CBJ Game 33: "No Way..."

The Columbus Blue Jackets, spinning their wheels and watching the 8th seed in the Western Conference slip further and further away, hosted the Calgary Flames last night and pulled together a solid effort to win in regulation.

They haven't been doing so well, and of course this game wasn't televised so I didn't catch it. The highlights (like every game in the NHL) are online though, so, here we go.

Living up to their rather appropriate theme, the Blue Jackets played hard and pulled out the win. Encouragingly, they improved to an astounding 13-2 when scoring first.

Let's take a look at some good, "diggin' in" play.



Look at that. Something I haven't seen in a long while. There's good 'ol Boll, sitting there and the puck spurts out and with a crushing motion throws that puck in the back of the net.

It's not near enough to get them back into contention, but it sure is a start. The next game sees the Jackets hosting the Vancouver Canucks and the Sedin Twins. Last time the 2 met, it ended in a swift OT goal against Columbus.

You can catch it on FSO Thursday at 7:30.
~Brett

LEM Game 30: "Smashing the Mirror"

The Lake Erie Monsters; still stinging from a deflating 7-4 loss to the Toronto Marlies; almost repeated a disheartening loss. However, they saw yesterday's game's reflection in the mirror, and shattered it. Coming out of the 2nd period scoring 3, they never looked back and won 5-2.

It didn't start off wonderful. I myself was almost slinking back into my chair when I witnessed the two opening goals of the game. After the first, the Monsters went onto the power play with a chip on their shoulder. Much to my chagrin, the Aeros did exactly what I've seen happen way too many times to the Monsters. A short tip off of a bad pass, and the Houston Aeros had a 2-0 lead early in the game. Thankfully, it didn't last long as Luke Walker buried one on the 5-on-3 powerplay and kept the Monsters heads in the game.

After that poor first period, the remainder of the game was all Lake Erie, with some highlight reel worthy goals witnessed by the 4,210 in attendance. My personal favorite was a gnarly deflection that ricocheted off of 2 Lake Erie sticks before rocketing into the net behind a clueless Houston goalie.

Not to mention Jason Bacashihua played out his sub-par netminding from Toronto, saving 25 out of 27, an impressive .926 SV%.

With the win, the Monsters hold their 4th place in the Northern Division and with 32 points, are only beat by Toronto(33), Abbotsford(33), and Hamilton(36). These 3 teams are ironically the Monsters most heated rivals.

I hope we get to see a lot more of them. Next up on the Monsters schedule is Milwaukee. Last time we saw them they effectively shut down the Monsters' offense, beating them 4-0 and 3-2.

Time for some payback.
~Brett

LEM Game 29/CBJ Game 28: "Momentum Switch"

The Lake Erie Monsters returned home tonight to take on the in-division Toronto Marlies. With the Marlies leading the Monsters by a single point in the standings, this game was important to both sides. Unfortunately, the Marlies climbed out of the hole they dug and buried the Monsters in their own snow, stomping them 4-7.

It didn't start out as a rout, though. The Monsters came out swinging with brutal checks, physically dominating play and an effective iron curtain defense in the opening period. At just 3:19 into the tilt, the Monsters Curtis Fraser opened up the dam by firing a shot that trickled behind the Toronto goalie. Everyone in the arena celebrated by throwing stuffed bears onto the ice. This was hilarious to see each team react; the Toronto goalie was absolutely irate and almost tore one in half.

No more than 5 minutes later though, the Marlies score on a defensive breakdown and spin Bacashihua around in his crease at the 7:00 mark. At only 12 minutes in, fights were aplenty and the two teams hatred for each other was already showing. As a result, the Monsters eventually go to a 5-on-3 PP. After one expires, the Monsters scored (a powerplay goal! Wow!), and made the game 2-1.

After the 1st, the rest of the game was a blur of good passing and poor execution. Bacashihua melted down and so did the defense. In the end, the Monsters were trying but the many errors did them in. Couple with late 3rd period penalties, it was the nail in the coffin.

They play the Houston Aeroes tomorrow; I hope they can turn around.
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As for the CBJ, they beat the New York Rangers today and win 2 crucial points (and hopefully some newfound confidence.) With the win they climb back to 8th in the Western Conference.

*phew*

CBJ Game 27: "Special Special Teams"

The Columbus Blue Jackets, supposedly turned around after a shootout win against Dallas fall flat on their face tonight 4-1, with some help from St. Louis. As expected, St. Louis was almost disturbingly aggressive, even from the start. Even with their lead, they weren't satisfied with simply scoring more, they wanted to make the Jackets bleed.

I left this game defeated. The Blue Jackets most assuredly left this game defeated. While the score was a lot closer than the previous game, the Blues dismantled our power play and our PK in one game. (They did the PK swiftly, I might add.) I'm not going to go through the scoring, but know that the CBJ had, if I can recall, 4 5-on-3 powerplays and a grand total of 8 4-man advantages.

Ever still, the CBJ haven't found their calling on the power play. Sure, there were a ton of quality chances, but a boy in union blue is never there to follow through. Meanwhile, our generally good PK was dismantled with St. Louis scoring 2 goals in 2 shots on 2 power plays. That hurt just to type it.

Our goalies are no longer the people to blame. Too long tonight our defensemen were scrambling, screening, and out of position all over the defensive zone. Garon was very good, and Halak was great.

The only other point I want to touch on is the brutality and overall classless play of the Blues. Headshots, trips, and dangerous play was abound tonight. I caught a blatant high-stick to a Jacket and no call. Meanwhile, a soft (borderline not even a penalty) led to another St. Louis goal.

Not a good game. I'll forget it and move on. The Blue Jackets are up against the New York Rangers at Nationwide on Saturday. The Rangers are 7-3 in their last ten games, and are coming off of a 5-3 win over the Ottawa Senators.

I'm not sure what to expect. We need points, and we're not getting them. We need to win some in the coming games if we want to stay relevant in the Western Conference.

I will be attending the Monsters game on Saturday, so expect a dual game recap. Less CBJ, lots more LEM.
~Brett

LEM Game 28: "Going Off Half-Cocked"

The Lake Erie Monsters, on a 6 point streak, rolled back into the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre yesterday night to try and salvage the long trip over to Alberta. Unfortunately, a Lake Erie offense that seemed to be clicking could not put a single puck past the Heat goalie, Leland Irving. Getting off a good 23 shots, the Monsters tried their best but couldn't convert.

As for the defense, listening to the game on the radio doesn't give enough insight to the positioning. However, with 34 shots registered at Jason Bacashihua and only one getting through, he stood solid on the night. (That's a nice .970 SV%!)

With this loss, the Monsters drop to 12-10-2-4 and give up 3rd place to the Heat. However, the North Division is extremely close. With 30 points and the leader just 32, the Monsters are still in the hunt for 1st place. The next game is Saturday at 7:30 against the in-division Toronto Marlies, who last saw the Monsters at the Gund Arena. (Or the Q, if you want to get technical). I was at that game, and Lake Erie outplayed the Marlies in every aspect. They out physically played them, out skilled them, etc. This was a game where Carman got a SH goal that was launched from about 3 feet from the goal line by the boards. With a win on Saturday night, the Monsters would propel back into the top 3 in the Northern Division.

Go to the game. You'll probably going to see a fight. Toronto didn't take losing too well last time.
~Brett

Game 27: Shootout, again?

The Lake Erie Monsters (12-9-2-3) (12-14 if you just count Ls and Ws) visit the Abbotsford Heat (12-11-0-3) (also 12-14) tonight in a west-coast interdivision match-up, and fall 3-2 decided by a shootout. Both teams gained points this game, but the Monsters continue their point-streak to 6 games.

They currently stand at 3rd in the Northern Division and are just 2 points out of 1st place.

They play Abbotsford again tomorrow night and look to gain more crucial points. (Hopefully 2 this time).

Fun Fact: Carman has 6 goals total this season; 4 of them were shorthanded.

Game 26: "Redemption"

After a disheartening 7-2 loss to the visiting (though you wouldn't know it) Pittsburgh Penguins, the Columbus Blue Jackets bounce back in dramatic fashion to win a hard fought 3-2 shootout win over the Dallas Stars. This couldn't come at a better time, as the Blue Jackets needed to prove to the fans, the NHL and most of all themselves that they were contenders.


They succeeded in a well-played hockey game. I missed the 1st period due to a final, but the 2nd and 3rd were great. When I joined the broadcast, the Jackets were up 1-0, and looked very strong coming out in the second. Sometime mid-way through the 2nd though, the ice switched its tilt very sharply and after a breakdown trying to get the puck out of the zone by Nash, the Stars capitalized and Brad Richards unleashed a nice shot that Garon got a glove on, but the puck bounced off of his shoulder and fumbled into the back of the net.

Going back to the locker room tied at 1, the Jackets emerged confident, albeit a little drained. There were quite a few scoring chances that we just couldn't convert on. Again, a approaching halfway through the third, the Stars overloaded the net and a beautiful pass to Steve Ott stuffed the puck behind Garon to make it a 1-2 game.

The Jackets needed to strong-arm themselves this win.

With 1:50 left to play in the game, the Blue Jackets were handed a golden chance to get back in the game.
Struggling to get a good shot off, the Jackets pull their goalie. Nash is denied a few times, then magic happens:




Nash does exactly what a captain should: clutch the throttle and drill a puck almost through an impossible angle.

That was incredible. I can't put into words how exciting that was; it looked like the Jackets had come out of their Detroit stupor and wanted to win this game.

After another chance filled OT period, the Jackets went to a shootout and Mathieu Garon held up his end and became a wall.

A good win. A hard win. Best part was over 10,000 were there to see it and I bet they'll tell their friends.

Bullets:

• Good to see Nash show up again. That giveaway/goal to Dallas was bad, but that nasty wristshot PPG redeemed him and then some. 
• Garon was amazing! Dallas was missing the net a lot but Garon stood sturdy with some great late game saves that kept the Jackets in the game. With a rather good .889 SV%, Garon was a solid. I'm expecting to see him again on Thursday against the Blues. (That game could get physical).
• Anton Stralman had an assist; during a powerplay!
• The Jackets kept driving, and chipping at the net. A total 29 shots and an uncountable number of missed chances. 
• Good to see they didn't give up after that 2nd Dallas goal. This was cathartic.

The next game is against St. Louis. When we faced them, they were leading the Western Divsion and had a gaudy7 game winning streak. After the sirens stopped blaring, the Jackets routed them 8-1. Since then they have gone 4-9 and won their last game against the Canucks. It could be a dirty game with how bad things got at the end of the teams' last meeting.

It should be a good one.
~Brett

Cleveland: Will we ever win?

Don't let this win fool you, the Miami Heat aren't going to win any championships with this. They still have a 12-8 record, just barely scraping the bottom, and LeBron will still choke when they play Boston or LA.



Please return to your regularly schedules lives, thanks.
~Brett

Nashville @ Columbus: "Teeter-Totter"

After a back and forth game at home tonight, the Columbus Blue Jackets fall 4-3 in a shootout to the Nashville Predators. So, with game 23 of the 2010-2011 CBJ season is in the books, can we be proud of the Jackets' progress this year?

 We sure can. Obviously a loss isn't anything to be proud about, but I can't say that I'd rather lose in regulation than in OT. (Those single points can add up. ) However there are plenty of upsides I notice so far in the season. For one, Steve Mason while posting an irrelevant .897 save percentage, at least to me looked impressive relative to his sputtering season last year. Rinne on the Predators though shined like platinum, and picked up an impressive game and a great performance in the shootout. (Can't blame Mason for the Sullivan deke, that was very well done.)

Add on a 2 nullifying penalties from Anton Stralman; even though one of the resulting 4-on-4s resulted in a goal;  and it was a frustrating night for me. Because this is not how I've seen this year's CBJ squad play.

Here come the bullets for the night:

• We gave up a lot of defensive zone turnovers, and while no goals came from them, one can only assume it's not good.
• Antione Vermette scored 2 goals, and he deserved both of them. Rebounds aren't the most glamorous goals to get, but fans and players both respect the points.
• Anton Stralman might've had a bad night, but these nullifying penalties have to stop. I've seen a lot of them the past couple games, and it's not a good thing. (Even if we score on the 4-on-4.)
• The Jackets sink to 6-7 at home now. I'm planning on going to the Penguins game on Saturday but I can imagine locals might want to stay home more often if they feel the CBJ can't perform in the spotlight. It was an exciting hockey game, but exciting only counts for the fans if you win.
• I can't complain about our current point gain, but considering that we were tied for 1st in the Western Conference a week ago this loss officially makes it a slide. I don't like losing more than 2 games in a row.

I can't think of much else to add. I'm looking forward to the Buffalo game; I'm eager to catch up with that MVP Ryan Miller.
~Brett