The Right Stuff

Family Night vs the Jets

This family was sitting behind us at the game Saturday night.  This is what it is all about, families coming out on Family Night to enjoy a hockey game.  The Nachos were pretty popular.

Another young person had a pretty big night, one Ryan Johansen.  Yes, I know other rookies have scored more goals.  But tied with a club high 5 goals with Vinny Prospal, young Ryan has ALL 3 Game Winning Goals for the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2011-12 to date.  This type of thing ought to be getting him into the Calder Trophy discussion.

Its interesting  RyJo seems to be growing more and more comfortable with the NHL game.  He is a strong forechecker, and defense is credible.  He's going to have his ups and downs, and he'll have some bad games this year.  But this guy is growing up in front of our eyes, and is progressing rapidly.  Its a good idea to have him on a line with Vinny Prospal.

RyJo works on his shot with York after practice

Another good thing about RyJo.  There is nothing wrong with his work ethic.  On Veteran's Day I went down to take in practice.  One thing I noted was that once practice was over, something on the order of 22 players remained on the ice working on all kinds of things.  Prospal's comments were received, and acted upon by the team.

After practice, RyJo worked on that one timer he scored with in the first period.  He as well as others, were working with York on skating in on the goal tender, while at the other end of the ice, several players (10?) were doing a lot of work with Mase with the puck coming out of the corner from behind the net.  Good stuff.

With the win over the Jets, the CBJ took a baby step.  The competition escalates significantly this week, culminating in the road game in Nashville, which the Jacket Backers are planning on invading.  We will learn a lot about our team this week.

GO JACKETS!!