SJS 0 – CBJ 3
With the Sharks circling in the closing minutes the Blue Jackets, led by Steve Mason, stood tall. Not enough can be said about how clutch Mason’s play was last night. The Sharks put up 40 shots, including 20 in the 3rd period, and Mase stopped them all. Tonight was a textbook example of why games are not played on paper, as in many sports, the role of underdog can be a tough one but the Blue Jackets know it well, and played the role of spoiler perfectly tonight.
I believe that had the Sharks been able to put one home in the last minutes the Jackets easily could have crumbled against the newly invigorated San Jose attack. The team is still mentally fragile, but Interim Head Coach Noel has given them a new, fresh look on life and hockey, and as he puts it are showing the emotion and playing passionate hockey.
The game started off relatively slow with both teams very carefully poking and prodding, but it quickly ramped up after an icing call against the Sharks and some “extracurriculars” ensued after the whistle. From there on things ramped up with each passing minute until the final flurry.
Scoring for the Jackets tonight were Rick Nash, Jakub Voracek, and Antoine Vermette. Once again, the Jackets scored first under Claude Noel as they have yet to even trail or relinquish a lead under his leadership. The time will come when the club will have to fight adversity and find a way to win a tough game, but hell, LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL! It was outstanding to see Jake break his 26-game goalless drought, but making it even sweeter was the outstanding pass from Derick Brassard as he saucered it perfectly in front of Jake streaking towards the net.
It has been really great to see this team performing to the level we all expected this season, but as some pointed out on twitter and other outlets, if Steve Mason was performing this way a month, let alone two weeks ago, Hitch wouldn’t have been fired, and the CBJ would be in the playoff hunt. It can go both ways however, as Hitchcock was saying many of the right things about his players, but the message had grown tiresome, and the team was being suffocated. Is the current streak due to Hitch’s removal or is Noel really that great of a coach? Time will tell, and soon. When there is a mid-season coaching change, there is always an extra jump in the step of the players and usually an increase in wins and effort, but for how long? The Pens last year come to mind, going on to win 9 of 10 and eventually the Stanley Cup after firing Michel Therrien, but take a second and look at more recent firing/hiring’s with the Blues and Flyers. The Flyers won only 2 of the next 10 games after firing John Stevens and the Blues won 6 of their next 11, finding some success and some failure.
Don’t get me wrong, I wish Noel the utmost success, but we don’t need to get ahead of ourselves expecting a miracle run to the playoffs and maybe more after “just” a 3 game winning streak. I’ll support the team regardless who’s behind the bench… unless his name is Mac…. I won’t go any further.
Go Jackets
