The Weekly Dis

According to the annual demographic study compiled and written by The Athletic's James Mirtle at the beginning of the 2025-25 season, the average height for an NHL player was 6-feet-1 1/2, the average weight was 205 and the average age was 28.4.

The Carolina Hurricanes, who won the Stanley Cup, on average stood 6-1 1/2, weighed 201.2 pounds and was 29.3 years old. The Canes were, in other words, over age height, below-average weight and a touch older than the leage averages. That is, six months before they won the Cup.

The Blue Jackets were the 14th-tallest (6-1 1/2 on average), the eighth-heaviest (205 pounds) and the eighth-youngest (27.75 years old) in the league.

The Matthew Knies-for-Kirill Marchenko trade does not have a significant impact on these figures. The addition of Valeri Nichushkin, on the other hand, at least creates a ripple. What coach Rick Bowness has, in the way he has formed his lines, is serious beefcake working in tandem with slipperier right wingers in the top six, a beastly third line that returns intact and a fourth line that has a monster (Dmitri Voronkov) on one wing and little devil (Ryan Lomberg) on the other.

I was focusing on a couple of things in the home opener, specifically, two things that truly hurt the Jackets last season – special teams and the sangfroid required to play with a depleted lineup, particularly on the back end – and came away encouraged.

Does Rick Bowness have the Blue Jackets ready to fire?

The CBJ win their season opener for the first time in five years. Matthew Knies racks up three points in his Union Blue debut. Nationwide rocks.

The DisrespectedMichael Arace

A noisy summertime has lent to a perception that this Jackets franchise is more a mess than it really is. They're underrated. Given what's on paper, and at first glance (admittedly thin bases) this is a playoff team.

These Jackets are adaptable. They can get a cycle game going and lean on their opponents. They have higher-end skill to score in transition, especially if Adam Fantilli and Kent Johnson can drive play in the way that Marchenko did. What is more, their goaltender, Jet Greaves, is a top-10 goaltender who has the confidence of his teammates and can steal a game if need be. And after six playoff-less years, they appear to have galvanized around a purpose.

Nichushkin approaches elite level. Watch him.

While they're going to need some luck and a healthier defensive corps, I am quite sanguine about their playoff chances. I like this team.

Below is the opening-night roster, which didn't include injured defensemen Damon Severson, Ivan Provorov and Dante Fabbro. It's heavy:

I surveyed the height, weight and age of the roster. I took some shortcuts with the multiplication and division, so my numbers are not spot on. But they're close, and they look like this:

Average height: A shade over 6-1.

Average weight: 205 pounds.

Average age: 28.

What do all of these figures add up to? It's up to them. Bowness likes to pressure opponents and play fast. He believes in thumping. When the Jackets don't have, the puck, they're to get it back as quickly as possible. When they have it, they're to work to find the space to make plays. The kids must make plays.

Creation and mastery of chaos in all three zones is what Bones strives for.

What I've been doing is running my eyes up and down and left and right over the roster shown above and attempting to gauge whether they can accomplish what they've set out to do. I can see some sense in the way the pieces fit together. If Fantilli, Johnson and, to some extent, Conor Garland can raise their games ...

Game 2 is tonight at Nationwide Arena. Another very good opponent, the Utah Mammoth, will be in the building to present problems.

The GOAT is a thug

Let us begin with the release from the league:

The MLS Disciplinary Committee has found Inter Miami CF in violation of the Mass Confrontation Policy in the 26th minute of their match against the Columbus Crew on September 27th (VIDEO). The club has violated the policy for the first time this season, and fines have been issued to the club, and head coach Cristian ‘Kily’ González.

Due to their roles in the mass confrontation, Inter Miami CF defenders Sergio Reguilón and Micael, midfielders Yannick Bright and Rodrigo De Paul, and forward Daniel Pinter will be fined for inciting and/or escalating a mass confrontation.

This was when most of the squad from Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami dogged referee Victor Rivas for 2 minutes at a time when Crew striker Josef Martinez was waiting to take a penalty kick.

Martinez converted and the Crew went on to a 2-1 victory over Miami Sunday night.

Columbus Crew 2, Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami 1

If you open up your window this morning, you can still hear Luis Suarez whining

The DisrespectedMichael Arace

In a subsequent post, I embedded the following bit (directly below) from an X poster who, judging by his feed, loves Ronaldo to the point of despising Lionel Messi. As I watched the video, of unknown origin, I wonder whether AI was used to make it:

Later, I came across another clip – which I am almost positive is not AI-generated. It's a shot from another angle, full of context, and it syncs with the other clip:

Given that the MLS Disciplinary Committee issued fines to Miami players for the mass confrontation incident – and mentioned nothing of Messi cleating Santi Rodriguez – it is clear that referee Rivas and multiple Apple TV cameras missed it. Thus, the MLS Disciplinary Committee was/is totally oblivious to this bit of nastiness which, if it were anyone other than Messi, would have drawn a straight red card in real time or, at the very least, supplementary discipline after the fact.

Nothing more will come of this.

Luckily, Rodriguez didn't come away with multiple fractures of the small bones in his foot. And Luis Suarez didn't bite anybody.

This week in Discasting

Morgan Hughes, erstwhile spokesman of SaveTheCrew, co-proprietor of SupporterSupply.co and host of the failed ACES Radio podcast, was back on The Crewcible pod. This is a crackling conversation, save for Hughes' specious anti-Michigan rant. We get into the Messi thing and how it ties into league hierarchy, conflicts of interest and general Don Garberage, among other things.

Why were there 19 scouts in Nationwide Arena for the Blue Jackets' home opener? Is a Voronkov trade brewing? Were they looking at Sabres? It couldn't be anything to do with Zach Werenski, could it? Is the answer as innocent as the fact that Columbus is a hub for scouts who like the central location, the proximity to other NHL cities for back-to-backs, and late-night bars in the Short North with cheap beer?

Aaron Portzline, the Mayor of Jacketville, and I get into that and much, much more in the latest episode of the Cannon Balls podcast. Good stuff here.

Lastly, I'm happy to plug the following:

I joined former Jackets radio voice Bob McElligott, former CBJ Insider (now Outsider) Jeff Svoboda, and Porty for a roundtable discussion on the eve of the season opener. Bobby Mac has a good thing going with his new pod and this discussion about the season just underway was grand fun. Check it out.

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The Disrespected

Michael Arace covers pro sports in flyover country. Welcome to Columbus, the Blue Jackets and the Crew.

The DisrespectedMichael Arace