MikeMac on Sports

As the semifinals of the EA Sports NHL14 Cover Vote went down this past weekend, I was given a quick preview of what Twitter will be like for me next season. The Islanders John Tavares was up against the Blue Jackets Sergei Bobrovsky.

Now, I’ve been an Islanders fan for as long as I can remember. I used to go out to Long Island to visit my grandparents and watch the games on TV with them as a small child. I was heartbroken when the lost in the 1979 playoffs to the hated Rangers. (Especially since my brothers were Ranger fans, ugh!) I sat and listened to the games on radio when they weren’t on TV during the glory years, and I’ve hung with them through some tough years since.

I lived in Columbus when the Blue Jackets came into existence. Since they represented the chance to see NHL games locally, I was a big fan of Columbus getting a team, and since they were in the Western Conference, I was safe to root for them for 79 or 80 games every year. (The exceptions being games against the Isles, where I traded out my Blue Jackets jersey for an Islanders one!) I figured one day, they might meet in the Finals, but it was unlikely and I’d worry about that then.

Now, with both teams in the same division next year, there’s no rooting for the Blue Jackets. As I watched my Columbus followers push for votes for Bob, and my Isles tweeps push for Tavares, there was no doubt which one I wanted to win. They are the enemy. We maybe don’t have the same history as we do with the Rangers, Devils, Flyers, and Penguins, but the Blue Jackets are the same as those teams. A division foe that must be banished if we are to make the playoffs and ultimately win the Cup.

Sure, I’ll always have a soft spot for the Blue Jackets, and if the Isles are eliminated, I might just pick up some rooting interest for them. On the other hand, as the years go by, there will be incidents, games, and players who I grow to hate, that will up the emotional ante for competing against the Jackets just like with our more traditional rivals.

It’s been fun Jackets, but starting next season, it’s over between us.

Well, with the Blue Jackets, the team I adopted while living in Columbus, moving to the same division as the Islanders, the team I’ve rooted for since I was a little kid, it might soon be time to truly say goodbye to Columbus.

Moving to the East is definitely good news for the Jackets though, in terms of less travel, more games in the same time zone and budding rivalries wit teams that are closer to Ohio, like Pittsburgh, Buffalo, etc.

On the other hand, they run into the same problem that the Isles have, trying to improve and make the playoffs in a division that already has the Pens, Flyers, Rangers and Devils, without having the same budget to spend and other advantages used to attract free agents that those teams do.

Not just win, but both come from behind, on the road, in places that are usually a nightmare for them. First the Jackets on Vinny Prospal’s goal with under 25 seconds left in Detroit, then the Isles with Hickey getting his first NHL goal in overtime to get the win in Montreal.

Maybe there is hope for my two favorite teams yet…..

Yes, that was obviously the relevant number for me last night. I followed three games closely last night, the Islanders 4-2 loss to the Penguins, the Blue Jackets 4-2 loss to the Kings, and Ohio States 76-74 loss to Michigan.

Ohio State scored all of 2 points in the overtime period.

In all three cases, a failure to generate more than 2, mostly due to a failure to execute a good offense, meant a loss for the team I root for. For the Islanders, a sudden inability to do anything with powerplay chances put them behind and kept them there. For the Jackets, going 18 minutes of game time without even getting a shot on goal tells you everything you need to know, and for the Buckeyes, well as much as I love Aaron Craft’s hustle and defense, the end of that game was pathetic as he consistently drove into traffic and got his shot blocked instead of looking to drive and dish to an open shooter.

So my message to my teams this morning is, score more points!