CBJ 3 — CGY 6

It looked like the Jackets were on the verge of being run out of the building… and then they were. It was blatantly apparent that the Blue Jackets were caught off guard by the energy that the Flames were coming with. Before even settling down with some milk and cookies for the game, the Jackets were down quick 2-0, and it didn’t look good.

Boom – Boom – 2-0 – Double crap

It wasn’t long after the 2nd goal that the stripes decided to get involved and end this game early. First my favorite D-man Methot got called for tripping and then the best remaining blueliner was called for hi-sticking. Down 2 men, for almost the two full minutes, already on their heels, this couldn’t end well. Well, somehow it did.

2-1 The Captain

This was a huge statement goal by Nash. In my opinion it said a lot about his style of leadership on the ice and in a time when the team needed it badly. Unfortunately the rest of the team didn’t respond. There was a random scrum in front of the nut and one of Calgary’s 10 overpaid D-men put it in the net.

3-1 (Imagine ‘Happy Together’ playing in the background)

It was at this point that I started to consider turning it off, heading to bed… but wait it’s still the freaking first period, gotta give em a chance.

The Jackets came out in the second ready to rock on the power play and rock they did drawing a 2nd penalty not more than 25 seconds into the second creating a 5-3 PP opportunity.

3-2 and the most depressing celebration ever

And without delay, Pro-Wrestler Jake Voracek to the rescue…

3-3 a new game

The difference from this point was that the Jackets knew they could score, but so could the Flames after seeing a shaky Mason in the first. They would capitalize on Mase’s lack of action before the end of the 2nd period, and put the dagger to the Jackets pulling ahead 4-3.

4-3, Oh look my favorite player, barfff

The third period didn’t ever feel like the Jackets had a chance to get back in it, and certainly they didn’t. The power play never got a chance, but the penalty kill didn’t have to do much either. It all came crashing down with a final score of 6-3.

A few positives to take from this:

• The power play is working. I’m not sure if there’s one specific reason for that, but it continues to operate at a much higher level (25.0% 9th) than last year’s mess.
• The penalty kill is still near perfect killing 96.6% so far this year, leading the league too.

The problems are hard to pick but certain things stand out:

• The Jackets are hurt. A defensive line-up of Tyutin-Klesla-Stralman-Russel-Roy-Methot is not going to cut it against a strong group of forwards like the Flames. They sorely miss Commodore and Hejda and should be finding one of them ready to join before this trip is out.
• Mason has been inconsistent. It’s not enough to consider it a sophomore slump by any means, but he has looked “on” then “off” in his starts this season. Even in games he has mostly looked great, there was that bizarre goal he gave up to LA and other WTF moments.

I for one trust in Hitch to get them ready for a very different kind of opponent in the Oilers come tomorrow night.

It looks like the Blue Jackets blue line will not have to suffer much longer. From Aaron Portzline’s twitter:

As expected, D Mike Commodore joins Blue Jackets for full practice today in Calgary’s Pengrowth Saddledome.

@aportzline

And confirmed again by the CBJ’s official twitter account:

Lines for today’s practice are 20-16-61, 93-50-18, 25-26-15/12 and 14-17-40/28. D-Pairs are 3-97, 51-22 and 10-36.

I for one don’t necessarily expect Commie back in the line-up tomorrow night against the hard-hitting Flames unless he is fully back to 100% and in “game-shape” which seems to be the bigger worry right now. The addition of Commodore for the first time this season will be a huge boost for the Jackets, who are starting their first of four straight road games on Tuesday. Even without Commodore, the defensive numbers have been outstanding so far this season. The Blue Jackets sit in a tie for 4th in the league allowing 2.00 goals per game so far this season while on the offensive end are averaging 3.00 goals per game. Compare that to last year’s breakout season, and Jackets were giving up 2.72 goals/game and scoring 2.62 goals/game not exactly something to write home about.

Like many writers, tweeters, chatters, and friends have said, Columbus has not yet played their best hockey. Frankly, they aren’t really that close to playing their best. The forward lines have been spotty at best with the 3rd line being the most consistent with spurts of skill from the Brassard and Vermette lines, but nothing that has been consistently there. The defensive pairings have had to be jumbled around regularly to make room for players who have been injured and the addition of Stralman and emergence of Roy.

Finally a brief look at the road ahead:

Tuesday, 9:30pm @ Calgary (5-10-1 all time in Calgary)

Thursday, 9:30pm @ Edmonton (4-10-2 all time in Edmonton)

Saturday, 10:00pm @ Anaheim (6-7-3 all time in Anaheim)

Sunday, 9:00pm @ Los Angeles (6-9-1 all time in LA)

A big trip ahead indeed

After a strong start, winning 4 out of 5 games, the Kings have faltered as of late. They are in the midst of a 6 game road trip that started October 10 in St. Louis and ends October 19 in Dallas. Since the CBJ’s win on Tuesday night against the Flames the Kings have seemed listless in two losses to the Rangers and Red Wings.

So far this season the Kings’ top players have led the team in points Kopitar (4-7-11), Smyth (5-4-9), and Williams (2-5-7). The Jackets offensive side has not been as successful, but defensively Columbus has shined ranking 5th with 2.20 goals against per game.

When on special teams, here’s what we’ve got:

Los Angeles Power Play 24.2% (11th) VERSUS Columbus Penalty Kill 94.7% (1st)

Columbus Power Play 20.0% (18th) VERSUS Los Angeles Penalty Kill 64.3% (28th)

The decided Columbus special teams advantage will be tested without Jan Hejda in the line-up for the 2nd time ever in his time with the Blue Jackets. With the Kings’ offensive punch and the Blue Jackets’ defensive depletion, most observers would think the Jackets could be in trouble… The thing is, we have yet to see Steve Mason REALLY shine this season. A great game from Mason combined with what will be one of many requests to our d-men to play above their usual roles, will get the Jackets an important home win before the 4-game roadie coming up.

Tonight’s game will be all about wearing down the Kings. They have played 2 games in the time since the Jackets played their last game. This is a decided advantage in my opinion, really this is better than a team coming off of game the night previous, there’s still some adrenaline left then. This should be a “grind-fest” or a shooting gallery if the goalies don’t come to play. Both teams have the offensive talent to hang with the other, it comes down to whose defense flinches first.

CARRY THE FLAG!!!!

Honestly I was not expecting a win, let alone a win in regulation against the Flames. Not only are they a great team, but they were a pissed off team after Monday night’s loss to the ‘Hawks. Barely two minutes into the game the puck dropped in the offensive zone, the Jackets won the faceoff back to the point man, slapper and GOAL! What most fans, including the horn operator didn’t realize was that gloves had already dropped for Jared Boll and the Flames’ Brandon Prust negating said goal.

These two yahoos negated the Jackets’ opening goal

All was not lost as both teams dominated play for stretches as both teams took overlapping penalties, Calgary killed a short CBJ power play, and the Jackets killed an abbreviated Flames power play keeping things even.

1-0 Flames

Borque throws it at the net, Glencross re-directs, goal, barf

The Jackets held serve and went to the intermission down one. For being without our top defender, the game had gone as expected, but not much was being exploited of the surely tired legs of Calgary on the second night of a back-to-back. That would have to change. In the latter half of the 2nd period Mark Giordano took a dumb penalty giving the Jackets their second power play of the night. The Jackets were looking good moving the puck, but made a good situation even better drawing a second penalty on Cory Sarich creating a 5-3 advantage for about 40 seconds. Hitch calls timeout probably to say if somebody didn’t score here they owed him dinner for a month.

1-1 Tie Game

Anton Stralman with his first as a Jacket on a great feed from Brass and Nash

Back in business

There was still over a minute left in the Calgary Penalty and the Jackets were buzzing. They got shots, made crisp passes, the penalty expired.

2-1 Jackets

A whole new game after a great feed to Juice from Nash and RJ

The thing that had changed was the level of intensity. The Jackets knew they hadn’t played to their potential yet this night and weren’t about to let a team already weary win this one. The 2nd ended, and it was a new game.

As expected the third period was tense. But what we as fans have become used to is HOLDING onto leads, rather than blowing them which happened for many many years prior to Hitchcock’s arrival.

3-1 Not so fast… still 2-1

Pretty much the Jackets got screwed, and later the ref admitted it

The fans were mad, the team was mad, but they didn’t let it get to them, there was still a task at hand. They kept pushing and pushing, mostly resulting in messes like this

It didn’t matter, the Jackets held on. This is a new team with a new mentality that can hang with almost anybody, and the best part? They have yet to play their best hockey.

More to come…