"A win, a loss, and the departure of a fan favorite"
The Jackets lost a sloppy and miserable game to Chicago and immediately afterward Kris Russell was traded to the St. Louis Blues for Nikita Nikitin, a move which caused some fans (me included) to cry and others to ask “who is Nikita Nikitin?”. Still others were puzzled why Ken Hitchcock, who hadn’t seemed to care for Russell’s style of play, would want a small, puck-moving D-man, when he favored larger, stay at home types. After the crying abated, the fan base gave a collective shrug, as if to say, “well, what now? We have no idea what anyone in the front office is thinking”.
Scott Howson addressed STH’s after a morning skate on Saturday morning, an event I was not invited to, not being STH, and did not flinch in the light of harsh questioning. Retail workers were warned coming into the game not to express any opinions about the trade, the state of the goalie situation, who should or should not be traded, or any other personnel. I went to my stand apprehensive, not knowing the mood of the fans and hoping that no one would engage me in conversation.
Instead, we were all treated to a more crisp game, excellent goaltending, and stepped up defensive. Was it Jeff Carter’s game that elevated everyone else’s or was it simply, as my friend Tim, an usher, said, that with players being played on more appropriate lines, they were actually playing their games instead of someone else’s. The fans were happy, Ryan Johansen shone with his 2 goals, and the team actually looked good and fairly cohesive.
Afterwards, I polled twitter to see how “the new guys” did and the consensus was that both Mark Letestu and Nikitin looked good. They both had an assist that evening and neither looked out of place. The line of Prospal-Letestu-Johansen clicked well and Nikitin, playing with Fedor Tyutin, looked as some said, “better than advertised.”
The only downer to the evening was seeing a picture of KRuss in his Blues uniform and hearing that he scored a goal for his new team. I wish him all the best in his career, but I will still miss him and seeing all the #10 stuff on sale last night really made me sad.
So, here’s to Mark Letestu and Nikita Nikitin with all good wishes for their future success as members of the Blue Jackets family. I’m sure I will adopt you as one of my boys in good time. And here’s to Kris Russell, or “Cute Kris” as I’ve called him for 3 years now: I hope you have a super terrific career, Kris. I’ll miss you and follow your progress wherever you go. Columbus loves and misses you.
And of course, Let’s go Jackets!
Goodbye, Kris, I miss you already!
Stacy G. for Fire That Cannon