Is it time for Daddy Don to shake up the Blue Jackets family?
Blue Jackets lose the right way in Columbus. Wilfried Nancy loses the wrong way in Glasgow.
When the Blue Jackets hired Don Waddell to be president/general manager in the spring of 2024, I liked the pick. And when, a few months later, Waddell hired Dean Evason to be the coach, I liked the pick. My thinking went like this:
Here are two 60-somethings who've seen just about everything, who've never won the ultimate prize but have the personal and professional experience to understand what it takes. Here are two good people, fully bought into Columbus, ready to take their last, best shot at building a contender.
Last season fortified such toughs.
This season?
Michael Arace
The Blue Jackets have lost five in a row (0-4-1). Saturday night, they fell 3-2 to the Vegas Golden Knights in the Nationwide Arena. It marked the 10th time they've blown a lead and the 11th time they've blown a lead in the third period. Read that last sentence again.
The Jackets (13-13-6) have dropped to 16th and last place in the Eastern Conference and 26th place in a league of 32 teams. The one anemic caveat: With 60% of the season remaining, they are six points out of a wild-card position, which is to say they are within a giant blob of teams that are having a slippery trip through the mushy middle. Parity is prevalent, and most every team in the mushy middle believes they have a post-season chance.
Last season, the Jackets had two stretches of 1-6-1, both of which included six-game (0-5-1) losing streaks. Their March swoon killed their post-season chances. they missed the playoffs by two points, and the players were clearly pissed off by the blown opportunity. Generally speaking, fans saw the season as a triumph of spirit in the wake of Johnny Gaudreau's death.
This season was supposed to be a continuation of an upward trajectory. At this point, it feels that way neither for the Jackets nor their fans. As a five-game losing streak roils, hard questions bubble to the surface.
- Does Evason have an in-door to his doghouse but no exit? Like, what's up with Yegor Chinakhov? He asked for the trade in the summer and he's averaging 10 minutes of ice time. To be fair, he has been a couple of brief look-sees in the top six, but he has been basically relegated to fourth-line duty. He is a sniper and he's not drawing minutes for a team that is in desperate need of scoring.
- Same sort of question about Kent Johnson: Why not give this skilled, young player more of an opportunity to grow? Are his mistakes any worse those of, say, Miles Wood?
- The Jackets have never gotten their hands on a generational player like Macklin Celebrini or Connor Bedard or Connor McDavid. Shouldn't Waddell at least made a bid for Quinn Hughes?
- At this point, would it be better to just tank it for a top-10 pick? It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. No. 4 overall pick Cayden Lindstrom, a center, is getting his reps at Michigan State (why has he missed five games? Is it the back injury?) and former No. 14 overall pick Jackson Smith, a defenseman, incubates at Penn State. There's other talent in the pipeline, too. Another top-10 lottery pick wouldn't hurt, eh?
Michael Arace
Ah, the tank thing. Some fans hate talking about it. Nobody in the Blue Jackets' front office want's to hear even a mention of it. Waddell believes in his roster. The players believe in their room.
But here they are, in last place in the East with 40% of the season gone.
I still believe in Waddell and Evason.
Their team?
If Waddell isn't considering a roster shake, even it's just a collar-grab-and-jerk, he should be.
How's Wilfried Nancy doing?
I had no plans to keep returning to Glasgow to check in on former Crew coach Wilfried Nancy. But I can't help it. Nancy sat down in a hot seat with Celtic and now his bum is glowing and there doesn't seem to be a fire extinguisher in sight.
Sky Sports' Alison Conroy at Hampden Park:
There is no getting away from it, Wilfried Nancy's first week as Celtic manager has been a disaster.
Played three, lost three. They missed the chance to replace Hearts at the top of the Scottish Premiership, left hopes of Europa League progression hanging by a thread then failed to retain their League Cup title.
Alison Conroy
Sunday, just 10 days after Nancy made his official goodbye to Crew fans (via the former Twitter), he led Celtic onto the field with a chance to win some hardware. It was the final of the Scottish League Cup, against St Mirren, on Celtic's home field in Glasgow.
Celtic had some good moments in the first half, but the rout was on in the second. St Mirren won, 3-1. Celtic supporters – who've been pissed off about everything from Nancy's magnet board to Nancy's emerald shoes – but mostly, about Nancy's losing – were chanting "Sack the board" by the end of the game.
Celtic have been outscored 8-2 since Nancy's arrival.
Celtic, given their payroll relative to the rest of the league (save Rangers), are supposed to win every game. Their fans expect it. Sunday's game – at home, against a team that sits in ninth place in a third-rate league – was supposed to be one of those occasions when you could pull a random bloke out of the stands and let him coach, and Celtic still wins. With ease.
(Global Football rankings has the Scottish Premiership as the 33rd-strongest league in the world and the MLS as the 10th-strongest.)
It's difficult to overstate the scale of this upset.
Crew fans will not be surprised to hear that, after the game, Nancy stayed in-character. He was cool. He took the blame. And he asked for patience.
“I tell them that I want to do better for sure,” he stressed. “But I am asking them, not to be patient but to trust what I am going to say regarding I can see what we are trying to do. My point is I can see something good but this is not enough, we are not able to be consistent. I can understand the fans. It is totally normal. I can ask the fans to believe in me and to trust I can do things, but that is not my job. I have to act instead of talking.”
I'll say again that Nancy will be fine. He just needs some time. The interim will give him a new definition of "adversity," a word he trotted out quite often in Columbus over the previous 10 months.
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Michael Arace
