Ryan Johansen’s return to Columbus was far from perfect. His team, the Nashville Predators got the win, but Johansen failed to record a point, which had to be disappointing for him. He was also disappointed that the Blue Jackets didn’t do a highlight video or thank you video on the video board.
“I am a little disappointed they didn’t put anything on the Jumbotron and say ‘thank you’ or anything like that. I think we all know who made that call, but whatever.”
Sam Blazer of Buckeye State Hockey wrote a great article on why Johansen should have got tribute video.
Here I am going to play devil’s advocate and explain why the Blue Jackets were right in not giving Johansen a tribute video.
First of all Johansen has every right to be disappointed, Seth Jones got a video in his return to Nashville, and the Blue Jackets did videos for Fedor Tyutin and Jared Boll this season; two players who were with the franchise for a long time but did not have the success or impact Johansen did.
I think Johansen is wrong though in implying that the front office is the one who nixed the idea of a video. Personally I really don’t think the front office cares that much about video tributes, and I really don’t think they would be petty enough to tell the game ops department they can’t do one. If they did I feel like that is a huge overstep of boundaries, they need to let the game ops department do their job and look after the game operations.
It’s understandable why people would think this call came from the higher ups. The Blue Jackets and Johansen went through a very long and public contract negotiation in the 2014 off-season. It started with Johansen calling the Blue Jackets initial offer a “slap in the face,” sitting out the whole summer, missing training camp and the pre-season, before settling on a three year $12M deal. This was not the first time a player has held out and both sides should realize this how the business of the game works. This would be a really bad reason for the front office to not give a player a video tribute.
Even if the relationship between the player and team were strained, you would think the team would be able to realize the value Johansen provided to the franchise. He had his best season to date after the holdout with 71 points in 82 games, and made the All-Star team. Even the next season when the team was terrible, Johansen still had 26 points in 38 games. He was also used to acquire Seth Jones, which might be his biggest contribution to the franchise. Jones is the number one defencemen this team has needed forever. There is really no reason for the front office to say no to a thank you video.
A video tribute wasn’t done because it wouldn’t have gone over well with the fans. Johansen’s relationship with the fan base was hurt during that contract negotiation. Fans turned on him thinking he was greedy and selfish for not taking the Jackets offer. Fans in general are irrational; they don’t care for the business side of the game, all they see is a player turning down millions of dollars. Regardless of how you felt about that whole situation it no doubt soured the fans impression of Johansen and left a bitter taste in their mouths.
Johansen did what he could to mend his relationship with the fans. As mentioned he played exceptionally well the following season. He starred in the All-Star game which took place in Columbus in front of his home fans. He was the first pick in the All-Star fantasy draft, picked by teammate Nick Foligno. He stole the show at the skills competition during the breakaway challenge where he came out wearing a The Ohio State Buckeyes jersey, and brought out 7-year-old Cole Vogt, the son of Blue Jackets trainer Mike Vogt. He was also named MVP of the All-Star game after his two goal, two assist performance. He did everything he could to mend the wound.
Unfortunately everything Johansen did was just a Band-Aid that was ripped off the following season. After the 0-8-0 start the fans were looking for a scapegoat. The first was the coach and after Todd Richards was fired, the fans turned on the team’s best player; Johansen. Fans thought he was lazy, didn’t care, and didn’t work hard. It didn’t help that John Tortorella in his first few days as the new head coach, called Johansen out of shape, benched him for the third period of a game, and then healthy scratched him. That in my opinion was the nail in the coffin. Tortorella had essentially confirmed what many were already saying about Johansen. After that trade rumours swirled and eventually Johansen was dealt for Seth Jones, in a deal very few fans were disappointed with.
Over a year later its clear fans still are not ready to forgive Johansen and acknowledge the impact he had on the franchise. The game ops department anticipated that the fans did not want a tribute video and they were right. Johansen was booed when he was announced as a starter, and there would have been a ton of boo’s if a video was done. The team was stuck between a rock and a hard place. If you do a video it gets booed, you look bad, you don’t do a video, the player calls you out and you look bad. The game ops people did what they felt most fans wanted. Look at this poll done by The CBJ Artillery.
The Artillery is a large fan group and are a decent indication of what the fans think. There are over 1000 votes on that poll and 57% think there shouldn’t have been a video for Johansen.
The Blue Jackets and the game operations department made the right decision. The fans were not going to be receptive to a video tribute for Ryan Johansen. It’s disappointing for Johansen and for the fans that supported him that he wasn’t acknowledged. It’s unfortunate because Johansen was such a big part of the franchise and didn’t do anything wrong, he had a long contract negotiation. Johansen did everything he could to repair the damages but it was no use, the fans were quick to scapegoat him when things went bad. Fans were not ready to welcome him back and the team anticipated that and might the right call to not do a video tribute.
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@PaulBerthelot 
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