangers every week, it skipped over bigger brands this week to find a way to put a 50-win team from last year as well as Jack Eichel on its airwaves.
But if Buffalo isn’t a rivalry – and it isn’t – who is for the Blue Jackets?
Well, what perfect timing: We put it up to a poll on the 1st Ohio Battery Twitter account (which you really should be following) on Tuesday. The overwhelming winner? The Pittsburgh Penguins.
Tomorrow is Rivalry Night at Nationwide Arena. Who is the Blue Jackets biggest rival? #CBJ
— 1st Ohio Battery (@1stOhioBattery) October 24, 2017
This can’t be a huge surprise. There’s the geographic convenience, of course, with the teams separated by about three hours of Interstate 70. There’s the divisional aspect, with the teams now sharing the same real estate in the Metropolitan Division since NHL realignment.
And one cannot forget the postseason battles, with the teams squaring off in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2014 and 2017. Though the Blue Jackets lost each of those meetings, the only postseason wins in Blue Jackets history have come against the Penguins.
(Am I going to use this to post a gratuitous video of Nick Foligno’s overtime goal? Yes, yes I am.)
And there’s also now a general edge to the proceedings. When the Penguins show up on the schedule, Blue Jackets fans and players know it. The media even knows it.
"They are the closest city team that we play, so I think obviously last time we played them in the playoffs," Cam Atkinson said before last year’s postseason series. "The rivalry took off a little bit. Every time we play them in the regular season it's always packed. Those are some of the most fun games to play."
On the fan’s side, the same holds true:
In order:
— Mason (@MasonAnimation) October 24, 2017
1. Penguins
2. Red Wings
3. Rangers
4. Kings
....
30. Buffalo Sabres
Unfortunately, it's kind of a one-way street. As much as the series has elevated itself in the minds of Penguins fans over the years, it’s still close to not the Black and Gold’s top rivalry considering the Pens have a natural in-state opponent in Philadelphia and a longtime punching bag further east in Washington.
To back up that opinion, I asked a Penguins fan, Will Tomer, about the team’s rivalries, and I put a lot of effort into this task considering he sits next to me at work.
“If I, as a Penguins fan, had to identify the team's biggest rivals, I would immediately point to the Flyers and the Capitals,” Tomer told me. “The Capitals have become a bigger thorn in the Pens' side because they actually have put some very competitive teams on the ice recently, but Flyers games can always go either way simply because of the hatred. The Blue Jackets are creeping onto the radar, but they'd still be a distant third for most Pens fans.”
Can it be a true rivalry if one team is No. 3 on the other’s radar? Not really.
After the Penguins, though, there aren’t a lot of candidates. The Blue Jackets and Red Wings once seemed to be rivals, with the teams sharing a spot in the old Central Division, nursing a natural football-based enmity, and also meeting in the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs. There’s still a bit of a buzz in Nationwide when these games happen – and in Detroit, honestly, having attended a few games there – considering the mere three hours that separate the two cities, but there’s no real disdain or hatred at this point. Detroit saves that for Chicago and a host of other rivalries created over a century or so of meetings.
The same can be said of the Rangers. While Columbus and New York had a bit of a spirited spat after the Rick Nash trade and have also played some memorable games against one another, to say the Blue Jackets and Rangers are rivals feels like a stretch.
So here the Jackets are, a team without a country for hardcore mutual dislike. This is what happens when you're late to the dance: all the good partners are taken. It’s not a bad existence, just one that feels a bit incomplete. The strongest emotions, which aren’t that far apart after all, are love and hate.
And if Buffalo has to fill in for the time being, we’ll do what we can with it – Wings are overrated! – but the heart won't really be in it until that one true rival is clear.
Told There Would Be No Math
I've said it before a few times in this space: I'm not an advanced stats maven, but I like a good chart that teaches me something.
So here's a few charts I've seen on Twitter that fit that very bill.
First, the great Alison Lukan of The Athletic posted this one based off some shot metric work by Sean Tierney at @chartinghockey.
#CBJ looking strong individually (ST @ChartingHockey) pic.twitter.com/xr0u3ELvLp
— Alison (@AlisonL) October 24, 2017
That's ... really good.
Shot rates are all the rage these days, it seems, and of course they're not an end-all, be-all, but there is some logic to how possession – as measured by shots for and against – is an important component of wins and losses in hockey.
To see nearly the entire Blue Jackets team, from top to bottom, in the top right quadrant – the one that indicates strong Corsi For and Corsi Against numbers – is impressive and speaks to just how well the team has possessed the puck from top to bottom.
There's also this beauty.
Stax Team Rankings - through 10/23/17
— EvolvingWild (@EvolvingWild) October 24, 2017
Models / Components*
*This is my first attempt at showing what Stax values. Work in progress. pic.twitter.com/Kr0GTZuE0d
So, I'm not exactly sure all that's going on here, but it's good to be on the top, right?
OK, I kid a bit. The second graph caught my eye, and it's impressive to see the Blue Jackets measure up thanks to excellent 5-on-5 play, a penalty-killing unit that provides a lot of value, pretty good goaltending and a power play that... well, let's not talk about that right now.
The take-home message: There's a lot of numbers out there these days, and a lot of them like the Blue Jackets right now.
Star Power
I wanted to close on a piece I found interesting by Sean McIndoe, whose @DownGoesBrown Twitter account is a near-essential if you're a hockey fan.
McIndoe wrote Tuesday about potential radical fixes to try to save the NHL All-Star Game. Which brought up my own thought: Can it be saved? Does it even need to be saved?
I don't know. McIndoe's piece is creative and does have some good ideas in it, but the reality is the most interesting ones are probably nonstarters to an NHL that treats fan-friendly ideas like the plague. And here's the thing – there's no major sports all-star game that provides any entertainment value at all.
The NBA show provides some incredible feats of athleticism, but as a game, it's a high-scoring farce with no defense whatsoever (the same complaint attached to the NHL's game most years). The Pro Bowl, well, that's been mocked enough. The MLB All-Star Game is the closest to a real, competitive contest, but by the end of that one, the Miami Marlins second baseman is facing the Minnesota Twins closer with the game on the line.
The reality is there's just not much you can do to jazz up most all-star games, especially those held in-season in which players simply don't want to get hurt. And that's fine – there's no rule these exhibitions have to be all that entertaining or important. Trying to make them more than they are is folly.
Frankly, the current 3-on-3 format is probably the most fun you can have. It's actual hockey. It prioritizes speed and skill. And even the general level of not caring doesn't dilute the product too much.
Will it get old? Probably. Does it matter? Not in the slightest.
