Blue Jackets fans have had little to cheer since the team's first season in 2000-01. (Terry Gilliam/AP)

As this unusually calamitous NHL season pauses for a few days, the bleary eyes of the hockey world will try to focus on the big All-Star Weekend party in Ottawa. But about 650 miles to the southwest, a much smaller hockey gathering on Saturday will be less jovial. In fact, it will be somewhat angry.

In front of Nationwide Arena in Columbus, perhaps a few hundred fans will gather to protest the state of the Blue Jackets, the league’s worst team and a franchise that has never really achieved much of anything. They want team president Mike Priest and GM Scott Howson replaced — things that owner John P. McConnell told Aaron Portzline of The Columbus Dispatch in Friday’s edition he is not contemplating — and they want a fresh start for a team that had only 13 wins in 49 games before the break. This stands to become the Blue Jackets’ worst season yet.

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Like the Islanders, the Blue Jackets are threatened by ongoing mediocrity and an onerous arena lease, (Matthew Emmons/US Presswire)

New York Islanders owner Charles Wang may have retreated from his veiled threats to move his team unless he gets a new arena, but another NHL owner has now played the relocation card in his effort to reverse the financial plight of his franchise.

It’s been no secret that the Blue Jackets have lost lots of money in recent seasons — reportedly a stunning $53 million over the previous three years with just under half of that amount, around $25 million, going down the drain last season alone. That’s what can happen when fans are disappointed and become disaffected after seasons of losing or, at best, mediocrity. But another major contributor to the Jackets’ red ink is their lease on Nationwide Arena, which they say makes up $10-$12 million of their losses annually.
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