The Scores Don’t Count…

Blackhawks 4, Blue Jackets 3 (Box Score)

…but the performances do. The Blue Jackets opened their exhibition season last night in Chicago, and it was more an exhibition of young players than anything else.

On display were Derick Brassard and Jakub Voracek, as well as several young defensemen trying to make an impact and impress the coaches and front office staff. Though the game was not on any kind of television (so that FSN Ohio could bring you another riveting installment of Reds Baseball!), and so I can’t say for certain how well everyone played, the reports were positive for both Brassard and Voracek, as well as second-year defenseman Kris Russell.

Down 2-0 early in the second period, Brassard and Voracek combined to set up the Blue Jackets’ first goal on some slick passing:

Trailing 2-0, Brassard and Voracek assisted on Jason Chimera’s goal to bring the Blue Jackets to 2-1 at 5:52 of the second period.

Brassard took a 100-foot pass from defenseman Christian Backman along the Blue Jackets’ board, then fired a quick pass to Voracek, who was skating in through the right faceoff circle. With Chimera to his left, Voracek drew the Chicago defender’s attention and slid a nifty pass through the slot to Chimera for a tap-in.

Their play was not lost on the coach: “Brassard has had a really good camp and I thought he was really good again tonight,” Ken Hitchcock said. “Voracek has been getting better every day. He’s going hard to the net and he’s using his weight. It’s good to see.”

By most accounts, Kris Russell played very well on the blue line, playing fast and doing a good job moving the puck. These are the things Hitchcock will be stressing from his team this season as they look to take another step forward: he wants the Jackets to dictate speed and game tempo, and he wants them to improve in moving the puck to set up scoring chances for the offense. A lot of the onus for this will fall onto the defensemen.

In the end, the Jackets couldn’t hold a third period lead, giving up two goals to Chicago for the loss. They also avoided a scary moment when two players collided with back-up goalie Fredrik Norrena, who was attended to by the trainers for a few minutes. Norrena stayed in the game before being replaced later in the period. Losing Norrena for any period of time would have been devastating for the team, since–as we noted yesterday–goalie prospect Steve Mason was reported to have suffered a setback in his rehab from torn meniscus surgery in April. Sadly, those reports were accurate, as the club announced that he will be out from four to six weeks after reinjuring some of the cartilage around the knee. He underwent arthroscopic surgery yesterday. This is a big blow to Mason, who had been working diligently for five months to get back on the ice. The knee apparently “locked up” while he was doing an individual shot-stopping drill with assistant coaches.

Some good news on the injury front, however, is that #1 draft pick Nikita Filatov is expected to join the team on the ice on Thursday, one day earlier than originally expected.