The Top 10 Moments/Stories in Cleveland Sports in 2009
December 15, 2009Josh Cribbs the Running Back?
December 15, 2009Every Tuesday, WFNY’s The 5-Hole brings you up to date with the goings-on of the CBJ…
The Week That Was
This Week: 1-2-1, 3 points
Overall: 14-13-6, 34 points (4th division; 12th conference)
The week started with a bang, and ended with a resounding thud. This team is just not very good right now. They shut out Florida, who is thankfully much, much worse. Beyond that, there wasn’t much to get excited about.
Wednesday, 12/09 in Columbus – Jackets 3, Panthers 0 (Box Score) – Highlights
Thursday, 12/10 in Nashville – Predators 4, Jackets 3 – SO (Box Score) – Highlights
Saturday, 12/12 in Columbus – Ducks 3, Jackets 1 (Box Score) – Highlights
Monday, 12/14 in Columbus – Predators 5, Jackets 3 (Box Score) – Highlights
Three points in the first two games = good. Three points in four games = uggghhh. The Jackets can’t put a complete game together, save when they play a team as bad and banged up as Florida. When they play better defense, they can’t score. When they score, they give up 5 goals. It’s borderline ridiculous.
I don’t have a lot to say about these four games, except to say that they basically got outworked, outhustled, and outplayed in three of the four. Not coincidentally, they lost those three games. They continue to turn the puck over on defense, and their opponents continue to make them pay for it. Looking for answers? You won’t find many. The quotes at the bottom of this piece will tell you all you need to know.
Well, and they’ve won just twice in their last 13 games (2-7-4, 8pts). That’s really all you need to know.
Up Next
The Jackets—much like every team in this compressed-Olympic-year schedule—don’t get many chances to regroup. They head right back out on the road Tuesday night in Minnesota (15-14-3, 33pts), are back at home Thursday against Phoenix (19-12-2, 40pts), and then head out on a Western swing beginning on Saturday in Colorado (19-10-6, 44pts) and continuing on Monday in Phoenix. They all but wasted their recent slew of home games, sadly.
Team Rankings
Since I haven’t been able to do a ton of game previews so far this year, I wanted to add this new section to highlight the different performance of the various units on the team, and to compare them to last week, last season, and the league-at-large.
Offense:
Current: 2.94 gpg (6th)
Last Post: 3.00 gpg (t6th)
2008-2009: 2.68 gpg (21st)
Defense:
Current: 3.36 gapg (28th)
Last Post: 3.45 gapg (28th)
2008-2009: 2.72 (t9th)
Power Play:
Current: 30-for-130, 23.1% (t3rd)
Last Post: 27-for-114, 23.7% (2nd)
2008-2009: 41-for-322, 12.7% (30th)
Penalty Kill:
Current: 111-for-139, 79.9% (18th)
Last Post: 100-for-127, 78.7% (20th)
2008-2009: 282-for-346, 82.1% (13th)
The defensive numbers improved a bit, but were skewed by the shutout against a terribly under-manned Florida Panthers team. The only positive trend would be the penalty kill, which jumped up noticeably with an 11-for-12 success rate in these last four games. Perhaps that can be a larger building block for the defense, but it does not appear to be as the Jackets are still languishing third from the bottom in defense right now. And, as the offense has leveled off, it has made the focus on defense that much more important.
Who’s Hot, Who’s Not
Hot: No one. When you lose eleven of thirteen, no one gets the honor. That’s just the way it is. I didn’t even have to rewrite anything, so bonus for me. Apologies to RJ Umberger, who has been basically the only bright spot during this putrid stretch. He has seven goals and seven assists during the 13-game crap-fest.
Not: EVERYone. The Jackets make a habit of committing several gruesome turnovers every game. Their defense looks slow. Their offense tries too hard to make the highlight reels. Their goalies aren’t getting much help, but give up too many soft goals. Their defense-first coach seems to have no answers. Should I continue?
Injury Update
Well, again, some good news and some bad news. Winger Fredrik Modin finally returned from his leg injury against Anaheim on Saturday. And, Derek Dorsett finally returned last week on Thursday against Nashville…
…aaaaaand promptly returned to the IR list, after breaking his hand on Saturday night in a fight against Anaheim. D-Dorse will be gone for four weeks after surgery on the hand. Awesome.
Talk-Is-Cheap Quotes of the Week
We’re not getting that edge. For short periods during the game, we’re creating some good offense. But a lot of the time, we’re making the other team look pretty good. That’s not supposed to be the way we play.
–Forward Fredrik Modin
We need to stick together as a team and battle through this. If we start playing the blame game it’s going to get even worse. Guys care. But when things get hard, the level of caring is not as high as it can be.
–Forward RJ Umberger
Tough times right now. We’ve been through this in the past. It’s a matter of sticking together. We’ve got to get out of this. It’s getting to a lot of games right now. … The offense is going to come; we’re a skilled team. It’s all in the defensive end. We’ve got to put it together. Our offense has got to come from our defense.
–Captain Rick Nash
We don’t do the things we’ve talked about for the last month. We talk about not having turnovers, about getting the puck deep, about finishing the forecheck. We’re not doing those things, and it’s killing us every game.
–Defenseman Anton Stralman
I’d boo, too. Something’s not right. We’ve done the meetings, done the talking. We’ve got a good group of guys. I know guys care, it’s just not happening. Maybe we’re thinking too much. I don’t know. I don’t want to be overly negative. It’s game whatever, 33? It’s not the end of the world. But, we need to turn things around here before our confidence is shot.
–Defenseman Mike Commodore
You can sit there and mull it over a million times, but I think we’ve got to compete harder for the puck in our own end. Tonight was a microcosm of our season. We create enough chances (offensively), but it doesn’t matter unless we’re better from the red line back. … It’s tentative. We’re tentative with the puck. We make too many mistakes back there. We’re losing pucks behind our own net, losing board battles, we’re slow reacting … We are reaching the bottom of the barrel with what we are doing. … We were slow to the puck. It’s been like that for a while. We made a lot of puck errors in our own end, and that causes us to sort of freeze and stand still. We created enough chances to score. Every night we create enough. We get two-on-ones, we get breakaways. We look efficient on the power play. But that all doesn’t matter unless you’re a lot better from the red line back.
–Coach Ken Hitchcock
Hey, those quotes are great, except that I find that talk is cheap. It’s been 13 games now during this awful stretch. It might be time to face facts, guys; three games is a trend. 13 games is an identity. I’ve been reading quotes just like this for three weeks. Got it, guys. Message received. So, quit freaking talking about it and start playing harder. It’s one thing to have injuries and a lack of talent. It’s quite another when I read things like, “Guys care, but maybe the level of caring is not as high as it should be,” and “We’re not getting that edge.” Lack of effort is inexcusable for me in a professional athlete. It would also help if you quit passing the puck to the other team in your own zone 16 times a game.
2 Comments
I wish I had something good to say. I got nothin’.
Do you think Hitchcock is a good fit for this organization? I know whenever a team does crappy, people immediately question the coaching. But after the Filatov fiasco, and the way Hitchcock would salivate whenever he talked about the veteran Red Wings team of a few years ago, I am wondering if he is suited for a young team.
Its a total mystery.