Articles in Columbus Blue Jackets

NEW YORK (Feb. 17, 2024) – The National Hockey League (NHL) today announced that the 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series™ will feature the Columbus Blue Jackets hosting the Detroit Red Wings at Ohio Stadium, home of the Ohio State University football team, on Saturday, March 1, 2025. Additional details for the 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series™, including ticketing and broadcast information, and the game’s start time, will be announced when available. Fans can sign up for news and updates on the 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series™ here.

from the Columbus Blue Jackets,

The Columbus Blue Jackets have relieved Jarmo Kekalainen of his duties as general manager of the National Hockey League club, President of Hockey Operations and Alternate Governor John Davidson announced today. Davidson, along with the team’s hockey operations management team, will assume general manager’s duties while the club goes through the process of hiring a replacement.

Media availability with Davidson will be streamed live on the Blue Jackets’ YouTube page at 11:30 a.m. ET today and will be recorded and posted afterwards on BlueJackets.com.

“This is one of the hardest days I have had in my career as Jarmo is a friend, someone I have a great deal of respect for and someone who has done a lot of good things during his time here,” said Davidson. “While the future of our club is bright, our performance has not been good enough and it is time for a fresh perspective as we move forward.”

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NEW YORK/TORONTO (Jan. 28, 2024) – The National Hockey League Players’ Association and National Hockey League announced today that forward Patrik Laine of the Columbus Blue Jackets will be unavailable to his Club for an indefinite period while he receives care from the Player Assistance Program of the NHLPA and NHL.

Under the terms of the joint program, he will return to the Club when cleared for on-ice competition by the program administrators.

NEW YORK (Dec. 11, 2023) – Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Erik Gudbranson has been suspended for one game, without pay, for violating Rule 46.2 (Aggressor) during an altercation with Florida Panthers forward Nick Cousins during NHL Game No. 420 in Columbus on Sunday, Dec. 10, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.

The incident occurred at 6:46 of the third period. Gudbranson received a minor penalty and a 10-minute misconduct for instigating, a major penalty for fighting, and a game misconduct.

Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and, based on his average annual salary, Gudbranson will forfeit $20,833.33. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

For a full explanation of the decision, complete with video, please click on the following link: https://www.nhl.com/video/gudbranson-suspended-one-game-6342810929112.

via Sportsnet's YouTube page,

Watch as Columbus Blue Jackets defenceman Erik Gudbranson jumps Florida Panthers forward Nick Cousins, seeking retribution for a hit he received earlier in the period, and is handed multiple penalties including a game misconduct.

I'd post the video if I could but for over a year now YouTube has been restricting some videos with this warning when attempting to get the embed code.

This video is age-restricted and only available on YouTube.

So watch it there.

Watch below.

from Aaron Portzline of The Athletic,

For the first time in his 471-game career, Patrik Laine’s NHL club decided they were better off with him not in the lineup. The decision was made by Columbus Blue Jackets first-year coach Pascal Vincent on Sunday, and it made eyebrows elevate all over the league.

Meanwhile, in Columbus, it’s difficult to be surprised by anything that happens this season because every day seems to be another head-scratcher, every game a new level of ineptitude.

Vincent has tried all manner of motivation so far this season, including benching star forward Johnny Gaudreau twice already this month, sitting high-priced defenseman Damon Severson for an entire third period less than a month into his Blue Jackets career, and sending highly-skilled winger Kent Johnson — a 16-goal, 40-point rookie last season — to the minor leagues.

During a recent 3-2 loss to Arizona, Vincent benched both Laine and Gaudreau — they have a combined 433 goals in the NHL — as the Jackets were scrambling to try and score the equalizer late in the third period.

Nothing has worked. Nothing makes sense right now for the Blue Jackets. After a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday, the Jackets (4-11-4) have matched a franchise record with a nine-game winless streak (0-7-2), sending yet another season off the rails before Thanksgiving.

“It’s frustrating for everyone,” Vincent said. “I see those guys in the room and I hear them on the bench, and they’re saying the right things. Their intentions are right.

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Watch the incident below.

from Jeff Rimer at the CBJ website,

It has been an amazing ride!

To have the privilege of a broadcast career in radio and television for parts of six decades, including 47 years in the National Hockey League as a pre-, intermission and post-game host before moving into the play-by-play chair, I am truly a lucky man. But as they say, “all good things must come to an end.” It is time for me to spend more time with my family so the upcoming Blue Jackets season will be my last in the broadcast booth.

Through all my years in the NHL - 10 seasons with the Washington Capitals, 11 years with the Florida Panthers (including one year in which I called games for BOTH teams) and two decades with the Columbus Blue Jackets – I can easily say the highlight of my time in this wonderful league is my 20 years as a Blue Jacket!

The reasons are many: the wonderful ownership group led by the McConnell family, all my Blue Jackets teammates that I’ve had the honor of working with over the years, my Bally Sports family and last, but certainly not least, the great Jackets fans known as “The Fifth Line.”

I’d like to offer my special thanks to the late Blue Jackets Founder John H. McConnell. I was fortunate enough to know Mr. Mac during my early years in Columbus and have never lost my admiration for him and the desire and vision that he had to bring major league professional sports and the Blue Jackets to this great city.

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from Aaron Portzline of The Athletic,

It can be risky, even unfair, for an outsider to pretend they understand the inner workings and relationships in an NHL dressing room.

But Laine always seemed to march to his own beat, more of a lone wolf than part of the pack. He’s acknowledged being slow to trust people, reluctant to let them get close. Nobody’s accused him of being a divisive player, to be sure, but he’s never been counted on as a glue guy or as part of the leadership group, either.

That may be changing in Columbus this season. Laine is now one of the older players in the dressing room, and certainly among the most experienced (462 games). This will be his eighth NHL season, and he’s carrying himself with the air of somebody who is ready to take the next step.

“Everybody’s evolving, and that’s him, too, for sure,” said Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent, who has known Laine since they were together in Winnipeg during Laine’s draft year. “He feels like he’s listened to here, like he can speak. He’s respected in the room. Guys like him, and he feels a part of it.”

Blue Jackets management was impressed that Laine opted to spend the bulk of this summer in Columbus, even taking part in a summer league in the suburbs with several other players. In previous summers, he headed back to Finland until a couple of weeks before training camp.

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via the YouTube page of TSN,

After much controversy surrounded new head coach Mike Babcock’s style and some Blue Jacket players last week, the team decided to part ways with the veteran bench boss. Columbus management spoke to the media Monday, and explained what led to the decision, and apologized for making a mistake with the hire.

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

The end for Mike Babcock as an NHL coach was neither sad nor sentimental — just more bull-headed narcissism for a man who no longer seems capable of getting out of his own way.

He tripped over his words, his actions, his intentions and his thoughts before he coached so much as a game or a practice for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

You can say this much about Babcock now, the one-time star coach of the Detroit Red Wings, Team Canada and the Toronto Maple Leafs: His NHL career is ostensibly over.

Coaching Columbus was his shot at redemption and it fizzled out before a shot was even fired. Instead, his own version of Goodbye, Columbus was not a Philip Roth novel, but an epitaph for a once-terrific career.

The end for Babcock in Columbus began with a player-leaked story to a podcast — one of his players, clearly, and never identified. The story exploded within days of the original report by former NHL player Paul Bissonnette on Spittin’ Chiclets — and from there it just got worse. The NHL got involved. The players’ association, clearly on direction from some of its members in Columbus, got involved. The very experienced and wise Blue Jackets front office, led by John Davidson and Jarmo Kekalainen, got involved.

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added3:53pm,

from Matt Larkin of The Daily Faceoff,

The NHL and NHL Players’ Association are set to meet Friday in New York. While the meeting had been previously scheduled for a standard discussion covering multiple agenda items, as reported by TSN’S Darren Dreger, the two sides will focus primarily on the investigation into the conduct of Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Mike Babcock.

The meeting will take place one day after NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh and assistant executive director Ron Hainsey visited Columbus to meet with the Blue Jackets are part of an ongoing investigation into allegations that Babcock had invaded his players’ privacy by asking to see personal information on their phones.

The allegations surfaced earlier this week when former NHLer Paul Bissonnette told a story on his hit podcast Spittin’ Chiclets, claiming a Blue Jackets player told him Babcock had asked to see players’ phones and then AirDropped them on his office television screen....

As reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman Thursday night, the NHL and NHLPA were at first satisfied with explanations from Jenner and Johnny Gaudreau. “However, it appears things changed for both later that night when information was received that some of the younger Blue Jackets were uncomfortable with what had occurred,” Friedman reported.

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from Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now,

Ward also wonders whether the Blue Jackets truly vetted this situation. Did they consider all of the fallout that could be coming their way prior to hiring Babcock? Revelations of how the longtime coach was bullying players were leading to his ouster from the NHL.

“From an organizational standpoint, I have no idea if this is anything they’ve could have projected, or thought about possibly being something that could happen to them in bringing Babock in,” Ward said. “But if they didn’t, they didn’t really do their research. The idea that maybe as an organization they didn’t do their full homework and search what potentially could be brought to their doorstep.”

Ward said that he’s also been hearing from someone within the Columbus organization. What he’s being told is how uncomfortable the situation is currently within the team.

“They’re right now on pins and needles trying to figure out what he’s all about,” Ward said. “There’s a little bit of an uncomfortable feel of how to absorb him.”

Ward also believes that from Babcock’s standpoint, he has to recognize that his every move will be under intense scrutiny.

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from Nicholas J. Cotsonika of the NHL's website,

Mike Babcock looks relaxed and happy. It’s a quiet morning in August, and he’s already worked out and water skied when he sits down at his “tiki bar,” a little piece of paradise down the hill from his house overlooking a lake. It has a roof, a bar, barstools, a fridge, a TV and wifi. There are hockey mementos on the wall.

Babcock spends a lot of time here, when he isn’t hunting on his land in Ohio or downhill skiing on a mountain in Colorado or vacationing at his place in Palm Springs, California. He and his wife, Maureen, love to visit their three adult children scattered across North America.

“My life has simply been about being around my family and hunting, water skiing and downhill skiing,” he says. “Those are the three things that I’ve done to bring me nothing but joy.”

The 60-year-old hasn’t coached an NHL game since the Toronto Maple Leafs fired him Nov. 20, 2019. He says he declined multiple opportunities until he joined the Columbus Blue Jackets on July 1, volunteering instead as an adviser at the University of Vermont in 2020-21 and the coach at the University of Saskatchewan in 2021-22.

“I said I was going to retire at 60,” he says. “I promised my wife. The 3 1/2 years early was like a gift from God. We enjoyed it so much.”

So why come back to the NHL now? Why take on the challenge of the Blue Jackets, who finished 31st in the NHL last season?

“This is a great question,” he says.

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via the YouTube page of the NHL,

The Columbus Blue Jackets made Michigan star Adam Fantilli the 3rd overall pick in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. Watch Fantilli give an inside look of his life playing for the Wolverines to him embracing his family in Nashville after being picked by Columbus.

"When your kid is involved in sport, they're busy working out, they're busy playing junior hockey, then they're in college hockey, then you're in pro hockey," Babcock said. "It's, I don't know, seven years? You don't see them as much as you'd like to see them. Suddenly, I'm renting a house in Saskatoon 20 feet from the rink and he's living in the basement and you're working together every day while he takes his MBA.

"That's something I would never give back. I've said it a number of times -- the last three-and-a-half years has have been a gift from God to me. It's been absolutely spectacular. Getting involved in college sports and getting involved with my son has brought the joy for the game back for me, and I'm excited about being involved."

-Mike Babcock, head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Jeff Svoboda of BlueJackets.com has more.