The Weekly Dis
Blue Jackets seek their sixth loss in nine games vs. Vegas Saturday night. The Reign of Terror is back in This Week in Discasting. And I've found a fantastic Mexican restaurant for the return of Strip Mall Fare.
On the eve of the season, after the Kirill-Marchenko-for-Matthew Knies trade was done with Toronto, the feeling was the Blue Jackets had put behind a summer of distractions. Coach Rick Bowness had a full training camp with the boys. He had (on paper) a team that looked ready to get back into the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons.
Fans looked forward to the opening three-plus weeks of the season, a span where their team would play seven of their first nine games within the friendly confines of Nationwide Arena. For years, these fans had been showing up to watch teams that went from bad to mediocre. As 2026-27 got underway, they were ready to enjoy watching this team – which had a 19-3-4 stretch last winter – burst from the gate.
Saturday at the Nationwide Arena, the Jackets will play Game No. 9. It's the end of that supposedly favorable stretch that was supposed to include a large spread of home cooking. The Jackets are 3-5-0, among the most anemic offensive teams in the league, and their special teams are horrifying (PP: 8.7% conversion rate [!]; PK 70% kill rate).
Bowness has castigated his team during post-game press conferences after embarrassing home losses to the Utah Mammoth (4-1) and Florida Panthers (7-3). He took a gentler tack after the most recent debacle at home against Toronto (6-2).
Over the past three days of practice, Bowness has shuffled his lines and signalled that Dmitri Voronkov will be scratched for the third time in four games (is there a trade brewing?) ...
Valeri Nichushkin-Adam Fantilli-Kent Johnson
Cole Sillinger-Sean Monahan-Conor Garland
Knies-Charlie Coyle- Mathieu Olivier
Danton Heinen-Luca Del Bel Belluz-Ryan Lomberg
... and Bowness has rejiggered his power-play units.
PP1: Knies-Garland-Monahan-Fantilli-Werenski
PP2: Nichushkin-Damon Severson-Coyle-Johnson-Denton Mateychuk
As Mark Scheig at The Hockey Writers has noted: Dating back to the end of last season, the Jackets have two regulation wins in their last 19 games; they are 5-13-1 in that span.
The Game 9 opponent will be the Vegas Golden Knights (8-4-0), the defending Western Conference champions. It's the beginning of a wicked little stretch for the Jackets, who head out on the road next week.
As Aaron Portzline over at The Athletic has noted: Nine of the Jackets' next 10 opponents made the playoffs last season, and the one exception is the Florida Panthers – who won the Stanley Cup in 2024 and 2025.
The Reign of Terror is here to feel your pain (see "This week in Discasting" below.)
This week in Discasting
(Note: I've posted the YouTube versions of my podcasts here. The Crewcible and Cannon Balls are also available at Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other pod platforms. Please subscribe, like, etc. Thank you for your support.)
There's a stereotype about the typical Ohio State fan as a middle-aged man wearing an A.J. Hawk jersey, a backwards hat, hanging out in his basement watching highlights of the 2002 national championship game during bye weeks. Morgan Hughes is back on the latest edition of The Crewcible. We talk about the Crew's shootout loss to St. Louis in the final of the U.S. Open Cup, the team's murderously congested schedule, whether they can conjure an effective final-stretch run and secure a playoff spot, and other thing. Good stuff here:
The Reign of Terror is back, they're not happy, and they explain exactly why, in detail, in the latest episode of Cannon Balls. No quarter granted.
d
Strip mall restaurant fare
Los Potosinos
693 E. Long St.
(It's right at the end of Long before you hit the I-71 overpass.)
It has been some months (six, I think) since I included one of my favored restaurants in The Dis. I had to do it this week.
The Araces recently moved. We didn't go far – two miles. Yet, when you change the center of your circle, it's strange what can suddenly come into your new radius.
I've driven past Los Potosinos hundreds of times on my way to Nationwide Arena and Fertilizer Field. I always wanted to duck in, but never did. Then, I moved, and it was somehow more comfortably in my radius.
Maggie and I dropped in for lunch last week. She had the Mexican Style tacos (pork) and I had a chicken burrito. We dipped our toe into the place, as it were, and we both knew that we'd be diving into everything on the menu in the future. Plus, the specials.
There are a few tables inside the place. The patio isn't modeled after Barcelona or Lindey's, but it has an urban charm of its own, especially if your preferred background music is traffic coming out of the Downtown split. It didn't bother us. We sat down at a picnic table near an opening to the yard – where a well-used barrel grill was in full view. I don't know whether they're using this outdoor grill for their business, but its proximal existence is a good sign. What I can say is their chicken and pork are delicious.
(In the bottom left photo below you can see the grill. The pickup there had just pulled up and was loading cast-iron grates, probably for their food truck or a catering job. The grates were extremely well-seasoned, which is to say they've been used to death, and that is a beautiful thing when it comes to imparting flavor in open-fire cooking.)
Note on getting there: Elijah Pierce Ave. is one-way northbound and Long St., on this block, is one-way westbound. The best thing to do is to park on Elijah Pierce – there are plenty of spaces on the right side of the street; Maggie and I basically parked right behind the restaurant.
Also: Given its diminutive dining room, Los Potosino's is geared more toward takeout, Uber Eats and such like.
"Los Potosinos" are people or things related to San Luis Potosí, a state in the heart of Mexico. I could dash off a sentence like, "The way the tortilla was crisped speaks to the authenticity of the place." That may well be true, but I am not an expert here.
All I know is I'm going back until I've tried everything, beginning with the pozole (which was one of the specials on the day we stopped in).
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