Some Times You Feel Like A Nut...

Some times you don't.  Almond Joy's got nuts.  Mounds don't.  Tonight was kind of a Mounds night, cause the CBJ didn't have it.  A good start, a Nick Foligno goal, was wiped out by the 'situation room', when the goal was dislodged by Pekka Rinne going post to post.  When the goal tender dislodges the goal, it should be called like goal tender interference.  'Did it affect the play?'  In this case Rinne could have dislodged both sides of the net, and pushed it back against the boards, and Nick still would have scored, because he simply out waited the play.  I understand the letter of the law.  That reading didn't match the spirit of the law in this case.

So I'm at the game, all P.O.'d about this call, and into my head pops the image of a Jarmo monotone at the GM meeting ' and if the opposing goal tender dislodges the net, and it doesn't influence the play, it should be a good...'.  Whew.  Scary thought.  That's what pre-game Skyline cheese coneys will do to you.  Mild hallucinations are one of the many benefits of.... ah, never mind.  It was free food night.  You get the picture.

You think of things when you are getting ready to write on of these pieces.  And I was all ready to climb on Porty over at Puck Rakers for calling out the Hockey Gods, since we certainly didn't seem to get any bounces tonight, and I think they've got something going on that front, but.... Then I remembered that I pretty much stated that Boone Jenner wasn't having a sophomore slump.  Boom!  Two months on the IR.  In the immortal words of one Homer Simpson, 'Doh!!!'

Sigh.  It was Nashville's night.  Maybe with the early lead, we hold on to something.  But our guys left it all on the ice on Saturday, in a totally fantastic win.  Two days later, it was still out on Saturday's ice.  Good for the Predators, who look like they are putting together a really nice season.  Thank God for the Eastern Conference, and that we don't have to play them any more.

The good ship CBJ is being held together with spit, baling wire, and duct tape.  And yet, we are still fundamentally on the same pace as we were last year.  And, the theory is that people will start to get healthy eventually.  To be able to say these things is a minor miracle.  So tonight's game is one to wash away.  It means little in the context of the season, and we will have opportunities to pick up ground against less formidable opponents that Nashville.  So let it go.  And love being in the East.

Alexander Wennberg scored his first NHL goal tonight.  I am really happy for the guy.  He obviously has talent, has learned that board battles mean something, and makes rookie mistakes.  That first goal takes a lot of pressure off.  And it was a snipe, from the high slot against one of the best in the business this year.  Let's hope he starts to feel that for a bit.  A little scoring streak from him would really help the team now.

It's Christmas.  A time of miracles.  The Blue Jackets are in the playoff hunt, albeit with work to do, at Christmas time.  Given the way things looked at Thanksgiving, it is a miracle indeed.

GO JACKETS!!!!