More generally, though, they need to hit the big red button on this roster. Nash isn’t exactly the best captain out there, nor the best go-to goal-scorer. Hard to be a great leader or clutch player when your performance is as hot and cold and his is in an average season. Admittedly, it’s hard to excel when he has jack shit to work with – in Calgary, they call it “Iginla Syndrome” – but Nash can be a pretty lazy, uninspiring guy as often as he decides to step up and win games for his team. More generally, though, laziness is a problem elsewhere too – Huselius is lax too, and Jeff Carter… well, he’s not so much lazy as selfish. He’s a guy who only really works when he’s being fed the puck, and doesn’t really work so well the other way around. Problems elsewhere – they have nothing on the blueline worthy of mention. When the Wiz is your biggest-name defender, you’re eight kinds of fucked. Defensive depth is absolutely horrific. In all honesty, Umberger’s probably the best thing about this club. Consistency, hard work and talent enough to matter. He’s everything the Jackets as a whole AREN’T.

So, yeah, I say blow up the roster. Fire Howson and try desperately to get better scouts and a GM who’ll listen to them, because part of this rebuild is going to be relying on the lottery pick they’ve already more or less guaranteed themselves and for God’s sake, they need to make this one good. Another Filatov would be crippling. Sell guys like Nash and Huselius, try to keep Umberger and Carter if possible, but be prepared to give them up too. This roster is just not able to produce anything. Their crowning achievement was a first-round sweep. There’s just no hope for this lineup or anything close to it.