Posts Tagged ‘game wrapup

26
Sep
10

Showing some Fight – JACKETS LOSE

By thejacketsblog 1 Comment
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The Jackets put forth a solid effort in their 3rd loss of the pre-season, again at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Both the Jackets and Pens iced talented line-ups and ended up with a game featuring 74 total PIMs including 10 fighting majors.

This being my first CBJ game of the pre-season to actually watch, I was impressed with a few guys, and underwhelmed with a few others:

While this is just the pre-season, Derick Brassard’s face-off percentage has me very worried. In 24 face-offs he won only 6, SIX! A mere 25% for a player with top-line expectations isn’t going to cut it. Now, thankfully Brassard isn’t yet our full-time 1st line center, but he was respectable when facing off against THE Sidney Crosby, winning 3 of 9. This is definitely an area Brassard must improve in if he is to be any more than a tweener 2nd-3rd line center.

The defensemen were a solid group, but no one really stuck out, which is a good and bad thing at times. I want to see more offensive prowess from John Moore, I want to see more body-banging from Jan Hejda and Fedor Tyutin. David Savard, Nate Guenin, and Michael Ratchuk left something to be desired. Ratchuk’s goal seemed more a result of his experiences as a forward convert last season in Syracuse.

Again today I am left wondering what place Jared Boll has on this team. His fight last night was anything but awe-inspiring, just the typical jab-and-grab-on-and-shake-wildly crap we are used to from him.

(via Hockeyfights.com)

On the other hand, what more can you say about Rick Nash? Fans criticize his leadership from time-to-time and the defense is that he leads by scoring goals and winning games. Well, last night Nash, and the Jackets in general, put up quite a fight defending themselves. While Nash may have “lost” his fight, he was beastly in going for the kill shot right from the start, but missed instead of knocking out Evgeni Malkin.

(via Puck Daddy)

After watching Steve Mason play in an entire game for the Jackets, I think it’s safe to say that he won’t be anywhere near as bad as last season. There were flashes of brilliance throughout the entire game as he would make back-to-back saves without hesitation. There was also positive body language as Mason played near the top of his crease whenever logical and he repeatedly stood tall under pressure. The 3 goals given up were all excusable in my opinion and something that a full line-up would have helped him out more.

In other news, the Penguins have quickly become one of those teams full of people to hate in the NHL. Arron Asham, Matt Cooke, Eric Godard are all agitating, dirty players that get down and gritty and can really annoy opposing players (and fans). Kris Letang is quite the bitch as he seemed to really tick off Jake Voracek and Matt Calvert. Malkin is just Malkin, he’s sooo talented but can stand up for himself, I would take him on our team in a heartbeat.

While a loss is a loss, a loss in the pre-season can be spun positively and not sound like a super-crazy, kool-aid-drinking, fan.

Go Jackets.

25
Sep
10

Don’t waste your hats – JACKETS LOSE

By thejacketsblog Closed
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , ,

(Tyler again with the game-wrap-up for The Jacketsblog. Enjoy his thoughts… I look forward to getting to watch a CBJ game, even on tape delay tomorrow night!)

It always seems to be a spirited affair when the Penguins roll into town. Even though it was a preseason game, this was no different. Here are a few things that stood out tonight:

  • Tomas Kubalik played a great game. The big forward scored a hat trick and helped keep the Blue Jackets in the game with a few timely goals. Ironically, Kubalik scored all three goals from in front of the net. Two were redirected passes from Vermette and Huselius. The hat tossing goal was a great rebound snap shot off a slapper from Rusty Klesla. It was a great moment for someone who seemed to be all over the ice and truly earned the few hats that were tossed on the ice
  • It was great to see Rusty Klesla back on the ice tonight, that much is certain. What was impressive was watching Rusty join the rush on a few plays, threw a couple of hits, and appear to be more mobile than most give him credit (or expect after his injury). With that being said, Rusty also seemed to wear a path to the sin bin. Rusty took three penalties on the night, including a terrible high sticking double minor of a face off. There is no better way to say it, Rusty looked rusty tonight.

  • The Jackets took way to many penalties tonight. Not only did they take a ton of penalties, the Jackets allowed 3(!) power play goals, including a 5-3. According to the Columbus Dispatch, special teams was one of the last thing that head coach Scott Arniel was implementing this preseason. I would like to say this is just a blip on the radar, but it bears watching over the next few preseason games.

  • Somehow, someway, Marc Methot ended the night with a +1 rating tonight. This is very surprising statistic to me (and why I don’t put much stock in the +/- rating system). Methot seemed to misplay about 80% of the pucks that he came near. He even had a Pens goal deflect off his back side (in Methot’s defense, it did deflect off of Klesla first). Methot is one of the defenseman that needs to step it up this year for the Jackets to compete. Again, here’s hoping that Marc just had an off night.

This game became pretty chippy towards the end of the game. It will be interesting to see if any of this carries over into Saturday’s game. Finally, after seeing Arniel’s system the past few nights, it seems to produce a lot of shots and scoring opportunities for the Blue Jackets. This can only mean good things going forward.

Go Jackets!

22
Sep
10

Just the Preseason – JACKETS LOSE

By thejacketsblog 1 Comment
Categories: Uncategorized
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WSH 6 – CBJ 2

(I’d like to take a second to introduce/welcome fellow CBJ die-hard Tyler to some “spot-starts” with The Jacketsblog. Tyler and I have been going to Jackets games together for 3 years, and I think you’ll all appreciate his hockey knowledge as much, if not more, than I do. When I can’t make a game, and there’s no way to watch later, Tyler is THE GUY)

What does one take out of the first preseason game for most the Blue Jackets regulars? Not too much really, but there were some good and bad things that stuck out a bit. (Note that this game became a laugher with about 10 minutes left in the game and I stopped paying attention to what was going on. This recap really only covers 5/6 of the game for that reason.)

The Good:


The “Kid Line” of Jake Voracek, Nikita Filatov, and Derick Brassard was humming all night long. This is the line that fans have been salivating over since it was introduced early in the ’09-’10 season. This line is the present and future of the Blue Jackets franchise. What stood out was the chemistry between the three young guns. There were passes zipping from one side of the ice to another. While only producing one goal on the night, the creativity and speed this line possesses is simply something that has been lacking on past teams.

Jake Voracek has mastered the Rick Nash style power move and displayed his skill early and often. At least three times, Jake decided to drive to the net with the puck and was nearly unstoppable. Jake could have had several goals tonight on that move alone if Varlamov wasn’t playing out of his mind.

There really isn’t a better way to say this: Ryan Johansen is beast. Johansen was throwing his weight around all night in the defensive zone and produced several scoring chances. Granted this wasn’t a top defensive line that he would see in a regular season game, but it was nice to see that maybe Johansen wasn’t as much of a stretch as we all thought in June.

The offense was clicking early on. Don’t let the final score fool you; the Jackets were the better team early on tonight. I know the Capitals aren’t exactly the pinnacle of a defensive hockey team, but the amount of space the Jackets had to operate in the offensive zone allowed for some fun moments. On one delayed penalty, the Jackets kept play alive for over a minute by executing a high cycle along the blue line and even firing off a few shots in the process. As mentioned earlier, Varlamov played an excellent game tonight and this game could easily have been flipped.

The Bad:

The defense was, for lack of a better word, bad at times. Several times, a player was left wide open in front of the net for an easy rebound. On one goal Hejda carried one of the Capitals into Mason as the puck was shot. At times it seemed some of the defenseman, including Tyutin and Moore, seemed a step slow. It’s to be seen if this was just indecision from learning a new system, the training camp grind, or something else but this cannot continue. This begs the question: Will GMSH make a move for a defenseman or wait for a few more games to decide?

Jared Boll…enough said. Seriously, he didn’t even TRY to drop the gloves tonight. Actually he played pretty well and had even a breakaway (missed, of couse). I just have to make fun of him.

I do have to give a shout out to the game ops crew tonight. There were a few new, small tweaks made that showed. The new goal horn doesn’t have the same resonance as the old one, but you sure know when a goal is scored (it may be louder than the cannon!).

So what does one take away from this game? Not too much. Look at the positives and build on them while fixing some of the defensive miscues. I will say this, the future looks bright and hopefully the future is now.

Carry the Flag and GO JACKETS!!!

22
Sep
10

If a tree falls in the woods – JACKETS WIN

By thejacketsblog Closed
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: ,

CBJ 5 – ATL 2

For icing a line-up of mostly NHL hopefuls and a few of the less-talented veterans a win in Atlanta came as a mild surprise.

This post-game wrap-up won’t be very in-depth, because I, like all of you, didn’t even see the game. The best wrap-up I have seen has come from the Thrashers official website, where Ben Wright put together quite a few pieces of information, the best part, from an Atlanta perspective, is the “what you need to know” section:

Only four of the 19 skaters who dressed for the game were regulars in last season’s Thrashers lineup so it should come as no surprise that there were some communication breakdowns and sloppy plays as a roster full of newcomers and prospects did its best to mesh as a unit. On-ice training camp sessions have been heavy on scrimmages so far and lighter on drills and systems fundamentals, so Tuesday night’s game was really a chance for the coaching staff to see which players clicked and to find out who had been listening in practice.

The biggest surprise of the night comes via the score sheet, only one set of fighting majors was given! Mike Commodore threw down with Danick Paquette about midway through the first period.

On to the griping…

How challenging is it for an AP writer, the OFFICIAL Blue Jackets Website, the website of the National Hockey League, and the “Worldwide Leader” ESPN to correctly spell the head coach of a National Hockey League franchise??? Apparently very challenging:

CBJ fail…

ESPN fail…

NHL.com fail…

Granted all 3 posted recaps are from the same AP story, but in this blogger’s opinion, that’s no excuse.

Much like DBJ called for from the players, I think it’s time for the media to STEP UP.

Go Jackets.

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