Joonas Steps Up and Takes the Loss

A fundamental reality of the NHL, in this day and age, is that no team, no matter how many guys you have called Cindy, is good enough to win all of its games.  Losing efforts are inevitable, and the question becomes "when do they happen and how much damage does it cause?"  Tonight, Joonas Korpisalo was his normal kinda 'scrambly like he is a young goal tender' self, and ended up taking the loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.  To his credit, Joonas was perhaps the most aggressive player on the 5 minute power play in the third period, throwing the puck up the ice.  The rest of the team seemed content to glide around the ice in the face of Toronto pressure.  One shot on a 5 minute power play, on the Jackets lone man advantage, is pretty pitiful.  The power play got booed of all things; in Nationwide Arena. But it was no more than they deserved.  By the way, have I ever mentioned how much I hate drop passes?

One team wanted to play well tonight.  One team wanted to win.  The team that wanted to win did so, as the Jackets were obviously focused on tomorrow's match-up with the Capitals.  If you do that in the NHL you get burned.  That's what happened to the Jackets tonight.  Since looking past an opponent rarely benefits a team, they may well lose tomorrow as well.  The Jackets were a one line team tonight, with lots of passengers.  I didn't like the hit on Bjorkstrand when it happened, but I never got a real good look at it.  The refs had already let the game get away from them, so calling a major when it got out of hand seemed appropriate I guess.  The league will review it, but had the refs taken a stronger stance on high hits earlier in the game it might have never happened.

The Jackets played tonight like a team that had clinched the playoffs that was playing against a team that is still fighting to hold its playoff position.  Since the team needs to take some losses down the stretch, this isn't such a bad loss to take.  Like any loss it is galling, but at the end of the day, it is not the focus of this team any longer.  Tomorrow's game against the Caps is more important, though it is hard to think of ways that tonight's stinker somehow prepares you for tomorrow's game that counts.  This game was winnable for the Jackets.  They just couldn't reach out and do it.  So the team that deserved to win ended up winning.  That doesn't always happen, but it did tonight.

We gotta lose some games.  It might as well be that one.  We certainly don't want a 16 game winning streak now (as if you can turn that on), we would want that in the playoffs.  So there it is.  Losing sucks, and kinda burns.  But it has to happen.  Better to feel the pain now to make you stronger in the future.

GO JACKETS!!
GO MONSTERS!!