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Every Tuesday, WFNY’s The 5-Hole brings you up to date with the goings-on of the CBJ…

The Week That Was

Week: 3-0-0, 6 points
Overall: 7-6-2, 16 points (3rd division; 9th conference)

What a difference a week makes. The Blue Jackets are getting healthy, scoring goals, and managed to win all three of their games last week. They have also officially become The Steve Mason Show. Mason was called up from Syracuse last week and was immediately thrown into the fire, starting all three games. We documented his debut on Wednesday, a 5-4 win over Edmonton. His performance was OK, but with the win he earned a second start on Friday. Another start, another win. The win Friday earned him the start Saturday as well, an unusual move considering it was the second game in as many days. So, this past week can be summed up as follows: Steve Mason. Three starts, three wins. Not a bad way to begin your NHL career.

Friday, 11/07 in Columbus – Blue Jackets 4, Canadiens 3 – SO (Box Score) – Highlights
Saturday, 11/08 in Columbus – Blue Jackets 3, Flames 1 (Box Score) – Highlights

As we said, the story in these three games was Steve Mason. Mason was lights-out in the shootout on Friday. The Jackets shot first in each round, and Kristian Huselius and Derick Brassard both scored on their attempts. Mason stopped both shots that he faced to seal the win. Mason was even better on Saturday, stopping 22 of 23 shots and completely denying the Flames (only goal was on a power play; more below in Hot/Not). And, the NHL has noticed: the league released it’s Three Stars of the Week, and Steve Mason was the number-two star. As Aaron Portzline points out, “The Blue Jackets have two of the top four rookie scorers and the top rookie goaltender in the NHL. Yowza.”

Stepping outside the Mase-o-sphere, however, the double-edged sword of this six-game point streak is that The Captain has not scored a goal in any of the six games. The catch-22 here is that Nash is definitely slumping right now, but at the same time the club has managed to continue scoring and winning. As Rick and I discussed in the comments of my “First 10″ recap, it’s like watching the Cavs continue to score and win while getting a minimal contribution from LeBron. On a positive note, we see that Derick Brassard continues to score. He scored on Wednesday, netted the “game-winner” in the shoot-out on Friday, and scored AGAIN on Saturday night. He has been a pleasant surprise, and as he continues to develop is giving hope for the future of the club. And, teaming him up with Jakub Voracek only reinforces those hopes.

In roster news, the Jackets put winger Alexandre Picard through waivers (he cleared) and sent him to Syracuse. Picard was the team’s first-round pick in 2004, and his demotion was more of a numbers game than anything. “I think he can be an NHL player. He had a good training camp, but he’s not playing right now and we need the roster flexibility,” said GM Scott Howson. The club was not sure whether he would clear waivers, but assigned him to Syracuse as no other NHL team claimed him.

Speaking of Syracuse and top draft picks, this year’s #1 pick Nikita Filatov continues to shine with the Crunch. Filatov has notched eight points in eight games (5G, 3A) to rank 13th in the AHL in rookie scoring despite playing fewer games than any other players on the list. Maksim Mayorov is also on that rookie scoring list, placing 10th with three goals and six assists in 12 games.

Up Next

The Jackets play three games this week, two of which are on the road. They finish their current four-game homestand Wednesday night against Phoenix, and then rack up the airline miles over the weekend going to Buffalo on Friday and Minnesota on Saturday. This will be a real test of their current momentum, as the Jackets have been notoriously bad on the road throughout their history. As always, you can snag tickets through the team’s website.

Full Schedule

Who’s Hot, Who’s Not

Hot: Steve Mason. After all, it is The Steve Mason Show. He deserves this after beginning his NHL career in a whirlwind, winning his first three starts. His goals-against has dropped in each start (4/3/1), his save percentage has improved in each start (.846/.919/.957), and his performance to seal the shoot-out win against Montreal on Friday was superb. In each game he has been tested, and has risen to the challenge in crunch time. And, while three games does not a career make, let’s not forget that he is only 20 years old. Honorable mention this week to R.J. Umberger, who continues to find the back of the net, and Derick Brassard who now leads the team in goals, assists (tied with two others), points, AND +/-. He is the early front-runner for the Calder Trophy (rookie of the year).

Not: Special Teams. On a six-game point streak, it’s hard to single out any one player as “not” hot, so we’ll focus our spotlight on the special teams. The Jackets are still taking too many costly penalties and by extension giving up too many power play goals (currently tied for 20th in the league, only killing off 79.7% of their PPs). And frankly, their power play is fairly atrocious right now (29th in the league at 11.7%). They are 4-58 (.069) with the man advantage in the last 11 games. 4-58!! But, even worse than that, they are tied with the New York Rangers for worst in the league in short-handed goals allowed (5). Not good times.

Injury Update

As we noted last week, the team is finally getting healthy, with the only major injury still being to Pascal LeClaire. However, LeClaire returned to practice on Monday, and it looks like he might be back as early as Saturday night (the second game of a back to back). His coach would like to get him through a few practices before anything definitive can be said: “Our feeling is, we’d like to give Leclaire at least three or four practices before he’s ready to go, provided there are no setbacks.”

Winger Kristian Huselius missed Saturday’s game against his former team (Calgary) with a sore foot, after blocking a shot with it in Friday’s game. Huselius hopes to play on Wednesday, but the club will wait to make a decision until game-time.

Quotes of the Week

With Mason’s play these last three games, he’s certainly giving everybody in this organization some strong food for thought, right across the board. –Coach Ken Hitchcock, talking about rookie goaltender Steve Mason’s performance.

It’s unreal. The way he’s playing right now, the confidence we have in him it’s unreal. –Defenseman Ole-Kristian Tollefsen, on Steve Mason.

It’s been unbelievable. I couldn’t ask for a better start. Hopefully, I’ve given management a reason to keep me around a little longer. … I’m very proud of it. This has just been a heck of a ride. But the toughest part about the NHL is sticking around, and I still have to do that. –Goaltender Steve Mason

Links of the Week

Oh, is it good to find some links again! Yea, relevence!

The Sporting News has noticed the Jackets’ rookies and their contributions to this current point-streak:
Green Rookies Have Blue Jackets Red Hot

The way the Blue Jackets’ first-year players are playing, maybe the franchise’s sorry history is about to become, well, history.

The Canadian Press brings us a nice story about young defenseman Marc Methot:
Defenceman Marc Methot Finding His Way with the Columbus Blue Jackets

Methot’s reputation is that of a defensive stopper, his six-foot-three, 225-pound frame allowing him to play physical hockey. But given the opportunity, the former London Knight is showing he can carry the puck up ice and register points. He didn’t dress in the Jackets’ first four games of the year but did score his first NHL goal in his season debut in Nashville on Oct. 18. … Methot’s four points (2-2) in nine games going into Wednesday night’s contest with visiting Edmonton not only had him tied for the lead among Jackets defencemen, it also equalled his output in 29 career NHL games over the past two seasons.