DBJ's six-pack for Game 47: Dallas

Columbus 3 - Dallas 1
23-17-7, 53 points, 9th in the Western Conference

The Columbus Blue Jackets wrapped up the Six Game Roadie From Hell with a 3-1 regulation win against the host Dallas Stars at American Airlines Arena.

The Blue Jackets went 5-1-0 on the road trip, which in itself is impressive.  Even more impressive, however, is how the Blue Jackets are single-handedly keeping themselves in the Western Conference playoff chase while pretty much every single other game that needs to go Columbus' way isn't.  Detroit capitalized on their game in hand and leapfrogged the Blue Jackets into 8th place (They since have jumped over Minnesota into 7th.).  Absent help, the Blue Jackets have just kept winning.

Winning won't be enough, however, to make the step into the playoffs.  They still need to win on Saturday against Nashville, but they'll also need:

•  Detroit to lose in regulation on Saturday against Dallas, or 
• Minnesota to lose their final two games - with at least one loss in regulation.  

No small order.  

But enough of the looking forward.  Let's crack open a six-pack and reflect on what we just saw.

Always feeling this happy

Some of the things that set this blog apart from its contemporaries is our ability to have open and honest conversation about the Columbus Blue Jackets.   We love the team as much as everybody else, but have a different set of expectations.  The last 12 years have been exceedingly frustrating for me as a Columbus Blue Jackets fan.  I looked around the league and saw the things that successful franchises were doing and, to me, it never seemed like the Blue Jackets were interested in doing those things – until this season.

Hi, I'm the Blue Jackets, can we come in?

@Morgan_Ward_140's Six-Pack for game 46: Sharks de San Jose

Lumbus 4 - San Jose Sharks 3 - F
8th Place in the Western Conference

I went ahead and put my twitter handle in the title of tonight's post.  I feel bad when Tom's DBJ twitter account gets peppered with response's to my posts, so there it is. 

The Blue Jackets enter tonight's game in San Jose needing to win all three games (preferably in regulation) and combined with the Stars and Wings to gain no more than 4 points in their remaining game to make the playoffs.  That formula gets the Jackets in the playoffs without having to worry about tie-breakers.  It's also means there are a lot of other games to watch that impact the Jackets.  How the Wings, Stars, and Wild play all impact the Blue Jackets, so by proxy we become fans of the Blue Jackets and "whoever is playing the Red Wings."  But tonight our focus is on the Blue Jacket's roadie in San Jose, a team that the Jackets have played well this season.  And well they did on this night.

Gallos' Six-Pack for Game 45: L.A. Kings

The Columbus Blue Jackets lost to the host LA Kings for the first time on this road trip tonight 2-1 breaking a 5 game winning streak.  The teams came at each other pretty hard in the first period.  In spite of it being a back to back for the CBJ, they seemed to have some jump in the first period.  The Kings were showing why they were champs last year, and brought a lot of pressure on the CBJ.  With a player for each team off for roughing, Dalton Prout took a hooking call, and in the ensuing 4 on 3 power play LA scored, and the period ended at 1-0 LA.  

In the second period, LA came out pushing hard.  In the middle of the period, the CBJ seemed to get some traction, and Blake Comeau forced a turn over in the LA zone.  He sent the puck back to Prout, who scored his first NHL goal with a shot from the point, which may have deflected off a Kings player. Nonetheless, this tied the game.  Unfortunately, LA came right back and scored within a minute and a half and restored their one goal lead.  The second period ended with the CBJ down 2-1.

As the third period progressed, the Jackets brought more and more pressure, but they were unable to solve the Kings defense, and the Kings win 2-1.

1. My first cold adult beverage goes to Sergei Bobrovsky.  How could it not?  The CBJ are leaning hard on the young net minder, and he is answering the bell.  The Kings got a goal in off a defenseman's skate and one that Bob did not see.  What he could see, he was stopping.  Incredible performances down the stretch here, no matter how things turn out.

Dalton Prout and Cam Atkinson in Development Camp

2. My second cold beer goes to Dalton Prout, who scored the first goal of his NHL career to represent the total scoring by the CBJ.  Prout played a solid all around game, and benefited from a great pass by Comeau and a couple of deflections of his shot on the way to the net.  He has been very solid since coming up from Springfield.  

The Jackets have done a great job on this road trip, and I'm not about to start awarding skunk beers. But I do have a few thin, watery Natty Lights to pass out.

3. My third beer, a fine Natty Light, good for the waistline and all that goes to the defensive pairing of Savard and Erixon.  Admittedly, this is a tough position for these guys to be in, but it seemed clear that they were not ready for playoff hockey, especially on the road.  More development work in store for these two,and hopefully a big summer to get them more ready for next year.

4. My fourth beer, a tepid Natty Light goes to the power play.  You can't do anything in the playoffs without a power play, and the lights look out on the power play.  Its not a real threat.

5. My fifth beer, a warm flat Natty Light goes to the defensive effort after Prout scored the goal to even up the score.  Guys falling down, a really half-hearted, glide up, wave your stick in the general area of the defenseman check by Gaborik which gave the time and space for the shot on the net that lead to the game winning goal.  A little bit of pressure on that shot would have made a big difference, but that would require the feet to be moved.

6. My sixth, warm, found under the truck seat a year later, flat, Natty Light goes to Jeff Carter for being a big #Boomer.  That's one of the privileges of passing out the beers!

Were the CBJ outworked?  Meh.  This is a really tough game on a back to back.  They brought a pretty good effort considering the number of games they have played.  The loss doesn't hurt too much, the Jackets are still in eighth place.  It puts more pressure on the other games, but since they started the road trip winning three straight, they took the pressure off this game.  But they still need to win some games down the stretch.

Ugh.  Todd Richards just announced that Matt Calvert  has a broken finger.  He'll be out for awhile.  Boone?

Next up the Sharks on Thursday.  Another tough game, but a day of rest in between.  They CBJ have to get some points.  

GO JACKETS!!!

DBJ's six-pack for Game 44: The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim

Columbus 3 - Anaheim 2 (OT)
21-16-7, 8TH PLACE IN THE WESTERN CONFERENCE

The Columbus Blue Jackets' twenty-first recreation of Sherman's March through Georgia continued tonight in California, where the visitors stole two standings points away from the host Anaheim Ducks in overtime at Honda Center.

And with that, my friends, the Blue Jackets have leapfrogged the Detroit Red Wings (!!!) and assumed sole possession of eighth place in the Western Conference.

That's right.  8th place.  If the season ended tomorrow, the Blue Jackets would be playing Stanley Cup Playoff hockey for just the second time in its history.

Wow.  Wow.  Wow.

Four games left in the regular season...

Thanks, Calgary, for everything.
And for beating Detroit tonight.

I crowdsourced this six-pack, so congrats to everyone who helped make this possible!

1. Beer number one goes to uber-CBJ optimist John Kemp's favorite Blue Jacket, Blake Comeau, for goal number one.  The first half of the game was a slog, with Anaheim playing the CBJ card and dropping everything but the kitchen sink back into defensive coverage to stymie the Blue Jackets' shooting.  Comeau tips a James Wisniewski shot in to loosen the game back up.  Huge goal.  Kemp weeps with joy.  (But he still won't tell his kids that Nash was traded.)

2. Beer number two goes to Matt Calvert. Union Marc suggested that "cause no one has left his heart on his sleeve" like Matty Ice.  I give him all sorts of credit for keeping the motor running, but the beer comes for production:

We're going to beat this photo like a dead horse.
It is nothing but meme fodder.  

3. The third beer shall go to your personal friend and mine, Detroit Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard.  "Jimmeh" let three pucks slip by, and that's all it took for Calgary to help Columbus vault into playoff contention.  (Hat tip to RedditCBJ and RobSal53)

4. My man, Fedor Tyutin, tipped in the game winner in overtime off a Nick Foligno shot - so let's give 'em one of those $9 Nationwide Arena tallboys to share.  Nobody apparently loves Tyutin, but trumarvel, jahykes, TheAngryJacket and MasonAnimation all love them some Foligno, the overtime specialist.

I like Tyutin.

There's something beautiful about an overtime winning goal.  It's like a walk-off home run.  We score, and that's it.  Start the party.

5. For enduring overtime hockey in Southern California, the fifth beer goes to The Blue Jackets Fans.  This 1AM wrapup stuff is for the birds, but it's the playoff chase and we stay up regardless.  Mellington73, stefanbneeley, WhalerJacket (who, I'll have you know, was one of the crew at the late, great CBJ blog, "Tea with Mrs. McGill") and danamctigue all made it to the finish line and reminded me that it's not about the team...it's about the fans.  True dat.

6. Yes, Erik, you can have a pity beer.  Poor soul.

@darkbluejacket My stream cut out about 15 sec before the GWG.Pity beer?
— Erik Bobbitt (@erikBobbitt) April 18, 2013

WERE THE BLUE JACKETS OUTPLAYED TONIGHT?  I felt all along that the Blue Jackets were applying the pressure...it was one of those games where we simply had to stay at the level of the opponent and stick around until the end.  They did, and they won.  So no, they were not outplayed.

NEXT UP: Because one night of late night hockey wasn't enough, we're going to do it all over again tomorrow.  Or I guess it's today by now.  How about, we're going to do it all over again later...say, at 10:30PM EDT?  That's right, the Los Angeles Kings will be hosting the Blue Jackets at Staples Center.

Bob Says Nyet (a kinda-sorta advertisement)

Before the season, this guy out of Philadelphia wrote me to congratulate me (and, presumably, my favorite hockey team as I really had nothing to do with it) on bringing goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky to Central Ohio.  He then offered to sell me his unsold inventory of Bobrovsky fan shirts.  I'm not into running an merchandise shop out of my pantry closet, so I passed.  Plus, I wasn't sold that Bobrovsky was going to unseat Steve Mason in net.

Get your gear to honor Columbus' First Czar!

But time passed as well, and Bob wound up being something special in Columbus.  Now I felt bad, not for me as I still don't want a bunch of unsold T-shirts and hoodies in a box under my bed but rather for the Columbus fans who have been deprived this nifty looking shirt.  I suppose I also felt a tad stupid for not jumping on the bandwagon earlier.  Thus, I wrote the gentleman back and offered to give him a blog post to hawk his wares.

Morgan's Six-Pack for Game 43: The Quebec Nordiques

Columbus Blue Jackets 4 - Colorado Avalanche 3 F/OT
9th Place in the Western Conference

Typically after Master's weekend I begin preparing for another April tradition like no other, the NHL draft lottery for the Columbus Blue Jackets.  But that is certainly not the case this April.  As fans hopeful for a chance at the post season, we watch every game.  We track the teams below us, we track the teams ahead of us.  We visualize scenarios, exchanges, ordering tickets for the playoffs.  This is new territory for the social media CBJ fan base that's emerged the past few years (no I'm not saying you've only been a CBJ fan for a couple years, I'm saying you've only been able to gush about it on twitter for a couple years now).  On nights like tonight I sit back and watch the fan base consume itself.  Who's the bigger fan, who's the biggest troll.  Who knows more that everyone else, who's always right, who believes more.  The team is winning, and I guess everyone sheds decades of hockey grief differently on micro blogging sites.  All that matters to me is they are winning.

It's Dubinsky Time

Brandon Dubinsky

As I reflect on tonight's upcoming, critical tilt against the Avalanche in the Pepsi Center, Brandon Dubinsky sticks out to me as one of the players who will need to make a huge contribution.  With Anisimov on the shelf indefinitely (eat my shorts Yeo, the refs got the call right.  The responsibility is on the player to protect the other player, your guy failed in that responsibility) due to a hit to the head, Dubinsky's role is magnified.  Much as we saw in the Minnesota game, we need Dubinsky to be big tonight.  After something of a star crossed season this year, with knee injuries, a slow start, and illness, this is Dubinsky's opportunity to really put a stamp on his contribution to the team.  I think he will do it.

I worry about Colorado.  We have not handled their speed well.  We need to make sure we play our game of clogging the neutral zone and playing good defense, and not get into a track meet with them.  And naturally, Bobrovsky needs to continue his assault on the Vezina trophy.  Only six games left.  Crazy things can happen.  This team just needs to keep winning.

Brandon Dubinsky, this is your time!

GO JACKETS!!!

Gallos' Six-Pack for Game 42: Wild

YEEEEEHHAAAAAAAWWWWWW!  Ahem.  Sorry.  The Columbus Blue Jackets prevailed tonight over the host Minnesota Wild 3-2 in a shoot out win to keep pace in the hunt for the playoffs.  The CBJ came out flat Bob in the first Bob period, but Bob the Wild couldn't solve Bob until they finally Bob bounced one in the goal off of one of our defensemen.  Did I say Bobrovsky was dominant tonight?  The CBJ came out steaming in the second period, scoring their two goals for the game in bang-bang fashion early in the second period.  After that it was holding off the Wild.  Finally, late in the third period the Wild went on a power play off a Setoguchi dive, err, I mean a Dalton Prout cross check (the official explanation).  The Wild got a rebound in to tie the game, and regulation time ended with the score tied 2-2.  OT was fun to watch, but had no scoring.  The CBJ owned the shoot out, and came out of this game with the coveted two points of the winner, leaving them tied with Detroit and Dallas with 45 points for 8th place, but trailing in tie breakers.

Victory Beers are sweet!

Sergei Bobrovsky is on top of his game

1. My first cold, well deserved beer, obviously goes to Sergei Bobrovsky.  Bob made great saves throughout the game, took on several shooters that got behind the defense mano-y-mano and stoned them all.  The two goals scored were one that bounced in off our guy and another that was a greasy re-bound goal on a power play.  If Bob could see it, Bob was stopping it.  Finally it came to the shoot out, and Bob stoned both of their shooters to preserve the results of the CBJ shooters.  This was an outstanding performance, and a well deserved win.

2. My second beer, an Adirondack Black and Tan, goes to former Ranger Brandon Dubinsky.  He was a dominant force in the second and third periods, assisting on both second period goals.  Dubinsky was not available for much of the first period because he jumped the Wild player who delivered a shoulder and an elbow to the head of Artem Anisimov knocking him out of the game.  Dubinsky collected an instigator penalty, 5 minutes for fighting, and a 10 minute misconduct, and the admiration of his teammates.  Making up for his absence in the first period, he sent a blind behind he back pass into the slot right on the tape of Vinny Prospal who one-timed the puck home for the Jackets' first goal.  On his next shift, he screened the Minnesota goal tender giving FedorTyutin a clean look for the second goal.  Dubinsky was all over the ice tonight, and played a great game.

3. My third beer of the game, a nice tasty Yuengling, goes to Mark Letestu.  He has been an extremely steady player down the stretch and tonight played well in filling a short bench caused by the loss of Anisimov.     Then he promptly scored as the first shooter for the CBJ in the shootout, giving Bob something to work with.    Playing all over the line up this year, Letestu has been a glue player, helping to hold stuff together when everything turns to crap.  He had a really good game tonight.

Camsanity!!

4. My fourth cold frosty beer (of indeterminate make because I'm getting tired) goes to Camsanity himself, Mr. Cam Atkinson.  These kind of games are tough for a guy like Cam, since on the road the other coach can put some big guy on the ice to lean on the smaller guy.  But Cam fights his way through it all, and he ended up scoring a real nice goal to win the game in the shootout. I think he is still hampered by the high ankle sprain, and will be until there is some off season to fully heal.  He looked great in the shootout, confidently scoring to put the game away, and get the coveted two points.

5. My fifth ice cold beer goes to the concept of Vinning!  Vinny Prospal scored his 11th goal of the season , and assisted on the other goal.  I think Vinny is the ring leader of the crazy mojo this team has, and is helping to keep them loose in a crazy stretch run to the playoffs.  Live long and Prospal Vinny!

6. My sixth beer goes to Fedor Tyutin, for scoring that all important second goal while Minnesota was off balance.  That quick strike held up well later in the third period, providing a buffer that we used when the Wild tied it up late in the third period.  Way to go Toots!!

Wow!  Just a big huge monster win tonight for the CBJ.  They are keeping their noses firmly in this playoff race, and if they win their games their task becomes easier.  There is a lot of resiliency in this team, and is should be fun to see how this turns out.

Were the CBJ outworked tonight?  In the first period, yes.  In the second period, no, in the third period, maybe.  However, they were not outworked in the shootout, which is where it counted in this game.

Up next is a pesky Colorado team on Monday that has won 3 straight since being called out by their goal tender for a lack focus.  We tend to get in trouble with Colorado's speed, so this will be a challenging game. But I won't think about that just yet.  I think I'll sit here and bask in the glow of victory for a few moments, before turning my sights to the Avalanche.

GO JACKETS!!

DBJ's Six-Pack for Game 41: St. Louis

Columbus 4 - St. Louis 1
18-16-7, 4th in Central Division, 11th in Western Conference
11th draft pick (and 15th & 24th!)

Riding a season-best six-game winning streak, the mighty St. Louis Blues rode back into Columbus for the penultimate game of the 2013 Hitchcock-Davidson Cup series...and left with their tails between their legs after absorbing a 4-1 regulation loss at the hands of the host Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.

OK, I'll admit it.  I've grown so used to writing, "The team got spanked" leads that I had to flip the lead to the St. Louis point of view because, well, the Blues got spanked tonight.

And it was Team Yearbook night, too:

Who else would YOU put on the cover?

But enough of the memorabilia.  Let's crack open a few.  I was fortunate enough to be at this game, so my insights might veer a little from the TV and radio voices.  And my phone stinks, so my Twitter account largely lay dormant.  Thus, there was very little filter tonight...which makes for some interesting picks.