Cavaliers Rout Celtics, Win 19 Straight at Home
January 10, 2009New Year’s Resolutions for Sports
January 11, 200919-18-4 – 42 points (3rd division, 10th conference)
In the past, I’ve done these mile-marker updates after 10 games. For the Third 10, I completely skipped it and instead focused on the seminal win of the season thus far for the Jackets. I chose 41 games to do the Fourth 10, as it is the halfway point of the 82-game season.
As the NHL closes in on the All Star break, the playoff picture is still murky in the Western Conference, where just 10 points separate the fifth seed from the 14th-ranked team in the conference. The Jackets are smack in the middle of that picture, treading water around the .500 mark, and just one point out of the eighth spot. As of this writing, they face off against Minnesota tonight at home in Columbus, the same team who happens to occupy that eighth spot. In short, game 42 is just as huge as any of the previous 41 have been. That said, let’s recap the last 10, and some of first half of the season’s high and low points.
Roller-coaster Ride
We documented here how huge this win against San Jose was (see link above): “…I think it might be one of those games that can re’make’ a season that was clearly headed for ‘break’ status.” However, the Jackets promptly lost their next three game, two of them while getting shut out. They also lost solid rookie center Derick Brassard for the season due to injury after he separated his shoulder against Dallas the night after the San Jose win. This would foreshadow some tough times for the Jackets’ infirmary unit ahead.
The three straight losses included one of the worst of the year: a shut-out loss to the lowly Los Angeles Kings at home. This prompted the players to hold a closed-door meeting where they questioned their effort and came to the collective decision that their effort had been unacceptable. And one player in particular whose effort had been solid seemed to take that message to heart even further.
Standing On the Shoulders of Giants
Steve Mason, who was called up due to injury early in the year and subsequently managed to force his way into the starting goalie’s spot, took the players’ meeting to heart and immediately went out and set an example. The following three games, he did not allow a single goal. He set the franchise’s record for longest scoreless streak, was named Rookie of the Month for the second month in a row, and led the Jackets to a four-game winning streak, the last three coming at the beginning of a huge road trip that criss-crossed the country.
Mason wasn’t the only player who heard the message. Throughout the four-game winning streak, the club played a much more physical style, focusing on defense and limiting their opponents to fewer shot attempts. It wasn’t always enjoyable hockey to watch, but it was effective as the Jackets shut out Philadelphia at home, then traveled to Los Angeles and Anaheim and blanked both of them as well. They rang in the New Year in Colorado with a 6-1 win. The effort expended was hard to sustain, however, and the very next night they were outworked in St. Louis, falling 5-2. Not even Steve Mason had a good game that night.
The Injury Bug Bites Back
After losing Brassard, along with the continuing injuries to Raffi Torres and Jason Chimera, the Jackets could ill afford more injuries if they hoped to continue moving up in the standings, but unfortunately when it rains, it pours. Winger Kristian Huselius suffered a concussion against St. Louis and has missed the past two games. Defenseman Rostislav Klesla is back on the IR list with another foot injury unrelated to the ankle problems that kept him sidelined earlier in the season. Backup goaltender Pascal LeClaire is on the IR list as well. And, worst of all, the team lost Rick Nash during the Detroit game on Tuesday to a lower body injury. It’s not believed to be serious or long-term, but without Nash, Huselius, and Brassard, the team is without its three leading scorers.
Fighting Through
With all of the injuries, the team had a tough mountain to climb going into Detroit this past week without Huselius and Brassard, and then to lose Nash early in the first period made it all that much tougher. The Jackets hung around for two periods, matching Detroit at 0-0 through 40 minutes. But the final period was too much, and they fell to Detroit 3-0. Thinks looked bleak, as it appeared they’d be without Nash and Huselius through the week. Facing the red hot Capitals on Friday (winners of seven straight) seemed daunting. But, the effort was there again, and Mason was flat-out unconscious. The Jackets worked for three goals, and Mason stopped 45 shots to notch his sixth shut-out, ending the daunting six-game cross-country road trip at a 4-2 mark.
Halfway Home: Treading Water
As the season is now half-over, the Jackets are in an interesting spot. We’ve posted quotes in 5-Holes past from GM Scott Howson about the team’s constant hovering around the .500 mark for most of the year (“….500 is now mediocrity in today’s NHL. … [It] doesn’t get you close to the playoffs and we know that. We want to get back there first and start building to six and seven games over .500 for us to get where we need to go.”). There are two ways to look at it: the Jackets have been unable to build to that six or seven games over mark, but at the same time with all of the injuries they’ve gone through along with breaking in a new goal-tender, the fact that they are still AT .500 is a positive.
And, more over, a lot of teams in the Western Conference are hovering around that same level as well, and the Jackets have two things in their pocket: they will eventually get all of these missing players back, and the owner has approved them making a move to improve the team. As the trading deadline (March 4th) draws closer, the longer the Jackets can stay in the hunt the more likely that they can get healthy and possibly add a player or two to try to get over the hump.
Halfway Home: An All-Star Snubbing
Considering yourself in charge of picking an All-Star team. The fans picked the starters, but you are in charge of picking the reserves. There is a goalie with the following stats (league rankings):
Goals-against average: 1.74 (1)
Save percentage: .939 (1)
Shutouts: 6 (1)
Considering that the teams are picked by conference, and this goalie is leading the ENTIRE LEAGUE in the three biggest stat categories, you would at least put him on the roster to be on the All-Star Team, wouldn’t you? So would I. So, I was shocked to see that Steve Mason was left off the All-Star Team (Rick Nash is the team’s lone representative). Not only is Mason leading the league in these stats, but his shutouts line is especially impressive considering he has only played in 24 games (in other words, he’s pitching a shutout 25% of the time).
Mason’s consolation: he will get to participate in the NHL YoungStars Game. Huzzah.
Looking Ahead
At the halfway point a year ago, Columbus was 19-16-6 (44 points), so their current position is hardly unprecedented. They were in sixth place at the All Star break at 25-20-6, and after the break things fell apart. The true test this season will be keeping their momentum where it is until they can get some of their injured players back healthy and contributing. This year’s team has more veteran leadership on it, and since they seem to finally have bought into Ken Hitchcock’s system of tough, physical defense and timely scoring, coupled with the emergence and stellar play of Mason, they have a chance at the playoffs. But a lot of things will have to break their way, and they cannot let up the intensity with which they have been playing recently.
They will get Huselius back tonight, which will help on offense. But, continuing to build during the rest of the season will not only hinge upon health, but will be based on whether or not they’ve finally realized that the effort Hitchcock demands does produce results. Managing to win tonight’s game with Minnesota–a team that’s ahead of them that they really need to beat–on the second night of a back-to-back (and still short-handed) would be another step in that maturation.
5 Comments
Rookie Nikita Filatov scored a hat trick Saturday night, and the Jackets won 4-2. They moved up to 9th place, 1 point behind Colorado for the 8th playoff position.
As fate would have it, they host Colorado on Tuesday night in Columbus. Another big game!
Filatov is gonna be a stunner in the sooner more then later. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him putting up secent numbrs next season. The trend of young players making an early impact should continue with him.
Filatov looks like he belongs right now. The only question I have with him is his size at the moment: he’s not a big kid, and at 18 he’s still developing from a physical standpoint. He has the skating and hands-skills right now to be an effective scorer in the NHL. All three goals he scored on Saturday show that he has those skills.
The main question will be: can he take the pounding at this level?
The team left him in Syracuse to give him a chance to get acclimated to playing with/against the bigger bodies in North America, and he’s definitely shown at the AHL level that he can do that. But, the jump to the NHL is another big one for someone that was playing juniors in Russia this time a year ago.
I can understand that concern completly. What gives me reassurance is if you look at the number of 19-22 yr old players that are just dominating the game in terms of scoring. Yes, Filatov is small, but with his quickness and puck skills I think he will do alright.
Injuries on the other hand we’ll have to see. This is an Ohio team after all.
[…] I mentioned in my “Halfway Home” post this past weekend, Filatov has the skating and puck skills to be a scorer in the NHL right […]