Jarmo Kekäläinen’s Columbus Blue Jackets continue to embarrass themselves. The club is not managed by anyone, not even the owner, writes Tommi Seppälä, Urheilu’s NHL editor.
Tommi Seppälä NHL reporter
That’s where it came from. The Columbus Blue Jackets somehow found a way to get even lower than the level they reached. The latest defeat of a club in complete wind-riding late on Sunday night surprised no one, but in self-disgrace, the team found a new level.
This time, the defenseless player who refused to fight and was lying on the ice was punched.
It was a stick defender by Erik Gudranson a revenge attack. A little earlier, the Florida striker Nick Cousins had tackled the Canadian defender in an undeniably dangerous way from behind and received a two-minute penalty instead of a jet command for his tackle. That wasn’t enough for Gudbranson.
A little later, Gudbranson took the law into his own hands. He attacked Cousins and started beating him blindly.
The solution was incomprehensible and will lead to a ban even in the NHL, which is totally indifferent to violence. It wasn’t even a matter of acting according to the so-called – at least ancient – hockey code, because the mugged player was not given the opportunity to defend himself.
The act was reckless and stupid.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t given full support from within the team after the match. of The Athletic the so-called Match Report was full of incredible testosterone garbage generated by nerd energy. Columbus players and coaching defended the idiotic act in the spirit of self-defense. Mislead.
Gudbranson’s amount of ice time (29 minutes) is called impressive in the article. Just like that. Boys are boys.
The boys were boys also on the first day of September in 2012 in Helsinki – we are talking about perhaps the darkest day in Finnish hockey history. From the day when the feud between the Jokers and HIFK finally got out of control By Semir Ben-Amor to be attacked from behind Ville Peltonen attack.
Jarmo Kekäläinen was once Ben-Amor’s boss and is now Gudbranson’s boss.
Kekäläinen is not solely responsible for Gudbranson’s act. In a huge emotional turmoil, the player made his own decision with the coach’s blessing.
In the big picture, the responsibility also falls on Kekäläinen. Sunday’s events were the latest indication of a club culture on the verge of collapse. An indication of the indiscipline and lack of standards permeating the entire organization. Along with Pölhö’s messing around, the assistant coach also talked himself into the shower, because why not use the same money to beat the whole thing to a pulp?
During the fall, there have been some good things on the ice in terms of play, but the wider picture is twisted in an ugly way.
The players on the ice hustle no matter what and respect the rules of winning hockey when they feel like it. It was not possible to talk about group discipline or a winning culture in the club for years. On Sunday, it was more important for the team to be able to beat the opponent in a goal down position than to win the hockey game.
Florida wrapped up the match with superiority after the fight.
This is how things work in Columbus and no one seems to have a problem with it.
The owner is sleeping
In Finland, of course, attention is drawn to Kekäläinen, but in the name of honesty, the owner also seems to have lost touch with reality. Ultimately, the principal owner John P. McConnell is responsible for the whole and who works in the organization and what level of requirements is maintained.
The Blue Jackets have won one true playoff series in the previous ten years. The last two seasons have been a complete slump Mike Babcock– with all the fiascos.
However, the chord does not break, but new levels are always sought to sink lower. On Sunday, the club succeeded in that.
However, you should not wait for the owner in front of the media. The Athletic said on Sunday that he had asked her for an interview twice during the fall, but in vain. Finally, however, the interview was given to the credit man, the club boss by Mike Priest with the mouth. The message was something like: we are here and we care, and we are angry about the results.
Oh yeah.
The fan base, which feels that it has been fogged for years, did not get anything out of the story. Nothing seems to break the camel’s back, but the team is allowed to drag the club’s logo to the mud on the ice level again and again.
In the end, is it even a wonder that the product is at the ice level, which it has been for a long time, when the know-how from the upper layers is exhausted?
As stated: the collapse of the level of requirements and indiscipline permeates the entire organization.