Uh-Oh

No Caption Necessary

Tonight's Officials were Greg Kimmerly and Tim Peel, and they were absolutely brutal.  Your job boys, is not to be right all the time, which is impossible, but to be consistent.  If the hit on a chip and chase is interference in the second period, it needs to be interference in the third period.   Piss poor job boys.  Hang your heads in shame.

That, however, had little to do with the extent that the Hurricanes outplayed the Blue Jackets tonight, as they prevailed 4-2.  Out shooting the CBJ 37-19, the Hurricanes deserved the win.  Nick Foligno personally dragged the Jackets back into the game, scoring both goals, but the 2 goal clip that the CBJ have been scoring these last 6 games, all losses, ain't gonna get it done in the NHL.  McTanking for McDavid is all of a sudden a very real possibility for this team.

As is often the case in a death spiral such as this, individuals are trying too hard, Jack Johnson, and thus breaking down the system.  When we need to play a tight cohesive system in the face of injuries and adversity, players that care become a liability when they try to do too much.  Which pretty much sums up the last, empty net goal.   Everyone trying to do too much individually, which results in poor team play.  The Hurricanes at least played a team game, and all of a sudden are playing well and with confidence.  The Blue Jackets confidence is shaky at best.  Curtis McElhinney has been poor in goal.  I think HCTR needs to give the net to Forsberg until Bob returns, or CMac wins it back some how.  Or sign Marty Brodeur to be the back up.  He's looking for work.  CMac is just not looking solid early in the games, and it's costing us.  We score 2, his GAA is above 4.  Do the math.  It ain't working.

There is a lot of season left.  I really like how Wennberg's game is coming along.  I think he has made real strides in the last two games.  He really needs to pot a goal to get him going.

Joey needs to get used to the Nash treatment.  Other teams are gonna put 3 guys on you until we make them hurt for it.  A 6 game losing streak means they ain't hurting.  If you want to be worth $6 million, you have to learn to play through that.  I think you can, but dogging it back up the ice after they put 3 guys on you isn't playing through it.  Yeah it's hard.  Duh.  That's why they put 3 guys on you.  That means someone else is open though, and you have to learn to make them pay for that.  Nash never resolved that, and finally settled on the butt first move off the boards that would allow him to at least get to the middle of the ice one on three.  A crappy shot usually resulted.  Better to find the guy who they are leaving uncovered, which is a hell of a lot easier said than done if you are covered 1 on 3 I might add.  Easy for me to say, but I ain't making $3 million this year.  Bah.  Enough of that.  You'll work through it Joey.

We are not a good team now.  This does not mean they will be a bad team all season long, but it does mean that we have to start playing like a team.  We are not passing well now.  That's a symptom of the jumbled lines, and poor team play.

Classic line from my Buddy Bill:  You're never as bad as you think you are when your losing, you're never as good as you think you are when you are winning.  Probably true.

This team needs a win in the worst way right now, but it looks a long way off.  Last year, the Islanders suffered an injury to their top goal tender, and it cost them a playoff spot.  That's looking eerily familiar right now.  Not sure what else to say.

GO JACKETS!!

It's Like Deja Vu All Over Again

Anton Forsberg at Development Camp this Year

That classic Yogi Berra line seems to fit the situation perfectly.  Much like last year's early season losing streak that forced the Jackets to play catch up in the new year, the CBJ lost last night to a veteran New Jersey Devils squad, to extend the Jacket's losing streak to 5 games. The Devil Wrenches pounced in the right moment with 2 quick goals in the third period to win the game.

Anton Forsberg made his first start as a goal tender in the NHL, and played well.  I thought he looked pretty solid, but he also got a lot more help from the guys in front of him than McElhinney got the night before.  The troops put in a pretty solid effort last night, but did not get rewarded.  Keep that going and the rewards will come.

Much like Vinny Prospal three years ago, Nick Foligno is emerging as the early season leader that is pulling the team forward by sheer will.  Nick had a goal last night, and another scary moment when he went to the dressing room after absorbing a Jack Johnson slap shot to the upper body.  He also got the second assist on the first goal (nice work by Gibbons to get it to Skille), and ended up taking a lot of faceoffs as well.

But two goals isn't going to do it on a lot of nights, <insert whine about officiating, either call the hooks or don't>, and it is unreasonable to expect a guy to pitch a 1 goal game in his first night out as a goal tender.  So problems remain.  A good defensive team focused on shutting down our top line last night, and they were successful, so while the secondary scoring picked up, the big dogs got shut down.

Tuesday we face a team that is perhaps even more hapless than we are at the moment, and it's at home, so that should help.  Reinforcements are coming soon, so as long as the effort remains things should be okay.

Wennberg won 57% of his faceoffs.  That is a marked improvement.  Well done.  He is going to be a pretty solid player, and I really liked the push back in his game last night compared to the night before.  All is not lost, but the wagons are definitely circled at the moment.  It's not about moving forward, it's about defending where we are for now.

GO JACKETS!!!

Still the Youngest Team in the League

On a Halloween night, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat an AHL + team of Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1.  Leafs fans, this is not the foundation of a run to the Cup.  It's a good road win against a depleted squad.  You'll get a chance to play NHL players later in the season.  That will be a better benchmark against how to judge your team.

For the CBJ, the incredible cohesiveness in the preseason that made one think of Red Wings teams of yore has disappeared, and rightfully so.  This is not the same group of players upon which that foundation was built.

I really don't want to go down the negativity rabbit hole.  There is so much available.  Rather I would like to focus on performances that I think set the stage for a late season run.  First is Ryan Johansen.  If ever anyone was earning every dime of their contract, than it is Joey.  I really think he has moved his game to another level faced with relentless one on three play.  When this team gets healthy and there are other threats, look out.  In spite of that he has points in 10 straight games.  Way to go Joey.  Outstanding work against incredible odds.  The only thing I can say to you is that other teams will not be able to afford to throw that kind of coverage at you later in the season when your team mates are healthy.  Bwah hah hah hah hah!  <evil laughter>  You have grown my friend, and I look forward to when you have some help.  So keep the legs churning, and your head down, because the worm will turn, and then we'll see.

The other guy I really want to call out in this post is Scott Hartnall.  We would be screwed without his combative attitude, leadership, and hard work.  When things are grim, you look for that guy that will stand in the breach, and Hartnall has done that in a big way.  A little heart to Hart here, from a season ticket holder, we are going to have a lot of fun yet this year Scott.  Thanks for your effort in this down time, but the season is long, and being down early is just an obstacle that can be overcome.  Thanks for your help in keeping the ship of state above water.

Tomorrow we play the devil wrenches.  Whoever gets the goal wins these games, right?  So let's go out and get the goal.

Tonight we were slaking the lime, and laying the bricks for the future.  I have thought that Dano and Wennberg were a little overwhelmed, which is totally natural.  Tonight I thought I saw them get a little pissed off by how things were going late in the game.  The game got out of hand towards the end, but I saw some spirit, and some fight in them before it was over.  At least they are playing big minutes, and we sacrifice this time for future good.  It is intriguing to watch their story play out.  Dano and Wennberg may yet rise up this year and make people take notice.

Tough times in CBJ land.  Stiffen your lip, bend your knees, chop your feet, and carry on CBJ fans.  We are building for the future.  It is worth every cheer.

GO JACKETS!!!

The Stuff of Gypsy Curses

Is He Healthy?  Sign him up!  #Vinning

Credit for the title must go to the incomparable Puck Daddy when they referred to Pascal LeClaire, who, on the bench due to another injury was struck by an errant puck, causing a broken jaw.  Wysh referred to that as 'the stuff of gypsy curses'.  With the announcement today that Mark Letestu is down for 2-4 weeks with a groin injury, the number of player lost to injury in the last 3 days has risen to 4.  The incredible injury toll in the first 9 games of the season can only be explained as 'the stuff of gypsy curses'.

There is no need to go through the horrific toll of injured players, the fan base knows it well.  At present, we have a top line, and a fourth line.  Everything in between is in complete flux.

It was interesting watching last night's game, in a sort of morbid curiosity kind of way.  One of the attributes of the Blue Jackets game, starting with Traverse City and extending through the preseason into the start of the season is that they played with great cohesion.  That cohesion has collapsed due to the weight of the wave of injuries, and they struggle to find it in a scramble of line combinations.  The only saving grace is that this is not a season with a compressed schedule, and they actually have some practice time to try to establish and practice what they want to do.

Apparently Jarmo is in Springfield tonight to scout one of their games.  According to Puck Rakers, this was a pre-arranged trip, that now takes on new urgency. I recommend bringing back Kerby Rychal, Josh Anderson, and Sean Collins.  You might as well throw Rychal, Anderson, Wennberg, and Dano into the fire together, as they will face that type of thing in the future, if the franchise sees long term success.  They will be able to go back to Springfield as people get healthy.

If this was 2002, all of these guys would be playing in the NHL automatically.  In this day and age, we try to bring them along in a more deliberate pace.  However, it appears that baptism by fire never goes out of style.  So let them get their feet wet together, get some experience, and then back to the AHL to digest that experience in a more controlled situation.

Either the young depth keeps the ship of state afloat until veterans get healthy, and we try a late season run for the playoffs, or it will fail miserably and we will be in the hunt for Conner McDavid draft pick, and all that entails.  It is now up to our young depth, and it is to be hoped that the fan base can be supportive of their efforts and tolerant of negative results.   This is not how anyone drew it up.

GO JACKETS!!

Ottawa Goes Dirty for the Win

It started with Chris Neil, sensing a serious ass beating at Jared Boll's hands, going for his face, and doing the eye gouge with his thumb.  Then Eric Gryba, a dork defenseman who is only playing because Methot is hurt, goes to Artem Anismov's head, putting him out of the game.  Than Mark Borowiecki a defender with a whopping 8 games of NHL experience turns his back to an aggressive play by Corey Tropp, and gets hurt for being a dumb a**.  Ottawa dove low in facing a depleted CBJ squad, when they probably didn't have to, as their goal tender was, again, on the top of his game.  Robin Lehner  turned in a whale of a game against the Blue Jackets, out dueling Curtis McElhinney, who looked shaky early in relief of an injured Sergei Bobrovsky, but seemed to settle down later, in spite of giving up late goals.

Extremely bitter and expletive laced commentary regarding the department of player saftety's sanctimonious treatment of James Wisneiwski.  I'm sure the department of player safety will carefully review all of these issues, and suspend Wisneiwski again... dammit.  I'm sure NHL officials will handle this correctly.

This was a weak ass, dirty effort by a suspect Ottawa squad.  One of these days you are going to have to play the grown up CBJ, and there will be hell to pay.

BTW... Joey, welcome to life as Rick Nash.
and
BTW... I'm growing to love Scott Hartnell in a big way.  The heart in his name is misspelled.  Way to go Hartsy!!

Time to step away from the keyboard, and let the angst settle.

Rational commentary at a later date.

GO JACKETS!!!

No Worries

No Worries Mate! quoth Mick Dundee, the effervescent Australian in the Crocodile Dundee movies.  The CBJ have played 2 of the 3 games on this west coast bruiser of a road trip, and miraculously have emerged with 2 points in 2 games.  The 2 points earned in the 'last 20 seconds' winning goal in the come-back against the Sharks served to keep the Jackets floating near the top of the Eastern Conference behind a streaking New York Islanders team.

  I thought the Isles improved themselves over the summer, but not that much. I suspect they will come back to earth later in the season.  On the other hand it's the last year in their old barn, and they are going to be a tough game on Long Island in the 2014-15 season.

I didn't get a chance to watch the Sharks game.  I watched the first period, and with the Sharks leading 2-0 I packed it in, but that had more to do with my schedule the next day than how the Jackets were playing.  And sure enough they turn in a really great road game, with the come-from-behind win.  I must be frank, that was lovely news in the morning, and groggily watching the highlights on my iPad the next morning was really enjoyable.

The 2 points assured in that regulation win mean this trip won't be a white-wash, and help to keep the CBJ near the top of the Eastern Conference, a much different picture than I painted in my last post.  The game with Anaheim, that I did stay up and watch, was in many ways similar to the Sharks game, except that in this case the opponent was even more powerful.  The CBJ just couldn't handle the Ducks, which is no shame since they had come into the game winning 6 straight games, and left with their streak intact.  With a CBJ team handicapped by injuries, I thought they played hard and pretty well, but the Ducks...Wow! <gets down on his knees and thanks the creator for the day the CBJ moved to the Eastern Conference>

So it's all good in CBJ land.  Not a great start, but it appears we will have no problem keeping pace in the East.  A huge win the other night, a good effort in the loss the next night, and the Stanley Cup champs tomorrow.  That ought to be fun.  Gabby is injured.  LOL.

GO JACKETS!!!

West Coast Cross Roads

I've been on the road all weekend, so didn't really get to stay caught up with the Jackets.  I was in west-central New York, which is Sabres territory, and people aren't paying a whole lot of attention to hockey at this time.  Lots of driving and limited communication.  As I was leaving Columbus I got to listen to the first period of the Calgary game on the radio, which I later learned the CBJ hung on to win.

Then there was the Ottawa road game, which they lost.  Judging from the post game interview, or the little I saw of it, Head Coach Todd Richards (HCTR) was ok with the effort, they just didn't get a good result.  That will happen to you on the road in the NHL.  I heard about the McElhinney injury which leaves our margins in goal tender pretty slim, facing a classic West Coast battle against 3 really good teams.

And then I see that Aaron Portzline over at Puck Rakers is reporting that HCTR is skating the Wennberg-Calvert-Atkinson line in practice as the second line.  I think this ought to be very interesting.  I though this line looked very dynamic.  In the preseason.  Against Carolina.  Soooo...

The Sharks, Ducks, and Kings on the road seems like a very different type of challenge for this line.  However, if they can hang on in the face-off circle, and defensively, it can be very dynamic offensive line.  They all seem to be on the same page in how they think the game in the offensive zone.  And since there is always a need for secondary scoring, if this line can produce at a modest pace, it will be a very good thing for the Blue Jackets fortunes.

Which would be a good thing, because I think the early season is at a bit of a cross-roads.

An Undefeated Season Squandered

Apparently Gaborik is hurt again.  LOL Kings!

I figured a photo of Gaborik would be fitting for a totally dysfunctional blog post, which this will spiral rapidly into.  I haven't listened to Richie's presser tonight, but am fresh from viewing the game, with a whiny 13 year old Stars fan sitting behind be, and my road home closed, without advertisement.  So I have a certain angst about the whole evening.

I thought the Stars deserved to win the game.  They won the first period, and the third period, and a lot of times that will do the job.  It is AWFULLY early in the season to run into a desperate hockey team, but that's what the Jackets got tonight.  A pretty good Dallas team that started 0-1-1 and was staring at 0-2-1 tonight.  Lindy Ruff, the Dallas coach, had already called out his stars for a lack of performance.  Not a great setup for a Blue Jackets team that was riding high.

So it played out like you might expect.  With the exception of a stretch late in the second period, Dallas won the majority of the puck battles, forechecked effectively against our defenseman possession game, and effectively neutralized our forecheck.  When Dallas made a mistake, and they made a few, we didn't bury the chance, with Boll and Anisimov both missing gaping nets.  You never make all those chances, so the odds will be leaning towards cashing in on that type of chance at some point in the future.  But it was symptomatic of the game.

I kind of figured that this is how it would go down when Dallas scored it's second goal.  Jamie Benn, a pretty good player, and already called out by Lindy Ruff, beats a 1 on 2, and then scores.  He just plain wanted it more.  The litany of Jackets players that the Stars effectively neutralized is long and distinguished.  Ryan Johansen exploded in the second period, but conditioning is an issue that is still there, and Benn and Seguin out scored him.  No secondary scoring in this game at all.

An eye opening game for our rookies, Dano and Wennberg.  Welcome to the NHL western conference boys.  Wait till we go out west next week.  Wennberg seemed able to rally with better play as the game went on.  Dano, not so much, and he was dropped to the fourth line to give a hard skating Jack Skille more ice time.  But the Stars soon bottled him up as well.

What I liked about this game was that our fourth line showed some real flashes of what last years fourth line was able to accomplish.  Go in, and get possession when the chips were down.  I thought Jared Boll had a really good game, playing the system, not getting too crazy, and he had a prime scoring chance that he went top shelf from point blank, but hit the pipe.  Not too bad.  Yeah, I know some people dislike Boll a lot.  Some of them are even Blue Jacket fans.  But he has not played this way in the last several years, and if he keeps it up he will be very effective.

Joey (NOT JoJo, or RJ, or RyJo) had his 100th and 101st points in his NHL career, both of them goals.  Not too bad, not too bad at all.

All and all, it was just one of those games.  All we need to do is beat Dallas down there, which we have done before, and wipe the slate clean.  That is the beauty of this NHL schedule.  A not so great loss against a western conference team can be cancelled with a win against them later in the season.  Then beat the east, and you are in the playoffs. Budda-bing, budda-boom.  Got 79 games left to go before we see that though.

Really good crowd tonight.  One too many Dallas fans, with her screechy voice in my ear.  So it goes.  A very nice crowd for a Tuesday night.  This is shaping up to be a fun season.  Good stuff.

GO JACKETS!!!

A Passing Grade

Marko Dano at 2013 Development Camp

Last night the Columbus Blue Jackets played a very solid home opener against a top Metropolitan Division opponent, the New York Rangers.  Yesterday we described this game as a tougher test than the season opener for our squad, and they passed that test with flying colors, beating the Rangers 5-2.

Nick Foligno walks the Red Carpet

The Red Carpet for the Players

The Blue Jackets really did a nice job on the opening day ceremonies, and the plaza in front of Nationwide Arena was jumping all afternoon.  The ceremony of having the players walking down a red carpet through the fans turned out to go really well, I thought.  It was fun to see them do it, and I'll bet it was an interesting experience for the players.  Bob naturally came first, and earliest.  You could have lit a candle off Matt Calvert's smile, and it was fun to see the rookies Wennberg and Dano make the walk.  Nick Foligno was the last of the players, and he was warmly welcomed by the fans.

Once the game got started, we could settle down to some good hockey watching.  It was very interesting to me how the fans started booing Rick Nash every time he touched the puck.  Nash is off got a good start this season, and ended up getting a late goal in this game, but he was pretty effectively neutralized by the CBJ.  And I think that both teams having played a game already allowed them to get past any jitters quickly, and treat it just like another big game.

The Rangers seemed to get tired of Mark Dano early on in the game, a theme that I think will be recurring as the season progresses.  When Hagelin was assessed an elbowing penalty against Dano, the CBJ seemed to gain momentum with the following power play.  This lead to a stretch of play with the Blue Jackets dominating the puck possession, until a pass from Hartnell in the middle back out to the point allowed Artem Anisimov to walk into his shot and he rocketed a shot by Talbot, the Rangers backup goal tender, and the Jackets took a 1-0 lead at the 6:24 mark of the first period.

A Sterner Test

Today the Columbus Blue Jackets start the defense of their home turf in the 2014-15 NHL season against the New York Rangers.  This will be a more difficult test for this battered Blue Jackets squad than the plucky, energetic, but not quite ready for prime time Sabres.

This is a Rangers squad that, in general, we feel we can beat if we play our game.  But the main difference between this season and last is that the core of these Rangers came together as a team during the playoffs, and that is something that is not easily dismissed.  We will see today how much of that lingers, but a run to the Stanley Cup final should pay dividends for the Rangers this year.

The CBJ also have a very tight team.  There is little doubt of that, and they looked very cohesive in their season opener.  They will need to play that style of game against a more difficult opponent today.  A trend that started in Traverse City, in the development tournament hosted by the Redwings, and carried through the preseason is that the CBJ may be outshot early, and may fall behind.  But they have consistently shown an ability to start to wear on teams, and have shown some explosiveness in the third period.  They have shown an ability to play a systematically sound game with a variety of lineups.  We will get a real good idea of the early potential of Wennberg and Dano today as well.  I am looking forward to watching that with keen interest.

These are games the CBJ did not win consistently last year.  A weekend tilt against a powerful opponent before a full house.  It will be a sign of growth for this team if they can begin to win these games.  A Cup finalist is a good early measuring stick, but will not measure the full potential of our team, win or lose.  But a strong early start is built by winning this type of game.  It should be fun to watch!

GO JACKETS!!!