Until this year, RJ Umberger was synonymous with the heart and soul of the Columbus Blue Jackets. But a very slow start combined with the dismal season have caused some fans to be uncomfortable with this. R J’s career, looks like this . If you check the link out, you can see that despite a very good last half of the season, his goals for the season are down a little but his assists are really down. Note also, that his shooting % is not that far off his career average. So what it is? Well, pretty much, it’s about the poor start he had It’s about him signing a new contract and then proceeding NOT to walk on water. It’s about being held responsible for the lousy year, and it’s about fan frustration!!
Outside the room, we can see what we see and guess at the rest. R J’s play on the ice has always appeared to be a blue collar workman like effort with him hanging out in what is called the hard areas, right in front of the goaltender. He wears an “A” on his jersey, and appears to earn the respect of his teammates. There have been no comments or reports of him dogging it in practices. He seems to fit into the new Blue Jacket reshaping concept. Now, I’m going to coin a phrase here, I’m going to call the new Blue Jacket plan of playing mode the “We’re gonna play our ass off” plan. If you like it use it. In a nutshell, I think that’s what the players who are talking are saying.
My favorite memory of this past year re R J Umberger was the game after Cam Atkinson had scored his hat trick and had 2 goals and was trying to get his 3rd for 2 straight games with hat tricks. Very late in the 3rd period, it was obvious that RJ was trying to feed Cam every chance he got, to help him get this 2nd hat trick. The game ended with RJ on the goaltenders right side trying to get the puck to Cam and Cam was on the goalie’s left side, stick high in the air and all wound up to fire the puck as soon as it cam to him. It was really nice to see what was going on. Time just ran out before it happened.
Umberger has been a fan favorite, and he still is. Some fans, who basically want to blow up the Jackets and start again are calling for him to be traded. His $4.5 million contract would not be easy to trade. He does not have $4.5 million skills. But he has $4.5 million value to the Blue Jackets as a person + his skills.
There is no question keep him for next year and beyond as it looks at this time.