Tribe Season Review: The Bullpen
October 8, 2010Cavaliers Need to Experience the Valley Before Returning to the Peak
October 8, 2010San Jose Sharks (0-0-0, 0pts) vs.
Columbus Blue Jackets (0-0-0, 0pts)
Ericsson Globe, Stockholm, Sweden
Friday, October 8, 2010
3:00 PM EDT
Versus/WBNS (1460 am)
(Dispatch Preview / SportsDirect Preview)
Follow me on Twitter during the game today @WFNYDP
10 and 20. The puck finally drops for the Blue Jackets’ 10th season, and they go up against the San Jose Sharks who are starting their 20th season. Milestones FTW. This is our first real look at the old-roster/new-look Jackets under brand new head coach Scott Arniel. And, it will be a tough test; the Sharks finished first in the Western Conference for the regular season last year, and were knocked out in the Conference Finals round by eventual-champ Chicago.
Projected Lineups
San Jose Sharks:
LW: | Dany Heatley | Devin Setoguchi | Torrey Mitchell | Tommy Wingels |
C: | Logan Couture | Joe Thornton | Joe Pavelsky | Scott Nichol |
RW: | Patrick Marleau | Jamie McGinn | Ryane Clowe | Frazier McLaren |
D: | Douglas Murray | Niclas Wallin | Jason Demers | |
D: | Dan Boyle | Marc-Edouard Vlasic | Kent Huskins | |
G: | Antti Niemi |
Columbus Blue Jackets:
LW: | Kristian Huselius | Nikita Filatov | Ethan Moreau | Jared Boll |
C: | Antoine Vermette | Derick Brassard | Sammy Pahlsson | Derek MacKenzie |
RW: | Rick Nash | Jakub Voracek | R.J. Umberger | Derek Dorsett |
D: | Jan Hejda | Fedor Tyutin | Rostislav Klesla | |
D: | Anton Stralman | Marc Methot | Mike Commodore | |
G: | Steve Mason |
Team Rankings (2009-2010)
Scoring:
SJS – 3.13 gpg (4th NHL)
CBJ – 2.61 gpg (t20th NHL)
Defense:
SJS – 2.55 gapg (8th NHL)
CBJ – 3.04 gapg (24th NHL)
Power Play:
SJS – 21.0% (4th NHL)
CBJ – 18.2% (14th NHL)
Penalty Kill:
SJS – 85.0% (4th NHL)
CBJ – 81.7% (17th NHL)
Season Matchups
This is the first matchup of the season. Columbus finished 1-2-1 vs. San Jose last season.
10/8/10 – San Jose @ Columbus (in Stockholm, Sweden) – 3:00 PM EDT
10/9/10 – Columbus @ San Jose (in Stockholm, Sweden) – 3:00 PM EDT
11/20/10 – Columbus @ San Jose – 10:30 PM EST
02/09/11 – San Jose @ Columbus – 7:00 PM EST
Game Notes
Obviously, the numbers from last season don’t mean a lot, but they do help to illustrate how talented a club San Jose is. On top of that, they will create some matchup problems today by spreading their big guns around onto three different lines (for example, Joe Thornton played with Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau all of last year—including the Olympics, even—and were a juggernaut). Dany Heatley dismantled the Jackets all by himself last year in the first matchup, scoring a hat trick against Columbus in the Sharks’ home opener.
What moving Thornton around—as well as Joe Pavelsky and Ryan Clowe—does is it forces the Jackets to consider their line matchups carefully. As Columbus is the home team today, they get the second line change at stoppages, which means they can react to San Jose’s lines and adjust theirs accordingly. The Sharks are throwing enough talent out there across three lines, however, that it’s going to be tough to match up.
The new-look Jackets need to build on their improved offensive performance from the pre-season, and they must shore up the defense and get a good game from Steve Mason in goal if they want to win today.
The Jackets should be able to score a little more this season, and Nikita Filatov is finally getting a chance to play top-six minutes. It remains to be seen whether he can continue to hang now that teams are putting on their Big Boy Pads and hitting for real, but he showed in the pre-season that he deserves the shot. If the Jackets take to the more wide open system of Arniel and can pot more chances than in years past, that will help to mask some of the issues on defense.
Speaking of, the Jackets are without Kris Russell, who’s arguably the defenseman best suited to the system. He tweaked his injured knee in the scrimmage against Malmo on Tuesday and won’t play today. He may get to go tomorrow.
No matter what, it’s just good to have hockey back! Let’s drop the puck!
…With a Little Help from My Friends
Puck-Rakers
The Cannon
Light the Lamp
The Hockey Writers
Next Game For The Jackets
Saturday, October 9, 2010
3:00 PM EDT
Columbus Blue Jackets at San Jose Sharks (again in Stockholm, Sweden)
7 Comments
Well…. that was fun while it lasted. Not even 3 min in we give up a goal.
2-0… wait til next year
ok that might be too early but come on
In fairness, the Sharks are a legitimate Cup contender. They’re loaded. That said, Steve Mason has let in two soft goals thus far…
Just like that, 2-2. Huselius on the PP, and Umberger literally seconds later. Optimism back on!!
The second goal wasn’t that bad, at least it was deflected and on a power play… but yes, optimism is back after Filatov’s sweet pass and grinding by the new guy and Umberger
I was actually just going to edit my comment about that. Klesla got a piece of Thornton’s shot, and in true Jackets’-karma fashion it found the top corner.
Both teams tightening up on defense in the second period. Still 2-2 after two. Mason made some key stops, and both teams fanned on some great chances.