Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Game 70/Edmonton Oilers: Happier Thoughts

Here are your highlight's from last night's 5-3 win against the Edmonton Oilers:

Although this game wasn't on Fox Sports Ohio or Versus, maybe you caught the CenterIce feed. If not, the Dispatch always has excellent game wrap-ups that give details of how the goals were scored and such.Check out the one for last night's game here (honestly, I prefer the ones not written by Arace, but I'll take what I can get).

The worst part of the game last night was that Hejda was injured after playing only four shifts. He apparently sprained his right knee and will likely be out for the rest of the season. Because of Hejda's injury, Paetsch switched from playing LW to D. He somehow managed to finish the night an impressive -3. Brassard, Pahlsson, Umberger, and Voracek were tied at -1. Paetsch bounced around pairings and made me worry every time he was on the ice. [Update: Apparently Paetsch was also frustrated with his play. I didn't notice is but one #CBJ twitter says that he broke his stick after an Oilers goal. Lots of stick smashing going on: after the empty netter, Ryan Whitney smacked his stick against the glass.]

The most exciting part of the game (for me) was that Marc Methot got his second goal of the season. As leeauer on twitter says... "you don't leave Marc Methot uncovered"! With his goal the Jackets were up 3-1, but then goal scoring went back and forth between the two teams. With 12:15 left, I admit, I was worried that "Jackets time" would begin and somehow the Oilers would come out on top. I am pleased that that didn't happen.

All sorts of significant/notable milestones were reached last night, including Fedor Tyutin, who has now played in 400 games. He also tied his career high for assists with 25, the number he had last year in 82 games. Last year he had 34 points and right now he has 30, so look for him to set a record there, too. Derek Dorsett had the first multi-point game of his career last night with his two assists, on the fourth and fifth goals, scored respectively by Huselius and Vermette. Those two men had a heck of a night last night. Vermette now has 55 points after getting three last night with his empty-net goal and two assists. His previous season high was 53 during the 2007-2008 season when he was with the Ottawa Senators. He had 5 shots on goal and won 16 of 26 faceoffs. Huselius had a four point night with one goal and three assists, four shots on goal, and finished +3.

Jared Boll fought Theo Peckham, and even though Boll went to the ice first, he definitely won that fight. Thankfully Boll seems to be okay despite smacking the back of his head against the ice.

I do feel a bit bad for Oilers goaltender Devan Dubnyk, who is 0-8-2 in his NHL career. He is huge though! 6'6". But the Blue Jackets did bring his goals-against average down!

Thanks to Dispatch Writer Aaron Portzline who found out who the hard hat winner was for last night's game. Mike Commodore received the hat, who protected Mason's net when Mason himself couldn't. Also, Garon got the hard hat after the 2-1 win over the Thrashers on 3/11 and Vermette got it after the 5-2 win against the Ducks on the 9th. Here's the video of Commodore's sweet moves in case you don't feel like watching the entire highlight reel above!


Next up: the Minnesota Wild on Friday. Yours truly will be in Nashville on Saturday for the Blue Jackets game, so be sure to check back here for a report on how that went, or at least some photos!

Methot goal photo: Jamie Sabau/NHLI via Getty Images
Photos of Boll and Huselius: AP Photo/Jay LaPrete

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