DBJ's 5 Thoughts on Game 41: Anaheim

Anaheim 7 - Columbus 4
11-25-5, 5th in Central Division, 15th in Western Conference

[Edited by DBJ to correct the time/date stamp and get the blog in proper chronological order.  The author for this piece was Greg May.]

In the third game of this four game road trip, the Blue Jackets lost to the Anaheim Ducks by a score of 7-4. It was a wild one on several levels.

1. Why? That is the question many Blue Jackets fans were asking when they learned Steve Mason was getting the start over Curtis Sanford, who had just posted the team's first shutout of the season one night earlier against a red-hot L.A Kings team. Counting the San Jose game, his first game back since injuring his right hip two weeks ago, Sanford had stopped 68 of 70 shots on this roadie, a .971 save percentage.

Mason, on the other hand, hadn't started since riding herd on a kick-in-the-gut 4-2 loss to Washington at home on New Years Eve, a game in which he surrendered all four goals in the third period to eviscerate a 2-0 Jackets lead. For whatever reason (and who really cares what it was), Arniel opted to go with Mason against the Ducks. If Mason's New Year's resolution was not to give up four goals in a period again, it only lasted eight days.

Mason got beat every which way in the first period, giving up four goals on 16 shots. After letting in a high glove-side snapper by Andrew Cogliano off a juicy rebound, Mason proceeded to get beat high glove side again by Corey Perry, on a wrap-a-round by Teemu Selanne after it appeared Mason quit on the play and lost the puck behind the net, and finally on a five-hole wrister by Saku Koivu. I will add the usual caveats: the team came out flat, turned the puck over charitably and got outshot 16-8 in the first period. Still, even Arniel had seen enough of Mason at that point.

So, for those counting at home, that's 8 goals against on 24 shots for Mason in his last two periods. With Mark Dekanich now rehabbing in Springfield, the Blue Jackets might finally have a viable alternative to keeping Mason on the roster. As for the long term, here's something to consider that DBJ himself dug up (which he tweeted to me from his "undisclosed location'). Seems like a reasonable expenditure of a million and some change at this point, doesn't it?

DBJ's 5 Thoughts On Game 39: San Jose

San Jose 2 - Columbus 1
10-24-5, 5th in Central Division, 15th in Western Conference

(While DBJ is on vacation for the next couple of weeks, the rest of us here on the team will be filling in with our 5 Thoughts. )

In the first of a four game road trip out west, the Blue Jackets lost to the San Jose Sharks by a score of 2-1 last night.

1. Dr. Jekkyl If you have watched the Blue Jackets at all this season, you are painfully aware of their propensity to go all Dr. Jekkyl and Mr Hyde on us. It usually happens in the third period. Last night it happened about 10 minutes into the game.

The Jackets took the ice and, as has often been the case, and as one might expect of a team coming off of a four day break, they looked explosive. They looked fast, fearless and frisky. San Jose couldn't match their energy and looked like a team that was on the second night of a back-to-back, which they were. The Blue Jackets scored their first goal of 2012 just 2:13 into the game when Antoine Vermette chased down a BIG rebound off of Shark's goalie Thomas Griesse (yet another backup) and found Mark Letestu behind the net, who quickly fed Vinnie Prospal with a slick behind the back pass. Prospal stuffed it home, 1-0 Jackets.

The Dark Side (12/4/11)

Things That Make Me Go Hmmmm...

1.  Why did Scott Arniel run Curtis Sanford out there in Edmonton on the second night of a back-to-back roadie? On top of that Sanford had already started eight straight games and, arguably, had started to show some signs of fatigue. The bottom line is there aren't many NHL teams that ask their starting goaltender to pull back-to-back duty on a roadie. 

Some might suggest that Sanford isn't necessarily our starting goalie. If not, isn't that even more reason to sit him in Edmonton and go to a fresh and rested Mason? And if he is our starting goalie, then why treat him like a rented mule? It's a safe assumption that Arniel has no plans to use Mason any time soon. If he does, wasn't Edmonton the perfect time and place to do so?

It makes sense to go with the hot hand. Maybe Sanford is a rented mule and Arniel will have to ride him for long stretches this season. But the dude is going to need a break at some point. So why not Edmonton, on the second night of back-back road games, in a different time zone, after what had to be an exhausting game, physcially and mentally, the night before in Calgary? Desperate times call for desperate measures. But there's a fine line between desperation and panic. Panic is no good (unless it's Widespread Panic of course). 

2. Why did Arniel put Kristian Huselius on the first line in Edmonton? Or I guess the real question is why wasn't Vinnie Prospal on the first line. Kristian who? I vaguely remember him. Don't get me wrong. I love the fact that Huselius is back. Depth is rarely a bad thing. But how about a little game action before throwing him up there? Why take Nash and Prospal out of their comfort zones? And why take most everybody else out of there's as well? On the road. With no time to practice with these lines.

3. Why do the Blue Jackets seem like a completely different (and really, really bad) team in the third period on a lot of nights? It's been a recurring theme this season. The game at Edmonton might be Exhibit A. Despite the fact that Sanford was starting to show signs that he was horse-whipped, literally and figuratively, and despite the fact that it looked like Arniel really was playing lineup bingo, the Jackets entered the third period with a 2-1 lead (yes Alison, thanks to Derek Dorsett). Jackets fans were elated.

And then, rather quickly, Jackets fans were deflated. It really seemed like it was over when the Oilers scored two goals in the third to take the lead, but then we had to watch them score three more.

What is the root cause of these seismic shifts in momentum? Is it lack of heart and desire? Is it lack of skill? I don't think so, or we wouldn't be able to look so good in the first period.  Is it conditioning? If so, we must be the worst conditioned team in the league. Also, how can an entire team of professional athletes start sucking wind individually at the exact same time, the start of the third period. It must be something else.

When it comes to breaking down hockey, I'm admittedly an amateur. But is a degree in hockey theory even necessary here? In any other sport -- football, basketball, soccer, capture the freaking flag, it doesn't matter -- when a team, that was early in a game effectively executing their game plan, suddenly becomes ineffective at executing their game plan, especially when it happens after the player's have emerged from an intermission period, isn't it the coach's fault? Which brings up another question, doesn't it? Hmmmm....

The Dark Side (11/20/11)

First of all, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to DBJ for inviting me to join the writing staff. I'm thrilled, honored and  excited. This is the first of what is intended to be a weekly stew of ramblings, musings, insights and outsights, with a pinch of genaeral nonsense. It more or less named itself when DBJ asked me if I wanted to come over to "The Dark Side". Here I be.

Most everyone knows by now that the Blue Jackets were finally able to get off the schneid with the overtime win against the Predators, more specifically a seventeen game schneid of winlessness in Music City dating back to 2006. But buried in the joy and elation were a couple of mini-schneids from which we were able to be ejected. Umby broke a nine game goal scoring schneid, not to mention a streak of six games without a point. Jeff Carter registered his first goal as a Blue Jacket, a schneid that lasted 8 games, and he too ended a six game point scoring drought. And last but not least, The Wiz scored his first goal of the year ending a schneid of 10 games. And what a goal it was. 

Anyone who has been down near the ice at Nationwide when the Wiz has teed one up from out by the blueline says essentially the same thing: his shot is as heavy as a flatbed of lead rails. When it misses the net and hits the end board, the only thing louder at Nationwide is the cannon. As far as Blue Jackets fans are concerned, the shot that went Wizzling past Pekka Rinne's left ear on Saturday night to win the game might as well have blown through the back of the net, through the end boards, out of the building and landed in Lot A outside of Nationwide. It killed The Streak, and it is safe to say it would have killed anything else that got in its way.