While We’re Waiting… James Posey Trade Rumors, Ohio State’s Hoops Future, and Cousin Eddie?
February 19, 2009Cavaliers Win, Await Trade News
February 19, 2009Blue Jackets 4, Blues 3
(Box) – Highlights
Record: 29-23-6 (64pts – 6th place)
Sports Club Stats Standings:
7th place, 61.7%
It wasn’t always pretty. Shoot, in the third period, it got downright scary ugly. But, the Jackets did just enough to get another much-needed win on Wednesday night against the visiting St. Louis Blues. For the coach, it was win #499 in a storied career. For the franchise, it was a high-watermark. Of all time. Columbus had never before been six games above .500. Most importantly, they leap-frogged Dallas in the points standings, moving up to a tie for fifth in points (64), though Vancouver has the edge by virtue of having played one fewer game. In the preview, we talked about some of the important things: special teams play (there was plenty), better work from the Jackets forwards (there was plenty of that, too), and some timely goal-tending (you guessed it).
We also talked about the fact that St. Louis is a team that just never quits, and that was certainly on display Wednesday night as well. For whatever reason, the Jackets have been snakebitten by the Blues in recent times. Those of us who have followed the Jackets since their inception wouldn’t have been surprised to see them lose a game like this. But then something unexpected happened: they didn’t. Despite a third period in which the coach said the team “played the score, and not the game” and also said they “got casual,” Columbus had just enough left to get the two points.
The first two periods were played about as well as Columbus has played all season. They capitalized on chances, managed to keep St. Louis in check, and built a 4-1 lead. But, when the third period started, it was like two completely different teams came onto the ice. The Jackets looked to be satisfied with their performance to that point, and perhaps were looking ahead to the back-to-back game Thursday night in Toronto. St. Louis, however, still has some designs on making a playoff run, and they flat-out never quit working. And, once the floodgates were opened, the Jackets couldn’t close them. All they could do was hold on for the ride, and rely on their goaltender. “The third period is why I don’t like coaching,” said Hitchcock. But, one thing at a time…
The Jackets came out with a chip on their shoulder, knowing they would be getting a solid effort from the Blues at the outset. Neither team disappointed. We talked about the special teams play of both teams, and those units took center stage early. Blues defenseman Barret Jackman took a penalty just over a minute into the game, and then almost immediately on the Power Play, Jackets defenseman Fedor Tyutin ripped a shot from the left point that somehow made it through the pile of bodies in front of the goal, clanged off the post, and then ricocheted into the net off of goalie Chris Mason. “We’ve been struggling against that team, especially this year,” Tyutin said. “That was pretty big to get on the board first, to take the momentum.”
St. Louis spent the first nine minutes trying to get a shot, but eventually got into it, and the action was moving end to end for most of the perod. The Jackets were able to weather that flurry, and then with a little more than two minutes left in the first period Manny Malhotra capitalized on a costly turnover by Steve Wagner behind the Blues goal. Wagner essentially passed the puck directly to Malhotra, who was forechecking, and Malhotra was able to gather it in and immediately stuff it by Chris Mason for a 2-0 lead. The first period would end 2-0, and most importantly, the Jackets were able to stay out of the penalty box for the entire first period. Err, sort of. Kristian Huselius smacked a Blues player with a high stick as time expired in the first period, and Columbus was forced to start the second period a man down for two minutes.
The Jackets didn’t stop there. We talked about how flirting with the Blues’ Power Play would be dangerous, even with Columbus’s recent improvement on the PK. But, flirt they did. In addition to the Huselius penalty, the Jackets took two more penalties in the second period (all three penalties were served/killed in the first ten minutes of the period, as well). The Blues got some great scoring chances, but the Jackets were up to the task, killing off all three penalties without incident. Between the first two penalties, however, the Blues finally got on the board, as Brad Winchester got two chances to beat Steve Mason, and was able to on his second shot about 3:30 into the period. But, while this had the potential to be a deflating let down for the Jackets, they not only answered, but answered almost immediately.
Not 30 seconds later, Christian Backman broke out on a pass from Huselius with Malhotra on his left wing and Rick Nash on his right. Two crisp passes from Backman to Malhotra, and (then after Chris Mason had committed to Malhotra) from Malhotra across the goal to a wide open Nash led to an easy tap-in goal for The Captain. The answer not only got the crowd back into the game, but definitely knocked the Blues back down. The Jackets continued to kill off penalties and continued to put on a solid forecheck and get good scoring chances, and the Blues were unable to get anything going. The Jackets kept the pressure on, and with just under three minutes left in the period had a nice cycle going. Andrew Murray got a couple of chances, but was unable to score. One of his shots got blocked out to the left wing, and he promptly went to the net. Tyutin recovered the puck, and fired it on net. Murray got a stick on it to redirect it past Chris Mason, and it was 4-1 Columbus to end the second period. Ahh, but cue the scary music…
The third period was a bit of a horror show for Columbus. Their effort was not the same. St. Louis came out desperate, and forced the action, outshooting the Jackets 13-3 in the period. The Jackets got two Power Play opportunities early, and not only couldn’t capitalize, but frankly looked lost. They couldn’t get the puck into the St. Louis zone. When they did, it was immediately pushed back out by the Blues. The Blues actually got three golden short-handed scoring chances while Columbus was on the Power Play, and Alexander Steen finally made Columbus pay for their lackluster Power Play, scoring a short-handed goal for the Blues with just over 13 minutes left. Columbus righted the ship just a bit, but St. Louis could smell blood in the water. And then, the penalties came. Ahead 4-2, Columbus took two silly penalties with 11 and six minutes left in the third. Both Power Plays netted some great chances for the Blues, and though Columbus almost escaped, with two seconds left on the last penalty the Blues solid Power Play finally got a goal. It was 4-3 Columbus with about four minutes to go… an eternity.
Thankfully, there was Steve Mason. The Jackets goalie was huge down the stretch, and when the Blues pulled their goalie with 90 seconds left and attacked with six skaters, the tension was palpable. The Blues got two golden chances to tie it, but were unable to capitalize. With about 1:10 left, the Mason stopped a shot that rebounded in front of the open side of the goal. Defenseman Mike Commodore got a glove on it and pushed it away to avoid danger. Then, with only 13 seconds left, the puck was shot on net and several players were in a scrum in front of Steve Mason slapping sticks at the puck. The goalie held firm, and the Jackets were able to escape and earn a much-needed two points.
The effort was not lost on the players, either. Mike Commodore was blunt:
We eased off the gas big-time, and it let them right back in it. It was like a flurry around the net. The goal is not to play like we did in the third period and squeak by, it’s to dominate games and win them the right way. Our goal shouldn’t be — and it isn’t — to stumble into the eighth spot of the playoffs. Our goal should be to make the playoffs convincingly and win some games, put a run together. We need to play with a little more of that mind-set and not have third periods like that.
Forward RJ Umberger had similar sentiments:
We’ll take the two points. But obviously we’re not happy about it, and Hitch isn’t happy about it. The moral is, we have to go out (tonight) and play 60 minutes instead of 40. We just got too casual, too cute. We thought we had it won. We wanted to get cute and fancy and run up the score, and the only way you run up the score is to keep playing the way we did through 40 minutes.
Thankfully (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), the Jackets get no time to stew about their lackluster performance in the win, as they headed to Toronto immediately after the game and will face the Maple Leafs Thursday night. Here’s hoping they took the lesson to be learned from the third period of Wednesday night’s game, and are able to employ the old baseball cliché “closer’s mentality”. Every game and every point is ever so important, and with a Western Canadian road-trip again looming next week, they need to get as many points as possible while in the eastern time zone. They’ve managed 11 points in their last six games to get back into the race, and now they have to keep improving and keep getting points.
Other Important Scores
Thanks to the great people at Sports Club Stats, we have started looking at Jackets games in the context of the rest of the conference and who the Jackets are fighting with for those playoff spots. In response to the “Who To Root For” section of the preview, here are the “Other Important Scores” from around the Western Conference:
Los Angeles at Anaheim – LA wins, 4-3
Nashville at Detroit – DET wins, 6-2
In other words, it was a perfect night for the Jackets in terms of the playoff numbers.
6 Comments
Was Commodore rolling around in money when he gave that quote?
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