Sunday, February 12, 2017

Much Better, But Challenges Loom

The Columbus Blue Jackets played a more complete game last night, eking out a 2-1 win against the Detroit Redwings.  Bobrovsky earned his first star of the game the hard way, turning away many quality shots, and making the big saves when they counted.  He was especially sharp all night long.  So how do we measure "better"?  

It is important to remember that during The Streak, the Jackets were scoring just a touch over 3 goals a game, but at one point were giving up as few as 2.19 goals per game.  To get that goals against number so low, you have to be holding a lot of people to one goal or fewer.  A three goal game, even if you win, will really drag that number up.  So last night, the CBJ held the Red Wings without a goal in 2 periods.  If you look over the last stretch of games (8, 10, take your pick) the Jackets have struggled to keep people off the board in any given period.  That this has coincided with a run of injuries to the defensive corps should really come as no surprise.  Last night, with the top 6 back in the lineup for the first time in a long time, the Jackets returned to their stingy ways.  So to keep your fingers on the pulse going forward, just ask yourself if we gave up any goals in the last period?  If the answer to that is 'no', more often than not, then we are trending in the right direction.

So the Rangers come to town on Monday on our only nationally televised game of the year.  Judging by the last couple of these games, it ought to be a barn burner,  There's likely to be a couple of times when you ask yourself the question above and the answer will be 'yes'.  If we answer 'no' more than once, we got a good chance in that one.  But it will be a 'no lead is safe' game.  The Rangers are nipping at our heels in the standings, and want to push us down into a wild card position.  Pittsburgh is tied with us, and in between those two clubs come the Toronto Maple Leafs with their pack of young stars.  That's a group where you want to establish the pecking order early, so our young team should come to play.  But let's not get ahead of ourselves, the Rangers next.  Since even a 6 goal lead apparently isn't enough on the Rangers, we better get to their goal tenders, and get to them early.  It should be a heckuva game.

GO JACKETS!!
GO MONSTERS!!

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