The Jacketsblog: An Unofficial Columbus Blue Jackets Blog

The Blue Jackets head to the Windy City after having their 3-game win streak snapped in St. Louis. The fans will be pumped and so will the ‘Hawks as they look to leave a good impression before heading out on an 8-game road trip that lasts the rest of the month.

8:30pm EST, Fox Sports Ohio, Standard Defintion

The Blue Jackets look to be over-matched tonight as they try to upset the locals in Chi-town. The Hawks have been off since Sunday night and have managed to lose two games straight for only the 3rd time all year… they have yet to lose 3 straight all season. Goals per game, goals against per game, penalty kill, power play, and faceoff are all advantage Chicago. Tonight looks very much like a typical Blue Jackets “out of the blue” win. Everybody knows what I mean here, it always seems to come at the least expected times. The Jackets are a mentally fragile bunch and we will find out tonight if the recent 4-3-2 stretch of mostly improved defensive play was just a glitch, or true marked improvement.

The Blue Jackets will welcome defenseman Kris Russell (4-8-12, -5) back to the line-up after missing 2 games with a lower body injury as well as winger Derek Dorsett (1-3-4, +2) after he broke his hand on December 12, 2009. Russell and Dorsett will replace Picard and Roy in the line-up (Puck-rakers). This does nothing but agitate me. Pullying Mathieu Roy from the line-up is a huge mistake. Roy has been the least noticeable defenseman in a group whose play changes like Ohio weather. Not noticing a defenseman is a good thing. I can think of a few specific plays in the last couple games noticing our “best” defensmen losing a board battle, getting beat by the forecheckers, or making a glaring turnover in the defensive zone. I’m sure Hitchcock’s argument would be along the lines of “you have to play your best players” well, in my book, “best” does not mean “highest paid” or “best known name”. Fedor Tyutin, Mike Commodore, Anton Stralman, and hell even Jan Hejda have been the worst defenders on the ice in recent games with Milan Jurcina and Mathieu Roy being the lone glimmer of sound play.

All told, I don’t get paid the big bucks, or take the heat for losses, so why listen to me? Regardless….

GO JACKETS!!!

Can they make it 4-in-a-row? The cards are stacked against the Blue Jackets, but the toughest player on the roster returns to the line-up tonight.

8:00pm EST, Fox Sports Ohio, High Definition

Hard to believe this is the Blue Jackets first trip out to St. Louis, but it really is. The way the NHL has a very strong concentration of in-division games in the last half of the season is kinda silly in my opinion. I understand the purpose, which is to drum up the rivalries, and it has for me at least (TJ Oshie anyone?), but when it comes to keeping those teams in the forefront of your thoughts, it doesn’t make much sense. It’s kind of like the rivalry gets built up at the end of the year, then suddenly you go 9 months before you play them again and the rivalry has fizzled out a bit. Another argument against lumping the bulk of the division schedule at the end of the season is if one team gets very hot. Say the Wings are on a hot streak in the final 10-15 games, well guess what, the CBJ play Detroit 3 times in the same stretch. My opinion? Spread the 6 divisional games out, maybe have a home-and-home series in the early and late going, but the remaining games should be spread out. (/rant)

The Jackets were able to win the first match-up against the Blues earlier this season, a game in which RJ Umberger recorded his second career hat trick, and the Blue Jackets won 5-2. The Blues have won only one of their last 8 games but will get a valuable spark tonight as both Paul Kariya and Keith Tkachuk return to the ice. The Jackets are riding an unexpected 3-game win streak and should have Derek Dorsett back in the line-up. I am not in the camp that believe the Blue Jackets skid prior to the current streak was due strictly to the absence of Derek Dorsett. I do believe that his absence contributed to a perfect storm of poor goaltending, lack of energy, and missing on-ice leadership. Recently we’ve seen the inverse of this, when players have stepped up, goaltending has improved, and the veterans are leading on-ice.

The Jackets’ fans are hungry, the team has played hungry, and yes…

Hitch is hungry… (for points that is)

Go Jackets

The Blue Jackets return home to face the Stars, and we get to play my favorite game the “Marty Turco Drinking Game”. I haven’t put much into designing this game, except that when he handles the puck, DRINK!

7:00pm EST Fox Sports Ohio, Standard Definition

The Jackets hope to continue their recent solid play with a good showing against the Stars. The season series against the Stars sits at 1-1 thus far, with both games having been played in the Lone Star State. As reported on Puck-rakers Modin and Russell will be out of the line-up tonight. After already missing Modin against the Flames the forward group will not have to make many adjustments and with the extra healthy defenseman in Mathieu Roy, the defensive corps sould not see much drop off. If anything they will definitely miss Russell puck-moving and speed on the rush.

Here’s the projected CBJ Line-up for tonight:

F1: Kristian Huselius — R.J. Umberger — Rick Nash
F2: Raffi Torres — Antoine Vermette — Jake Voracek
F3: Alexandre Picard — Derick Brassard — Chris Clark
F4: Andrew Murray — Sammy Pahlsson — Jared Boll

D1: Jan Hejda — Mike Commodore
D2: Fedor Tyutin — Anton Stralman
D3: Mathieu Roy — Milan Jurcina

Really don’t like the 3rd forward line of Picard-Brass-Clark… But I can’t discredit Hitch for sticking with the top 6 that has won two straight. In all honesty, the 3rd line and 4th line probably could switch around too, line 3 doesn’t scream defense, and line 4 is a mix of energy of defense. It will be interesting to see what lines are matched up, as the top line of Dallas has been a scoring threat all season, and the others all present a different kind of problem defensively.

Personally speaking, it will be great to get back into Nationwide for the first time since the overtime victory against the Wings, and the first time in 2010. At this point it will be very interesting to see how the Jackets respond when it isn’t them against the world in a hostile road environment, but instead in front of probably a few empty seats tonight. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong by our fans, but how can anyone blame them for staying away after the recent streak of suck. Regardless, cheer on the team, look for a complete effort as we’ve seen in the last two, and carry the flag!

Go Jackets!

The Blue Jackets head 280km’s south and face a very different foe, in a very different situation tonight in Calgary.

9:00pm EST, Fox Sports Ohio Standard Definition

*A quick note, I’d like to publicly apologize for the confusion when it comes to last night’s HD or no HD. The original CBJ broadcast schedule on FSO listed last night as SD. I believe it was a late addition to the HD broadcast and therefore not all the providers outside of Time Warner Cable picked up the broadcast. So fans with DirecTV (like me) were not able to see the Jackets win in style.

The Flames present a formidable opponent and sit at 3rd place in the Western Conference (25-13-5, 55 points) with a slim lead in the Northwest division. Making things more interesting tonight will be the re-entry of d-man Mike Commodore into the line-up. Commodore’s season has been a forgettable one after the outstanding season he put together when paired with Jan Hejda.

Commodore will get a chance to prove himself in a return to the line-up tonight and unfortunately one of the guys who I believe has played great lately, and all season for that matter, will come out. Puck-rakers predicts that Mathieu Roy will be the defenseman to get the hook tonight in favor of Commie, but I know that many will agree a d-man such as Tyutin or Stralman would be a better candidate to get the hook tonight. Against the Flames is no night for the faint of heart, and Stralman has certainly been one of the biggest pushovers as of late on the back-end.

Regardless of who plays and who doesn’t, much like last night, I will be happy with a complete effort and if this thing gets chippy like it should, the Jackets must stand up for themselves, I’d be very happy with even a little more fire from the Captain tonight.

Time to stand up, GO JACKETS!!!