Scott Howson: You're Firrrred!!!!

Scott Howson...

We would like to thank Vince for doing a special appearance on Seasons in the Sun for the blog which we will review the firing of the Columbus Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson.  Scott Howson was fired last Tuesday and since then we have been reflecting on what would be the right way to get our point across about how we feel.  If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time, you will know that we do not hold Scott Howson in very high regard.  We have compared him to Mike Brown (Cincinnati Bengals owner, GM, destroyer, whatever you want to call him) as being one of the worst front office people in sports.

Scott Howson compared to Mike Brown

Scott Howson telling us Rick Nash is a trader.

That is the link to our story in which we think that these two gentlemen are quite alike.  We are going to refer to them as gentlemen in all sincerity and seriousness, because we have never met them, and for all we know they could be great people when they are not destroying teams.  We have to admit we have here at Seasons in the Sun have not been this happy about a firing since John Cooper was relieved of his duties at Ohio State.  What we must remind the reader is that we are not for people losing their job but given the line of work if you are not winning the big games, the team needs to bring in someone else.

Bringing in someone else, a great theme, the Columbus Blue Jackets brought in John Davidson before this season to turn the table, to turn things around.  Davidson, the man responsible for firing Scott Howson came from St. Louis, where he took a struggling Blues franchise to over 100 points, and was involved with the hiring of Ken Hitchcock.  Now, Hitchcock was a former Blue Jackets coach but was fired and remains the only Blue Jackets coach to have a winning record.  Enter Claude Noel as the coach which seemed that the ship might be going in the right direction but he was relieved of his interim duties in favor of Scott Arniel.  Arniel should have been fired quickly in the 2011-12 season but Howson let him run this team into the ground before his dismissal.

Columbus Blue Jackets and could it get any worse?

Jeff Carter with the Cup

This link goes into detail about the struggles of the Blue Jackets and Arniel in the 2011-12 season.  It was tough to watch.  Not only did Howson let Arniel out live his welcome, but he also threw franchise player Rick Nash under a bus when he made Nash's trade request public.  Rick Nash the franchise leader in points, goals, and assists was dealt to the New York Rangers.  Jeff Carter was sent to the L.A. Kings for Jack Johnson, and others.  Thus, Howson's destruction of Columbus' 1st line forwards and center was complete.

In none of the trades Howson made recently before his firing was there any effort to get a 1st line forward or center.  The Blue Jackets needed scoring but they went after defense instead.  We think we need to remind you that Jack Johnson whom they received was a 2nd line defense-men, all the players that Columbus received for Rick Nash were 2nd or 3rd line players.  The state of the Columbus Blue Jackets first line could be summed up none better than by Derek Brassard, "We don't have a first line on this team right now."  We here at Seasons in the Sun think that you can hear the frustration in Brassard voice when he says the truth about the team.

We hate Detroit, but Pavel is really good.

The sad thing from what we have been reading around Columbus is that maybe they should not have fired Howson.  The Columbus Dispatch proclaimed, "Some caught off guard, sad GM had to take fall."  That thought was echoed by player, Derek Dorsett, "It's just too bad that Scott has to be the guy that takes a fall."    Are people just trying to be nice or do they like losing?  This is the kind of thing that makes us here at Seasons in the Sun mad.  Do the Blue Jackets even want to win, don't they want the Stanley Cup?

We have said this before, the division is not getting any easier.  Detroit and Chicago are probably foaming at the mouth because they get to play a team that has no 1st line offensive players.  At the top you got players like, Dorsett, Anisimov and Foligno (this is yahoo sports! nhl first line for the Blue Jackets) going against Cleary, Zetterberg and Datsyuk (Detroit ) or Toews, Kane, and Hossa (Chicago).  There's no chance for the Blue Jackets they have average players going against All Stars, and that is just in their own division. All those guys which the exception of Cleary are All Stars every year.  It's not fair, but this is what Howson gave us.

Toews and Kane with the cup.

People want to talk about all the awesome prospects that the Blue Jacket have drafted and picked up, well what are they doing for the team?  We always go back to this, in the years that the Blackhawks were down, we hoped they would not finish in last place.  They drafted Toews (3rd) in 2006, and Kane (1st) in 2007, and by 2010 they had the cup in Chicago.  The Blue Jackets have only had one winning season since they started.  They have had high draft picks, why do they not have a cornerstone of the franchise right now?  At some point the front office needs to shoulder the blame.

We really think at some point the Blue Jackets need to say enough is enough.  At some point and we think with the new president John Davidson this will come sooner then later, you need to stop expecting to lose.  They say that winner make the plays to win, well losers also make the mistakes to lose, you need to change the culture.  We think this is a great step in the right direction for the Columbus Blue Jackets.  We would like to thank Davidson for firing Howson, it's a great step in the right direction.