Jarmo Kekäläinen out as Columbus Blue Jackets finally look in the mirror

It felt like it was all just a matter of time.

This morning, after maybe the most tumultuous season in a league year too full of tumult, the Columbus Blue Jackets announced that they had relieved long-time general manager Jarmo Kekäläinen of his duties.

Perhaps first and foremost, the Blue Jackets ended last night as the worst team in the Eastern Conference, 10 games below even the NHL's generous conception of .500 and with the fourth-worst points percentage in the league. They were even worse last year, winning just 25 games despite signing Johnny Gaudreau and other expensive players to long-term contracts that simply haven't worked out, or generated anything you could consider team success.

But crucially, this comes after Kekäläinen hired scandal-plagued Mike Babcock to coach the team, a co