Thursday, September 13, 2012  John P. McConnell voted to lock
out the NHL players  CBJ Majority Owner John P. McConnell Well,
either he did or his alternate governor, Mike Priest.  For NHL
Commissioner Gary Bettman informs us that the Board of Governors
voted unanimously to lock out the NHLPA's members.  Unanimous
means everyone, which means that the Blue Jackets ownership
voted for the lockout.  This is a Blue Jackets blog, so I'm not
going to comment on the vote taken by the other 29 teams'
owners.  I wouldn't pretend to understand their motivations.
 I'll also admit that I'm not intimately familiar with the
motivations of the Blue Jackets ownership, but I've pieced
together a handful of reasons why a lockout in Columbus probably
would hurt our community as bad as, if not worse than, any other
NHL community.  Remember, the owners could have voted to skip
the lockout, play the season under the expired collective
bargaining agreement rules and keep negotiating with the
players.  To a man, they voted not to do