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February 18, 2009Cavaliers News: Ben Wallace Cut His Hair, May Miss Tonight’s Game
February 18, 2009St. Louis Blues (24-25-7, 55pts) vs
Columbus Blue Jackets (28-23-6, 62pts)
Nationwide Arena, Columbus, OH
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
7:00 PM EST
FSOHIO/WWCD(fm)
(Dispatch Preview / SportsDirect Preview)
The Jackets are in the thick of a span of six games in nine days, with tonight being game four (in day six). Columbus is 4-0-1 in their last five games, bouncing back from a three-game losing streak… that included a loss to these same St. Louis Blues just over two weeks ago. Same teams, same ice. Columbus desperately needs for a different result, however. In their last meeting, St. Louis was a hot team, came out with an edge, and built a 2-0 lead early. Columbus was able to tie the game, but couldn’t hold the Blues off on a late Power Play, which set up the game-winner (the Blues would later add an empty-netter). Columbus has been playing much better hockey since that week, but still seems to always have trouble with St. Louis.
Projected Lineups
St. Louis Blues:
LW: | Andy McDonald | Brad Winchester | Alexander Steen | Cam Janssen |
C: | Patrik Berglund | David Backes | Keith Tkachuk | Jay McClement |
RW: | T.J. Oshie | Brad Boyes | B.J. Crombeen | David Perron |
D: | Barret Jackman | Steve Wagner | Carlo Colaiacovo | |
D: | Mike Weaver | Jeff Woywitka | Tyson Strachan | |
G: | Chris Mason |
Columbus Blue Jackets:
LW: | Rick Nash | Raffi Torres | Jason Chimera | Andrew Murray |
C: | R.J. Umberger | Jason Williams | Manny Malhotra | Michael Peca |
RW: | Kristian Huselius | Jakub Voracek | Jared Boll | Derek Dorsett |
D: | Jan Hejda | Fedor Tyutin | Kris Russell | |
D: | Mike Commodore | Christian Backman | Marc Methot | |
G: | Steve Mason |
Team Rankings
Scoring:
STL – 2.77 gpg (17th NHL)
CBJ – 2.67 gpg (20th NHL)
Defense:
STL – 2.98 gapg (21st NHL)
CBJ – 2.68 gapg (7th NHL)
Power Play:
STL – 21.5% (8th NHL)
CBJ – 12.4% (30th NHL)
Penalty Kill:
STL – 82. 3% (10th NHL)
CBJ – 81.7% (t14th NHL)
Prior Matchups
1. Columbus 2 at St. Louis 5 (1/3/09)[box]
2. St. Louis 4 at Columbus 2 (2/3/09)[box]
Who To Root For
Thanks to the great people at Sports Club Stats, we can also look at what the rest of the league is doing, and who (as Jackets fans) we need to root for tonight to help the cause, as well:
St. Louis at Columbus
Los Angeles at Anaheim
Nashville at Detroit
Game Notes
This is another game that the Jackets desperately need to win. They are still in the thick of a tight playoff race, and are in a tough stretch of six games in nine days. St. Louis is a team on the rise, having improved their standing even in the last two weeks since these two teams last played. The Jackets can ill-afford to not continue earning points against teams below them in the standings. However, as we wrote verbatim in the last Jackets/Blues preview, “it always seems like lining up against Columbus brings out the best in St. Louis, regardless of what the standings say.” To the tune of five in a row, and seven out of eight. In short, the Jackets have their work cut out for them tonight. Goal-tender Steve Mason looks to make his fourth straight start since coming off of the IR list for his mononucleosis. He’s looked solid in all three of his starts thus far. Columbus needs to hope that continues tonight.
It looks like Ken Hitchcock has elected to shake up his top forward lines in the wake of his open criticism of their offensive effort over the last few games: “I want to see more attack, more direct plays at the net,” Hitchcock said. “When we start going east and west, we have a tendency to get in trouble. Not much good happens when you bring the puck into the middle of the ice and stick-handle.” There is speculation that Manny Malhotra has been moved down to the third line, and RJ Umberger, who has been playing well of late (6pts in last seven games) will move up to center the top line with Rick Nash and Kristian Huselius. Umberger has scored three goals in the past two games, and with 19 on the year sits one off of his career high of 20 (and his 19 have come in 16 fewer games than his 20 did in ‘05-‘06). Umberger has been using his speed and has been excelling at getting pucks to the net (he set up Christian Backman’s game-winner against San Jose last Saturday doing just that), and has also been good at cleaning up rebounds of late. If he can continue that effort, the puck will find him if he’s playing with Nash and Huselius.
The Jackets have been surviving on defense in spite of some sloppier play in their own zone of late, making up for it with shot-blocking and stellar goal-tending. Their Penalty Kill has been better of late, as has the Power Play (though the latter most definitely in streaks). However, St. Louis has a very, very good PP unit, and it would be wise for the Jackets to maintain discipline and stay out of the penalty box. Flirting with the Blues’ PP unit is what ultimately cost Columbus the previous game against St. Louis, and no matter how well the Jackets PK is playing it would be a bad idea to test it against St. Louis. As Aaron Portzline points out in the Dispatch preview link above: “The Blues get 34.2 percent of their offense from their power play, which is surprisingly good.” Columbus is at their best at even strength, anyway, but staying out of the box will only help them tonight. In addition to that, however, the Jackets defensemen need to do a better job of staying home, getting the puck up-ice to the forwards, and thus getting it out of the zone and limiting their opponents from additional scoring chances.
Since their last meeting in Columbus, St. Louis has continued to improve and play solid hockey, going 3-1-2 (8 pts) in their last six games. They’ve won two straight, beating both Chicago and the New York Rangers (both playoff teams in their respective conferences). Goaltender Chris Mason has been solid, going 7-2-3 over his last 12 appearances. He’s only allowed 18 goals in those appearances (310 shots, .942 sv%). With the Jackets streakiness on offense, facing a hot goal-tender isn’t exactly music to their ears.
St. Louis is playing better and better on defense, though much of that is because of the continued solid play of Chris Mason. The teams match up fairly closely numbers-wise on offense, but as Portzline reported the Blues are getting a big chunk of their offense on the Power Play. If Columbus can keep the game at even strength, and can come out with a sense of urgency they have not played with thus far against St. Louis this season, they have a good chance to take home two more points. St. Louis is a team that works hard every night, and can make up for a lack of depth with effort and opportunism (especially on special teams). Columbus needs to negate that with their own effort, discipline, and with sticking to their system. If the Jackets can continue the solid forecheck they’ve shown over the past five games to generate more scoring chances against Chris Mason, play tighter defense, and stay out of the penalty box, I think they will win tonight. And, honestly, at this point in the season, they HAVE to win games like this if they want to make the playoffs.
Side game notes:
- This game has some “coaching milestones” implications built in: Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock is going for his 499th career win. Blues coach Andy Murray is going for his 300th. 499 > 300. Just sayin’. Great article by Portzline here about Hitch as the coach approaches the magic number of 500 wins.
- We touched on the “Jackets/Blues’ forward David Backes” saga in the last preview, with Backes having cross-checked Huselius to a concussion in the 1/2/09 meeting. In terms of retribution, defenseman Jan Hejda laid a vicious hit on Backes in the 2/3/09 game. On his way back to the bench from the penalty box, Hejda got a hip check into Backes as he skated up ice. Backes was forced to leave the game, and there was some additional chippiness between the two clubs after that. It is entirely possible that the animosity between the two clubs, and more specifically Backes and Hejda, will continue into tonight’s game as well.
- Due to an Ohio State basketball game being on at the same time, this game will not be heard on WBNS 1460 AM radio in Columbus. It will remain on the air on WWCD 101.1 FM in Columbus, as well as the normal Fox Sports Ohio on TV… where it will compete in Ohio with the Cavaliers game. Most Columbus cable companies have an FSO alternate feed, so viewers can see both if they choose.
From The Outside Looking In
St. Louis Game Time
Let’s Go Blues
Next Game For The Jackets
Thursday, February 19, 2009
7:30 PM EST
Columbus Blue Jackets at Toronto Maple Leafs
5 Comments
Nice to finally beat these guys.
got a little hairy there toward the end. best win pct in team history……NIIIIICE
YES, finally nailed those Blues! We’ve got to hit them the next three games, bu upcoming games against Vancouver, Edmonton, and Anaheim in the next week or so are must-win too for us to make the playoffs. If things go really well, we could even nail Chicago (they’ve got three more against us) and if they slump a little we could end up #4.
But I digress. Go Jackets!
[…] 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 […]
Mike, tonight against Toronto and then Saturday against Anaheim are HUGE games. Toronto has scuffled a bit this year, and the Jackets have been solid against the middle- and low-end teams from the East (the West is just a little bit deeper in terms of talent/competition). If they can win these next two before heading west, it would definitely help them get some solid footing in the standings, and might just push the Ducks almost out of solid contention.
The race is starting to separate, and the Ducks are right on the edge of the cliff. They are so far behind in terms of games played, and are already out of it in terms of points right now. If the Jackets can handle them at home on Saturday (I’ll be there), it would be a huge blow to Anaheim and huge boon to Columbus.