Less than 24 hours after one of the NHL's most notorious coaches resigned from the Blue Jackets under a new cloud of controversy, the most invisible owner in the NHL, John P. McConnell, presided over his team's media day luncheon.
McConnell wasn't around Monday at Nationwide Arena, as usual, but his face would've been a perfect sight on the video board above center ice — which was positioned right behind where John Davidson, the Blue Jackets ' president of hockey operations, and general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, squirmed in their seats.
More: Columbus Blue Jackets ownership: No changes in front office 'at this time'
As the Jackets' top hockey executives issued an awkward, often contradictory mea culpa during a packed press conference — explaining and justifying the hiring of Mike Babcock before explaining and justifying his resignation 78 days later — a strongly-worded statement attributed to McConnell arrived with a boom inside a building known for its cannon.
Three words in particular − "at this time" − stood out.
"We had candid conversations with our leadership after last season about our goals and expectations for growth and progress on the ice in 2023-24," McConnell's statement said. "Those expectations are still in place and can still be achieved, so we do not anticipate further changes to our hockey leadership team at this time."
In other words, stop demanding they be fired ... at this time.
Instead, focus on the future of a team that's now on its third head coach since April , the affable and astute Pascal Vincent . Perhaps this year's Jackets will make everybody forget about Babcock, the phone-seeking elephant in the room.
Nowhere in McConnell's statement did it mention the reason for Babcock's forced resignation, which happened five days after allegations surfaced that described the coach invading players' privacy by rifling through their phones to look at photos during summer "get to know you" meetings.
It did, however, include Davidson and Kekalainen, who now appear to be atop a Dean Wormer style "double secret probation" list. What that means, exactly, is up for interpretation.
What can safely be determined is that McConnell and his equally vaporous right-hand man, Blue Jackets president and CEO Mike Priest, determined that brooming an entire hockey operations suite three days before training camp is no way to go into an NHL season.
"I think what's happened here is we've had discussions with our ownership, and it was very supportive," Davidson said. "It was revolving around our goals for the season. We need to make a major improvement compared to a year ago with all the issues we had and I still think we can. I believe the ownership is in a situation where they believe that and it's on us to prove it."
In other words, Babcock will take the fall, on his own, for the Jackets' latest embarrassment until further notice.
It was quite the dance routine by the Jackets' brass.
"Players love to play hockey," Kekalainen said. "I think they'd love to put this behind them and move forward, and get to do, again, what they love to do, which is get on the ice and compete and win hockey games. … based on my conversations, they're really looking forward to moving on and getting on the ice."
Based on his ashen face and the slight tremble in Davidson's voice while reading his own statement, Blue Jackets players aren't the only ones hoping to "move on" quickly.
Along with "at this time," the phrases "moving on," and "moving forward," dominated the press conference.
The Blue Jackets made it clear that "moving on" from a humbling, humiliating chapter in team history is something they badly want to accomplish, almost as if hiring Babcock never happened.
"It's time to move on," was uttered many times before the media crowd dispersed.
Davidson and Kekalainen said it numerous times. Vincent said it several times. All four players who spoke with reporters leaned heavily into it. A team spokesman even said it while shielding 30-year old captain Boone Jenner from one more pesky Babcock-related inquiry.
The Jackets' message was delivered with a rinse and repeat, beginning with McConnell's statement. After starting out by saying the Jackets' "ownership group" is "deeply frustrated and disappointed," the only mention of Babcock is a line agreeing that he needed to go.
The rest was about moving forward by winning games, which is the quickest way to dissipate a self-induced stench of player/coach privacy issues.
Nearly every time Davidson or Kekalainen accepted blame for Babcock — whose reputation as a bully long preceded his hiring — they'd contradict their words with hopeful, focus-shifting thoughts about the pending season or, in Kekalainen's case, veiled defenses of his decision to hire Babcock.
Here's just one example from Kekalainen's opening statement:
"It's obviously fair to question our due diligence, but I can assure you that it was done thoroughly. At the end of the day, I believed that Mike Babcock deserved another opportunity to coach. Obviously, that was a mistake, and that responsibility is mine … I do not believe there were any ill intentions on Mike's part, in the way he conducted interviews with our players to get to know them. However, whether there was intent or not, some of our players weren't comfortable with his methods and that was concerning."
A source told The Dispatch that one of those guys was a young player who met with Babcock somewhere outside of Nationwide Arena. The player told the NHLPA's investigators — executive director Marty Walsh and assistant executive director Ron Hainsey — that he grew uncomfortable when Babcock allegedly scrolled through photos and possibly text messages while holding his phone for several minutes.
Multiple attempts to reach Babcock were unsuccessful. Sportsnet has also cited multiple sources who detailed a nearly identical account. Davidson was asked whether he considered that specific scenario to be appropriate during a coach/player meeting.
"I don't feel it would be appropriate, but I don't know what happened," Davidson said. "We've never been told that. I have no idea."
Earlier in Monday's press conference, Davidson was asked to lay out how the situation morphed from a podcast allegation by former NHL player and TV analyst Paul Bissonnette into an NHLPA on-site investigation and resignation in a matter of days.
Davidson detailed the process, including a call from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman while dining Friday in Traverse City, Michigan, during the Blue Jackets' trip to a prospect showcase.
According to Davidson, the call included Bettman, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and NHLPA reps. He didn't specify if the union's reps were Walsh and/or Hainsey, who had flown to Columbus on Thursday to speak with Blue Jackets players.
"They filled me in with what had transpired with their investigation, and with that, I went to Jarmo and our group … and we started the process of what we were going to do," Davidson said. "We had to digest it, figure it out, and with that, Jarmo ended up meeting with Mike Babcock … and basically there was going to be no end to this. This is what we had to do, and the resignation process started at that point. That's the exact traffic."
Pressed further on what the Blue Jackets were told about Babcock's actions, Davidson continued to obfuscate the team's knowledge of specifics. He did acknowledge that an "agreement" of some sort was reached with Babcock.
"I think what is fair to say is he made players very uncomfortable, and we just can't continue with that happening," he said. "You know, sometimes when things happen, there's players involved and that's a private world — and sometimes you need to leave it there. But I do know there were things that happened, and that's what led to this point where we're at right now."
Now comes the hard part.
Davidson and Kekalainen, the top two members of the Blue Jackets' hockey brass, may have lost a significant amount of trust with players and others within the organization. Each deserves credit for taking responsibility for the mess the Blue Jackets are facing, but was that enough?
Kekalainen apologized to players Monday in a meeting, but not for ignoring the inherent risks of hiring a coach with a well-publicized record of bullying players. His apology was for "any awkward situation that this may have put them in … it was my sincere apology to them."
Kekalainen also cited "the distractions caused by this," as the primary reason Babcock was asked to resign, not anything the former coach said or did during interactions with players, coaches or staff during his short stint.
Players aren't dumb. They will notice the difference, so it's fair to wonder how much trust, if any, Kekalainen can reclaim. He's a likable guy, a former player, and has a whip-smart mind for GM tasks like pulling off blockbuster trades and finding hockey talent.
Davidson, meanwhile, faces a similar climb.
He, too, is a former player, has been around the NHL a long time and is a supremely likeable person. He also showed more contrition by saying with conviction what many people wantd to hear from the Blue Jackets' brain trust.
"We went through a process earlier this summer, prior to hiring Mike Babcock as our head coach, but we got it wrong … and that's on us," Davidson said. "I can promise you we will learn from this moving forward. I also understand the criticism that we are getting. It is deserved, but all we can do now is learn from it and do everything we can to help our coaches and players get ready for the season."
Davidson called the situation, "one of the toughest times I've been a part of in my long dealings and career in the National Hockey League," and labeled it "very troubling."
Asked why he and Kekalainen overlooked a 60-year old leopard's very noticeable spots, which quite a few Blue Jackets fans openly saw and complained about, Davidson again struck the right chords.
"Maybe they were right," he said. "It's on us. It's on me."
More: 'We got it wrong': Columbus Blue Jackets admit 'major misstep' with Mike Babcock hire
Like Kekalainen, Davidson also talked about extensive "research" done on Babcock before making another blunt admission.
"Sometimes you just flat out make a mistake," he said. "We made a mistake."
Something that's hard to get past about that mistake is that it wouldn't have been corrected if it weren't for Blue Jackets players piping up about it to a podcaster and the NHLPA. Babcock would still be the coach had nothing been said, which casts doubt on whether management's contrition will be enough to regain the trust of players, coaches, staff and fans, not to mention an irritated owner who seems to have placed his top hockey execs on double-secret probation.
Will winning be the Jackets cure-all that makes it all better?
The answer is unknown at this time.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets aim to move on from Mike Babcock controversy
