LTL Peeps,

I hope your Labor Day holiday weekend went well.  Just a reminder: Training camp's just 11 days away...

I caught this on TSN - their pre-season analysis, titled 30 teams in 30 days.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=332783

TSN (Canada's 4-Letter Network, AKA ESPN) does their rankings in reverse order, starting with the worst projected team, and working forward.

Our beloved Blue Jackets are ranked 28th out of 30 teams.

Before anyone cries foul, or believes there's an anti-CBJ conspiracy, please note that TSN ranked the CBJ 12th (I believe), for last season's pre-season rankings.

Also, CNNSI ranked the CBJ 29th out of its 30 teams.  Gasp!

What's the point?  Well, the point is, when LTL or I (moreover, I admit - apologies to all) tend to appear extremely negative over our beloved team's prospects, it pales in comparison to what the national pundits are forecasting, some of which are actually/historically very pro-CBJ.

It comes down to this, something brought up on XM Satellite radio's Home Ice channel (Their Faceoff Program - both guys are EXTREMELY pro-CBJ, BTW), verbatim: 

"It's puzzling when a team, with the 4th worst record in the league, makes only one minor change.  Continuity's one thing, but, status quo - more of the same, with a whole lot of hope (that all 7-10 players, whose performance went down in 2009-2010, will revert to 2008-2009 form) - is a bit of a reach.  We don't know if it's (no changes) a bad thing, but it's sure not a good thing."

With all sincerity, I do hope those "experts" are proven wrong.

Go Jackets!

-Mase1