So DBJ watched CBJ Game 54: Washington

Columbus 5 - Washington 2

In a critical game for playoff positioning over the last third of the NHL regular season, the Columbus Blue Jackets broke out of a sub-playoff logjam with the Washington Capitals by curb-stomping them, 5-2 at Nationwide Arena last night.

Combine Columbus' win with Philadelphia's loss against Anaheim last night, and the Blue Jackets vaulted from 5th in the Metropolitan Division to 3rd...and back into a playoff seed.

So DBJ watched CBJ Game 53: Ottawa

Ottawa 3 - Columbus 2

The Columbus Blue Jackets lost their third straight game in regulation, 3-2, to the visiting Ottawa Senators at Nationwide Arena.

I'm going to keep this short due to illness (Yeah, I caught something after returning from paradise).  But that's OK, because this is a pretty simple one to break down.

So DBJ watched CBJ Game 52: Carolina

Carolina 3 - Columbus 2

The Columbus Blue Jackets came out guns a-blazin' in Raleigh tonight, putting two goals past the host Carolina Hurricanes, then the game settled down into a mishmash of...well...not much before the Hurricanes exploded with three goals over a span of less than three minutes in the third period to stun the CBJ and win the game, 3-2, in regulation.

Where to begin.

OK, I've been on vacation for two weeks.  It's down south of the border, a nice place full of warm memories:

Don't know if you can see the score box on the GCL screen, but that was me watching
Scott Arniel's last game as CBJ coach.  Good times, good times.  Pass the chips and salsa!

Game 50: Buffalo Buzz Kill

Turning in a total team loss tonight, the Blue Jackets under achieved in all facets of the game to allow the Buffalo Sabres to earn a 5-2 win tonight in Nationwide Arena.  I thought for the most part the Buffalo players won the puck battles all night, and in spite of having long stretches of possession, the CBJ had a hard time getting the puck past the shot blockers in a meaningful fashion.  This is the type of game that illustrates how hard it is to maintain a serious winning streak in this league.

This game was disappointing on so many fronts, but for me it was mostly as I felt the team squandered a lot of the good feeling they had built up with the casual fans in the City.  A Saturday night game, a big crowd, in which the Blue Jackets fans had to contend with many loud, and occasionally obnoxious Buffalo fans.  Meh. The team didn't show them much tonight.

David Savard was out of the line up with an illness and Cody Goloubef apparently had enough travel difficulties that he did not get to the game in time to play.  So the CBJ rolled 5 defensemen all night long, and they all appeared out of synch with each other.  The special teams were a steaming hot mess, with the power play going 0-4, generating 2 shots, and yielding 2 short handed goals.

No six pack tonight.  No beers were earned by the home squad, and I'm sure not handing them out to the Sabres.  That's not a very good team, but its an NHL team, and if you let them out work you, they are going to beat you.  And that's what happened tonight.

So.  They laid an egg tonight.  It happens.  Move on to Carolina Monday night, and a chance to redeem themselves from this stinker.  If they move on from this, and play better, and win most nights, things will be fine.  If this stinker morphs into something larger, they may have a problem.  Still don't know what the deal is with Bobrovsky.  So long as it is a momentary problem, no worries.

Move on, get ready for Carolina on Monday.

GO JACKETS!!

A very DBJ type of quandry

I'm wrapping things up and starting to think about heading home - with many thanks to Gallos and Morgan for covering for me during my extended absence - but then the questions hit: Is it time to take one for the team?  Or tempt fate?

Yeah.

Got any more pico de gallo?

Go Jackets!

Game 1000: Flyers, Eight is Great!

Tonight, in the 1000th game in franchise history, the Columbus Blue Jackets defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2 to wrench the third place playoff spot in the Metro Division from Philly.  The Flyers are pushed down to the wild card spot, fourth in the Division, by virtue of the first tie breaker, head to head competition, as the CBJ go to 2-1 in the season series.  The Jackets got on the board in the first period with a little luck, the teams traded two goals apiece in the second period, and the Jackets pulled away in the third period.  This was a very satisfying win, that pushed the franchise record winning streak to 8 games.

This was a sloppy game, and neither team played well in the first period.  I thought Philly carried the play in the first half of the second period, but the Jackets carried the play in the second half of the second period, sparked by solid play from MacKenzie's line.  Awesome to see MacKenzie rewarded with a goal, and even though the Jackets ended the second period on the wrong end of a 5 on 3 power play, they killed it off, and took it home from there.

1.  My first CBJ beer for tonight is a playoff beer.  Can't decide if it is a phantom or not, but I don't think so.  This team has great work ethic and great depth, great goal tending, and more importantly, great spirit.  MOST important is the fact that they should be in the playoff race the rest of the year, which should make it a crazy fun bunch of games to go to.  Like the team, the crowd seemed to wade into this one, but by the end of the game, the crowd snark level was very high, with numerous 'we want Mason' chants.  Presumably they want to see the nice video they have put together for his return.  At least I'm pretty sure anyway.

2.  I'm going to go with this second CBJ beer to Matt Calvert.  He had a goal, and an assist, but when they announced him as the second star after the game they said he had only an assist.  The CBJ box score gives him the goal off the Wisniewski shot, so one of them is going to get it anyway.  I'm giving Matt this beer, instead of giving it to the next player on our list because of the following historical re-enactment:

Ref:  Hey we think we have a distinct kicking motion on this goal.
Toronto:  Hmm, sure looks like it, I'd say no....oh, wait a minute, let me check the list.
Toronto:  Hmmm, hmmm, <scans list> Calvert, hmm, Oh Jeez, we screwed the dickens out of this guy last year, he's on the list.
Toronto:  Good goal!!
Ref:  After further review, the call on the ice stands, good goal!!

I love historical re-enactments.  Don't you?

3. The next CBJ beer goes to Brandon Dubinsky.  He had a goal and an assist tonight to continue a really strong stretch of play.  His line was a dominant force in this game.   This was scored on a great shift, because Dubi came through the slot and took a shot, but he was on his backhand, and missed the net.  His linemates corralled the puck behind the net, and sent it back out to him.  This time he made sure he had it on his forehand in the slot, and buried it.  From our spot in the stands it looked like Ray Emery thought he was going to pass it and started to cheat, but Dubi made sure of it by taking the shot.  That was a big goal to push it to a two goal lead.  I love the way that Todd Richards dumps Dubinsky's line out there as the third power play line at the end of the power play.  That's how Calvert got his power play goal.  So Dubinsky's line ends up with 2 goals tonight.  If I'm the Flyers, and I looked at the tape of the Kings game I'm saying "I've got to shut down the Johansen line", which they did.  Unfortunately for them, Dubinsky's line took up the slack.  Nice work gents!

4. This fourth CBJ beer goes to Arty Anisimov and his line, with Nathan Horton and Boone Jenner on the wings.  Seriously, Jenner drew 4 penalties tonight, keeping the CBJ power play in practice.  While technically only the Dubinsky line scored on the power play, Arty's line pumped one in just seconds after a power play ended to push the third period lead to 3 goals.  Another example of Richie dumping a regular line out there for the last shift of the power play.  I thought Arty had a really strong game tonight, and Horton scored the goal right after the power play on a sweet feed by Ryan Murray.  Philly struggled to contain this line all night long.

5.  My fifth CBJ beer goes to the MacKenzie line, with Corey Tropp and Mark Letestu on the wings.  In the middle of the second period, with the game tied a 1 goal apiece, this line turned in a dominant shift in which they had puck possession for something like a minute.  The Flyers finally cleared the puck, the next line gathered it and started the rush, but Letestu was unable to clear the zone on dead legs.  This stopped the rush at the blue line, the Flyers went the other way and ended up drawing a penalty.  Richie rolled MacKenzie and Letustu out on the penalty kill with dead legs, the kill wasn't effective, and the Flyers scored to take a 2-1 lead.  The next time the MacKenzie line hit the ice, they turned in another dominant shift, and Derek ended up scoring a goal to bring it back to a tie game at 2-2 (Note, Arty had come on the ice, and got the primary assist on this goal).  Nice work by these guys tonight.

6.  My sixth CBJ beer goes to Jack Johnson, for being a stalwart.  He got the scoring going tonight by banking one in off a Philly defenseman's leg.  In his post game interview he went right to the 'it's better to be lucky than good', but the guy has had a bit of a rough period here, with the Olympic snub still stinging I think.  I also think the winning helps, and he munches minutes, and makes a good pairing with Fedor Tyutin, who continues to play very, very solid hockey.  Good stuff.

I think JD and Jarmo wanted to see what their team could do once they got healthy.  8-1 is not a bad sampling of its capability.  This team really needs to make hay while the sun shines, as they have a lot of home games still to play before finishing with 3 games on the west coast to end the pre-Olympic part of the NHL schedule.  That should give JD and Jarmo a chance to see how the team deals with adversity.  My buddy Bill was saying that only one team had gotten points in more than one game in the LA Kings, Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks version of Death Valley.  That was New Jersey, that lost two games in overtime.  Everyone else has been limited to maybe winning one game.

The scoring depth roll call continues:
Game 1: Atkinson, Wisniewski, Johansen, Letestu.
Game 2: Savard, Calvert, Dubinsky.
Game 3: Umberger, Johansen, Horton, Anisimov
Game 4: Johnson, MacKenzie, Calvert/Wiz, Dubinsky, Horton

Different people stepping up at different times means lots of wins.

We are sitting in a playoff berth.  We need to win to continue to occupy that spot!

GO JACKETS!!

Game 48: LA Kings; That was a Beauty

Tonight, the Columbus Blue Jackets won a franchise record seventh straight game with a 5-3 win over a powerful LA Kings squad.  Always nice to get these guys on the back end of something like 4 games in 6 nights, but I have a feeling Coach Sutter isn't accepting that as an excuse, in spite of the reality of the situation.  The Jackets did not let the fact that LA drew first blood perturb them, and drew even on their first power play of the night.  Better yet, they scored late in the first period to take a two goal lead.  Having seen how that deflated the opposition, they did one better, and scored two late in the second period to put the game away, in spite of the fact that the Kings had evened the score earlier in the second period.  It is tempting to call this a signature win, but the visiting team had enough disadvantages that I think that is a reach.  We play the Kings again out on the coast right before the Olympic break.  I'd like to suggest that the Kings will have a burr under their saddle, and the outcome of that game has a lot of bearing on the significance of this game.

Bottom line, any time you can write your names in a franchise's record books with a win, it is a good night for the team.  This group of players deserves it, and I would like to see them set the bar high for future Blue Jackets squads.  So keep it going!

1.  My first beer of tonight's six pack, a hoppy Columbus Brewing Company (CBC) IPA goes to none other than the Umbeak, who had a lot of hop in his game tonight.

Ummbeak!!  Ummmmmbeaaaaaak!!

   It was obvious that RJ Umberger had his game going tonight, as did his line mates Ryan Johansen and Nick Foligno.  Accounting for three goals, this line was a force all night long.  Yeah, LA got away with some dirty tricks tonight, especially against Joey.  This line paid them back on the score sheet, which is the only score that matters.

RJ is playing as well now as he has for several years.  The decision to take some weight off over the summer, and come in at a lighter playing weight is really paying off now (yes, I know I said it before, but its so freaking obvious that it deserves mention again), and RJ's game is in top form.  He could have cost me my coveted Ryan Murray era draft hat, a birthday present from my son, but no, he didn't take the empty net hattie, holding on the the puck and killing time instead.  Which is okay, considering that his second goal was one of those odd shots that hit the pipe and went in rather than hitting the pipe and deflecting out.  It's what happened after that goal that counted most.  Nice work tonight RJ.  Well done!

2.  My second CBJ beer, an Elevator Dirty Dick's Nut Brown Ale, goes to Nathan Horton.  His goal with 16 seconds left in the second period was the second goal the CBJ scored in the last two minutes of the second period.  This was a dagger in the King's heart, and put them away.  The CBJ are now 8-1 with Horton in the lineup.  Which is not about Horton, so much as it is about the whole team.  And, as my son pointed out, it doesn't hurt to have a red hot Bobrovsky come back from injury right at the same time you join the team.  Which made me laugh.  Nonetheless, Horton has had an impact on team confidence, which is a big, big thing.

My favorite play of Horton's tonight was in the first period, when he had rotated up to the point to cover for a pinching defenseman, and the puck came out an he bobbled it.  Jeff Carter stole the puck and had a clean break away, except for one thing.  Horton had his stick so completely tied up (legally), that Carter took off, but his stick did not come with him.  Great third effort by Horton, breakaway shut down.  I loved that play.

3. Close behind my second beer is the third beer (ever notice that this is the point in the evening where foreign languages become easy?), a smooth, easy drinking Marzen from Gordon Biersch, which goes to Arty Anisimov.  It was funny.  Arty took a penalty for delay of game, and seemed really bummed about it.  After that, he made a number of very, very stout plays on defense.  Finally, he made a very stout play, shut down a rush, and took off the other way with the puck, and calmly puts in perfectly on Horton's stick with 16 seconds left in the period.    His game seemed to gather momentum as the evening went on, capped off by his goal in the third period.  After that it was 'stick a fork in them, they're done' for the Kings as they trailed by 3 goals midway through the third.  This was a really nice game by Artem Anisimov.

4. My next beer of the evening, a long, tall, yummy stadium beer, goes to Ryan Johansen.  His goal late in the second period helped solidify a momentum shift from the Kings to the Jackets.  Ryan Murray fed him with a sublime pass, and Johansen did not waste the breakaway opportunity, getting in close and roofing the puck past the Kings goal tender.  It was a sweet, sweet play.  Joey was a dominant player in this game, in spite of some of the abuse he took at the hands of the Kings.   His growth continues apace.

5.  My fifth beer, a solid yet spectacular Sam Adams Boston Lager, goes to the defensive pairing of James Wisniewski and Ryan Murray.  Simply put, you don't get a seven game winning streak without these two playing excellent hockey.  The cool thing is the synergy of this pairing.  The whole is greater than the parts, but both parts are contributing excellent hockey within their own strengths.  You don't see this kind of thing all the time, and we are really lucky to be able to watch it.  I heard a bit of George Matthew's post game, and he was a bit surprised at seeing Murray.  He has been away from the team, and if you weren't used to it you would be shocked by young Murray's contributions.  But Wiz provides the perfect counterpoint to Murray's game, and the pair excels.

6. My sixth beer, a homey beer, goes to the home crowd tonight, for booing the h**l out of Jeff Carter, even when he scored the goal we set him up with.  Neither the team or the crowd was deflated by that, and the crowd continued booing Carter every time he touched the puck.  And of course the Arch City Army reminded him that he suc*ed all night long.  A little bit more snark in the crowd than I've seen before.  I don't think that is a bad thing at all.

Wow.  Nice win tonight.  We need to keep winning to keep pace in the competitive Metro Division.  On the other hand, we are making real headway now.  Any future results are magnified at this juncture, because we are playing Eastern Conference opponents for the most part.  Holding on to a playoff spot for another night or two.  Future occupation of this spot is contingent on future results.

Scoring depth.  Game 1 goals: Atkinson, Wisniewski, Johansen, Letestu.  Game 2 Goals:  Savard, Calvert, Dubinsky.  Game 3 goals: Umberger (2), Johansen, Horton, Anisimov.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  Foligno is due, as is Jenner, and a couple of defensemen.  It's not like this is not sustainable.

Lots of tears and cheers yet ahead this season.  This is what it is all about, enjoy the ride!!

GO JACKETS!!

Errata, RE: Wildcard

Oops.  I just pushed the publish button without writing anything. That's embarrassing to say the least, and now I am in a hurry.  I did want to note that in yesterday's post I used an incorrect table of the standings to fuel my musings.  It turns out the CBJ are sitting in the Metro Division wild card spot and the doggone blog editor is fighting me every step of the way.

This is pretty cool, that they have fought their way back into the discussion after a slow start.  But now they need to keep winning, if they want to actually stay in this thing.  With all the teams in the race, someone, somewhere is going to be winning games.  So this upcoming stretch of home games is going to be critical to the outcome of the season.  But they are in the hunt in January, which is nice.

GO JACKETS!!

Game 47: Buffalo

The Columbus Blue Jackets waded into their Eastern Conference tilt with the Buffalo Sabres last night, but Buffalo came in skating hard like a team with pride and little to lose.  While the Jackets gave up two quick goals to Buffalo, they got their legs going, skated hard, and equalized the score at the end of the first period.  The CBJ almost made a second period goal stand up as the winner, but lost the lead late in the third period when Buffalo came out 6 on 4 and tied the game.  After a wide open overtime, the game went to a shootout, in which Ryan Johansen scored the only goal with a really sick move on Ryan Miller and secured the win for the CBJ.  A game in which they did not play well for stretches, yet played well enough to come away with the win and the coveted 2 points.  Their sixth consecutive win apparently ties a franchise record set in 2006 according to the Fox Sports crew.  Sweet.  So let's run through a six pack!

1.  My first cold, frosty brew goes to scoring depth.  After the first Buffalo goal I started thinking that it would be very plausible for the CBJ to hang up some goals and not have any of the guys who scored against Washington get a goal.  Sure enough, Savard, Calvert, and Dubinsky all scored, to complement the scoring of Atkinson, Wisniewski, Johansen and Letestu the night before.  Dubinsky's goal was his 10th of the year, making him the 6th player in double figures for goals.  I love scoring depth, because it is leading to wins.

2.  My second, ice cold, yummy, CBJ beer goes to Ryan Johansen.  Not really for the shoot out goal that won the game, but more for the dominant shifts his line turned in during the third period.  Although they didn't solve Ryan Miller, the Sabres goal tender, they kept the third period ice tilted in our favor for a lot of the period.  And then of course, there was the shoot out winner.  Nice game by Johansen.

3.  My third CBJ beer of the night goes to R.J. Umberger.  Umberger still has the 'manos de piedra', but he is skating at a clip that we have not seen for many years.  His off season decision to take off some weight has payed dividends, and he is skating really well, and disrupting other teams efforts to bring the puck up the ice. R.J. didn't show up on the score sheet, but the shifts that he, Johansen, and Nick Foligno turned in during the third period were epic.  When you possess the puck for long stretches in the other teams zone, they can't shoot at your goal tender.  And I noticed that while Buffalo was getting shots off on Bobrovsky from the doorstep in the first period, they tended to be from the top of the face off circles in the third period.  I think that means that Buffalo had to work so hard to get it out of their zone that they had nothing left when they got to the offensive zone.  Watch to see if we don't have this problem against L.A. on Tuesday.

R.J. is playing really well.  Please keep it up, we like that.

4.  My fourth cold CBJ beer goes to Sergei Bobrovsky.  Bob didn't have real great numbers in this game, but he actually played really well, keeping the CBJ in the game in the first period, and calmly sealing the two points in the shoot out.  His first back to back since his injury, he seemed to have done pretty well.  He made some really great saves to keep the Jackets in the game after they tied it at two.  We are seeing Vezina form Bob, and that's a great thing to see right now.  Well done Bob!

5.  My fifth, smooth, fulfilling CBJ beer goes to Todd Richards, for not being content, and wanting to be in the playoffs.  Richie has his detractors, as do we all, but he seems to be doing a really nice job with the team.  Congratulations on that 300th game coach, and I hope things continue to build for you this year.  How about we knock that NHL playoff goose-egg off your record this year?  What do ya think?

6.  My sixth CBJ beer goes to Matt Calvert, for getting on the board in the first period and tying the game.  I'm happy to see Matt's hustle being rewarded.  The Atkinson-Dubinsky-Calvert line is extremely disruptive to other teams, creating turnovers all up and down the ice.  It's nice to see that line showing up in the scoring, as all three of the players have potential to put it into the net.

A big, big road win.  The Rangers and Philly both won last night, so all we did was keep pace with third in the Metro remaining 5 points out.  Still lots of work to do.  But the wild card spot is a mere 2 points away, the Metro having reclaimed its spot from the Atlantic.

The LA Kings come to town on Tuesday, a weighty, heavy team, that just finished shoving Hitch's boys in St. Louis around.  We are going to have to have a top notch game to get one against them.  It ought to be a fun game.  Sometimes these week night games have kind of a small turn out, but with a team like LA, you don't get lot's of opposing fans, and you tend to have the die hard fans in the crowd, and the smaller crowd can get pretty loud.  Think about coming down and getting loud.  It will be a lot of fun!

GO JACKETS!!

Game 46: Washington

Nyet, Mr. Ovechkin

Mano y mano.  Bobrovsky and Ovechkin, 1 on 1, with Ochovechkin at the top of the crease.  And Bob denies.  The game was 3-1 CBJ, but Washington had recently scored a goal to get into the game.  A goal by Ochovechkin in that moment makes it a one goal game with half the game to play.  But Bob fought him off, and the CBJ rolled from there, beating the Capitals 5-1 to win their fifth straight game.

Wow.  What a fun game to go to.  The Arena District was rocking tonight, and lots of quiet Caps fans were in attendance.  It was a really fun game.  The first half of the first period the Capitals came out skating hard, and the first 10 minutes was counter punching which favored the Capitals.  But the ice tilted after the 10 minute mark, and Cam Atkinson drew a tripping penalty.  Wisniewski buried a slap shot to give the Jackets a 1-0 lead, and the CBJ never looked back.

That doesn't mean the Capitals rolled up and died.  They made several pushes, especially in the second period, but the CBJ had an answer, and finally got into the win column this year against the Caps.  This was a highly entertaining game.

This one's for you LTL.  Just cause.

1. Tonight's six-pack begins with a frosty cool CBJ brew to Cam Atkinson, for a two goal night.  In Cam's words in the post game, the first goal was Dubinsky taking a shot, Calvert taking a couple more, and the puck finally bouncing to Cam, and he buried it.  The second goal was 2 maybe 3 seconds after a power play ended.  Ovechkin was in the box on a cross-checking penalty which was ending.  I swear 85% of the arena looked to the penalty box, just as he stepped on the ice to collect a minus for his +/-, but Cam had the puck, and he turned a laced one in for the Jackets 5th goal and to ice the game.  Cam had a couple of cracks at the hat trick tonight, but it wasn't meant to be.  With his 14th and 15th goals, Cam, barring injury, is on a pace to be a big time 20 plus goal scorer this season. Nice work tonight.

2. It's nice to hear Kathryn Tappen get enthusiastic on the CBJ on the NHL network.  Definitely going to make it a point to buy her this CBJ beer at the All-Star game.  Why not?

3. Ahem.  Where was I?  Oh yeah.  Joey.  Nice goal.  A good pass to Umberger, a good hustle play by Umberger to set him up for the snipe goal to make it 3-0 CBJ.  But that's not what this beer is for.  With 2:15 left in the second period, Matt Calvert takes a too many men penalty (a no brainer), so the Capitals had an abbreviated 5 on 3 power play.  Joey comes off the bench to win a critical face off, and promptly gets off the ice.  Shortly thereafter, with about a 2 seconds left in the 5 on 3, an obviously tired Johanson comes on the ice, and wins the face off for a quick rim around that hits Boone Jenner coming out of the penalty box.  Washington was looming with their 27% power play, but Joey won those critical face offs on the penalty kill that got us out of the second period with a 3-1 lead.  Stout play Joey.  Stout play.  Let's make this a 22 oz tall boy for you, because you earned it.

4. Bobrovsky.  Seriously?  This amazingly cold, smooth, delicious CBJ brewski goes to Sergei Bobrovsky.  He has been on fire since he returned from injury, NHL network just flashed up a .958 save percentage since he returned.  He made the big save to shut down Ovechkin, and consistently made good saves.  He is looking to be on top of his game.  Which is nice.  Go Bob!!!

5. Wiz get's this next cold beer for scoring his first power play goal on a slap shot on a lovely 4 on 3 power play.  Lot's of room and time, and Wisniewski hits the net.  That was the all important first goal, and launched the CBJ down the path of a win.  A hot power play for this next little while would be a handy thing to have, and Wiz has a lot to do with the success of those units.

6. This last CBJ beer is going to go to Jack Johnson.  It could have gone to Matt Calvert for an extremely scrappy night which included an assist.  But early in the game, as a Capital cruised through the crease, Jack just lowered the boom with a very clean, shoulder to shoulder hit that just buried the guy.  The Caps were a bit more tentative around the crease after that.  Jack has been playing pretty good hockey of late, though what motivates him, I don't know <inserts tongue in cheek>.

The CBJ get to 50 points.  They play Buffalo, a team that has struggled, in Buffalo tomorrow night.  Two more points are on the line.  Buffalo may be one of the worst teams in the league, but if you don't bring your game, you will lose.  The CBJ really need to bring their game again tomorrow night.  Great win tonight though!!!  Yee Haw!!  This is the cheers and tears of a playoff race.  It is to be enjoyed.

GO JACKETS!!!