Columbus Blue Jackets Twitter Follows You Can’t Live Without

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When my friends and family ask me why I know so much useless trivia or minute stats and details about sports, I have a couple standby answers. First is that I watch sports constantly, and second, is this fantastic thing called the fail whale Twitter. With social media still on the rise, I get all my news in 140 characters or less and it fills up my brain day in and day out.

Especially important when you cannot live without your injury updates, new line combinations and quotes (ridiculous or not) from the coach and team, is Twitter. I can be across the country, without a TV or radio and the only thing that gets me through the game is my Twitter feed. So with that, I present to you the Columbus Blue Jackets Twitter follows you can’t live without.

Official Blue Jackets Staff

Blue Jackets Official
  • We’ll start things off with the official twitter feed. The @BlueJacketsNHL feed is everything you’d expect: highlights, lowlights, off ice promos and a live feed of each and every pregame, in-game, and post game item you can think of.

 

Kristyn Repke
  • @KristynRepke is the Digital Media Coordinator for the Jackets. She tweets it all, especially the “insider” stuff from each practice.

The Local Media

Columbus Dispatch:

Aaron Portzline and Shawn Mitchell
  • I lump these two guys (@Aportzline and @smitchcd) together because of the stream of ridiculously good content they put together. Along with a third Columbus Dispatch writer Michael Arace (@MichaelArace1) who hasn’t tweeted since June, they comprise the Puck-Rakers. All three guys must live in Nationwide Arena because they are usually first to break even the smallest bit of news that comes from the Jackets franchise.

Broadcast team:

Jeff Rimer
  • Jeff Rimer (@jrimercbj) joined the Blue Jackets in 2004-05 as their on air lead broadcaster and hasn’t left since. You’ll commonly hear his energetic calls of Sergei Bobrovsky’s saves across CBJ highlight reels. While with the Florida Panthers, he co-hosted the “Inside the NHL” radio program with Jackets’ President John Davidson while both were in Florida.

Jody Shelley
  • A while back, I wrote that Jody Shelley (@shelleyhawk45) was one of the best Blue Jackets of all time. This was just after the Blue Jackets had brought Shelley back to be their “team ambassador” and broadcast associate. He has quite the view during games and has been doing very well on the TV broadcasts. I can’t wait to see what else is in store for old number 45.

Bob McElligott
  • After being the radio and TV commentator for the Syracuse Crunch (Columbus’s AHL affiliate) for 10 years, Bob McElligott (@BobbyMacSports) has now stepped into similar shoes with the NHL club.

Players, Coaches and Front Office

I’d like to say that there are some coaches and staff that do a great job tweeting, but those guys just don’t tweet enough. President of Hockey Operations John Davidson and Head Coach Todd Richards don’t have Twitter accounts and GM Jarmo Kekalainen hasn’t tweeted since September 12th. We’ll have to stick to the players in this category.

Best of the rest

  • The Jacket Backers “support the CBJ, serve its charities, encourage participation in and support of amateur hockey and promote sociality among its members.” It’s great to have a charitable group that supports the Blue Jackets and the Blue Jackets Foundation.
  • If following the future stars of the Jackets is your thing, be sure to follow @CBJProspects.
  • The unofficial Sergei Bobrovsky feed is @BobSaysNo. It’s not really Bob, but you should probably tweet them up and give them a big old “BOBROVSKY!” to introduce yourself.

THW Blue Jackets Contributors

Of course, I’m @DougCutlerTHW and I’m a Lead Writer for the Blue Jackets. Follow us to keep an eye on the Blue Jackets, our writing here at @TheHockeyWriter and an occasional little something like this from around the NHL:

The Jackets return to the ice on Thursday in Buffalo and return home in a highly anticipated matchup with Boston at 2:00 pm on Saturday. Go Jackets!