FanHouse Adam Foote

Thursday night, the Columbus Blue Jackets will begin their quest into the strange new world that is the NHL playoffs. To get an idea of the atmosphere around town, and to continue to learn more about this once anonymous franchise, we discussed its upcoming series against the Detroit Red Wings with Aaron Portzline, beat writer for the Columbus Dispatch. Portzline, one of the most net-savvy of hockey's beat writers, also helps run a blog for the paper called Puck-rakers and has an excellent Twitter page.

Portzline has covered the Blue Jackets since their inaugural season in 2000-01, and has seen all of the ups and downs the franchise has offered over the years.

Welcome to another exciting edition of the NHL Wheel of Discipline! Our effort to chronicle the stupidity of the NHL's supplementary discipline system continues. Just remember, Sean Avery got six games for a sex joke. Instead of serving as a baseline, it seems to be a forgotten fact at NHL headquarters.

There's no denying the positive effect a hard, clean check can have on a hockey team. Energizes the bench, and if you're at home, it also energizes the fans. It can be a huge momentum swing.

The case could be made that this punishment wasn't severe enough, but at least there was one.

The NHL Monday announced a three-game suspension for Kings forward John Zeiler. You may remember Zeiler's brutal shot on Colorado defenseman Adam Foote Saturday night in Los Angeles. He will not be eligible to play again until December 1, and he'll forfeit nearly $9,000 in salary.

The NHL Wheel of Discipline probably could have come up with a higher number, but three games is three more games than it could have been.

Meanwhile, we still don't know how badly Foote was injured. Adrian Dater of the Denver Post reports Foote is due for more tests on back and neck issues, and there is a chance he also suffered a concussion on the hit. He's definitely out for Monday's game at Anaheim.

I'm not a fan of basing punishments for illegal hits on how long a player is going to miss with injury. I'd prefer that a system be set up to hand out punishments that don't seem to come out of thin air.

Zeiler deserves a longer suspension for a stupid, dirty, brutal hit. The message needs to be sent that this stuff isn't going to be tolerated, and making a guy miss 3.7 percent of his team's season and taking $9,000 out of his wallet doesn't get the job done.

With any luck, Foote is back in the Avalanche lineup before Zeiler is allowed to return.

It's been a couple weeks since we rolled out the NHL Wheel of Discipline, so I guess it was due for a return.

Our subject this time around is John Zeiler of the Los Angeles Kings. During Saturday's game against Colorado, Zeiler attempted to decapitate veteran Avs defenseman Adam Foote, sending him head-first into the boards while the two were chasing a loose puck in the Colorado zone.

While the hit set off a brief but rather intense melee between the two teams, and it also caused Foote to miss the rest of the game (by the way, we still don't know how long Foote could be out.), that's not the point here.

We have reached the stage where the NHL needs to do something. While the hit by Doug Weight on Brandon Sutter may have been clean (according to the letter of the law, so to speak), this was most certainly not. Foote was facing the boards the whole way, and Zeiler followed him, hit him hard from behind, and drove him into the boards.

Video and discussion of a possible suspension after the jump.

Click here for more NHL playoff previews.

There was a time when the Red Wings-Avalanche rivalry was the fiercest in the sport. We're talking bench clearing brawls, Sports Illustrated covers and a whole lot of bad blood. Oh, and they occasionally played some hockey too.

But thanks to time and tide -- though mostly due to the fact that Colorado hasn't demonstrated the same sort of sustained excellence we've seen out of Detroit -- what was once a turgid cauldron of hate is now just some chicken noodle soup on a long simmer.

But that might change momentarily. At the trade deadline the Avalanche brought back two old faces -- Adam Foote and Peter Forsberg -- who remember quite well what this rivalry used to be all about. Toss in Jose Theodore, a once-great goalie who has suddenly revived his game, and we might be in for a few surprises.

When Adam Foote signed a huge 3-year $13.5mil contract to play in Columbus, the BJ's thought they were getting a stalwart defensive stopper that would lead them to the playoffs.

Instead, Foote has stunk and so have the Blue Jackets. Now, the Foote Soldiers is missing the winning and fun he had in Colorado.

"I'd be lying to you, and I think you all are aware, we love Colorado. ... We wish we'd never left, but we did, it's unfortunate, but, it's a business - and one day, you never know ..."

As if the Jackets don't have enough problems! Now, their captain comes out and basically says he isn't happy in Columbus. Talk about putting your Foote in your mouth *yuk yuk*

Well, I'm sure the feeling is mutual, bubs. Ever since going to Columbus, Foote has been a shadow of his former self, and not a very effective defensive presence for the Jackets.

SEASON TEAM GP G A PTS +/-

03-04  COL  73 8 22 30 +13

05-06  CBJ  65 6 16 22 -16

06-07  CBJ  59 3  9 12 -17

Poor defense. Poor offense, and now poor leadership.

Foote should have known what he was getting into when he signed on the dotted line. The Blue Jackets were a poor team with a poor group of prospects. When you sign a contract for big money, without considering other factors, you shouldn't whine about it later.