The Kids Are Alright

Joonas Korpislo gets the win against Toronto

I'm kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Normally when the CBJ win in Toronto, there is some sort of major catastrophe in the NHL to distract the media from the fact that the Jackets beat the Leafs 3-1 tonight.  The Jackets played a much stiffer game than last night, and didn't wilt against a lot of Toronto pressure (41 shots on goal).

Today the organization lost a second defenseman to the waiver wire, as Kevin Connauton was claimed by Arizona, who sent All-Star Captain John Scott to the AHL in order to claim him.  (Bettman:  Take a memo!  To - Arizona Coyotes, From: the Commish, Subject: All-Star Game, WTF? Etc.)  Arizona claims they will have him back in the NHL in time for the All-Star Game.  So naturally, David Savard was injured in today's game, and did not finish the game after one shift in the second period.  When they told Seth Jones he would get more minutes because of the trade they weren't kidding.  Seth Jones gets his first point as a Blue Jacket, when Boone Jenner deflected his shot to make it a 1-0 game in the first period.

Another thing the Jackets did was after a rather undisciplined first period in which they took 3 penalties, the settled down and stayed out of the box the rest of the way.  Wennberg got a really nice rebound goal off a play started by Scott Hartnell to push it to 2-0 in the second, and the Jackets did a decent job of locking the game down.  Toronto finally scored with the goal tender pulled, and our fourth line on the ice, but the Jackets finished the game with the empty netter.

Important points, the win, the kids all played well, with a better overall effort, Seth Jones is awesome, our defense is already better, and Wennberg seems to be stepping into the void created by Joey's trade.  Karlsson is coming hard in his wake, and Anderson and Rychel are playing hard.  Korpisalo plays a really nice game, very steady.  Good stuff.

Next up, Colorado in Nationwide Arena on Saturday.  Should be interesting to see how the kids match up against Colorado.

GO JACKETS!!