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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: 2-1-0, 4 points
Overall: 24-21-5, 53 points (3rd division; 9th conference)

First and foremost, now that we get closer to the end of the season, we will no longer publish standings as “tied-for”, or else we could write that the Jackets are actually “tied-for” sixth. There are FIVE TEAMS tied with 53 points. The Jackets are, by virtue of total games played, sitting in ninth place. Contextually, though, the teams in sixth, seventh, eighth, and tenth also have 53 points. More importantly, fifth place is at 57 points, so the Jackets are right in the thick of it still. This week’s 5-Hole column will be a bit abridged, but you’ll be instead getting an addition of the “5th 10” mile-post update included.

Tuesday, 1/27 in Columbus – Blue Jackets 3, Red Wings 2 – OT (Recap)
Friday, 1/30 in Columbus – Blue Jackets 1, Senators 0 (Recap)
Saturday, 1/31 in Columbus – Stars 7, Blue Jackets 3 (Box) – Highlights

The week got off to a banner start, as the Jackets stunned the short-handed Red Wings, and the momentum continued into Friday where a solid defensive effort coupled with Steve Mason’s league-leading seventh shutout put the Jackets squarely in the middle of the playoff hunt. Sadly, Saturday brought the boom back down, as the red-hot Dallas Stars came into Nationwide Arena and completely undressed both Mason and the Jackets. The Stars came in with more energy, outworked the Jackets, and posted a 3-0 lead just 11 minutes into the game… chasing starting goalie Steve Mason in the process. The Jackets got it back to 3-2 in the second period, but Dallas quickly came back and scored two of their own to put the lead safely back to three goals by the end of the second period. The rest was history.

Mason didn’t get much help, but he was far from sharp on Saturday, even less than 24 hours after shutting out the Ottawa Senators. This has been a bit of a running theme for about a month, starting early in January when Mason gave up one goal in four games only to turn around and give up five in the next. He looked tired leading up to the All Star Break, and it was often mentioned in reports that he was feeling under the weather and/or battling a cold or flu-like symptoms that never seemed to go away. It’s now finally known what the issue has been: Mason is battling mononucleosis. The club has asked him not to talk about the illness with the media going forward, and supposedly the team will decide on a day-to-day basis as to whether his energy level is such that he can start. The team has worked to keep the illness from spreading, but thankfully mono is generally called “the kissing disease” because it requires direct saliva-to-saliva contact to spread… something that should not be happening in a hockey locker room. 

Up Next

The Jackets finish their four-game homestand, and then embark on a tough back-to-back this weekend. Tuesday night they play host to the struggling St. Louis Blues (45 pts, 15th). They finish out the week with a back-to-back on Friday and Saturday, traveling to Pittsburgh (53 pts, 10th EC) on Friday and back home against San Jose (77 pts, 1st) on Saturday.

Full Schedule

Injury Update

In addition to Mason’s battle with mono, there is some other injury news to speak of with regard to defenseman Rostislav Klesla. The team put forward Alexandre Picard on waivers this week, and The Dispatch’s Aaron Portzline reports that this might be an indication that they are ready to activate Klesla. This is almost like picking up a top-4 defenseman at the trading deadline without giving anything up, as Klesla has been out for effectively most of the last two months. Added depth for a stretch drive is always a welcomed thing, though it will obviously take Klesla some time to get back up to full speed after missing time with foot and ankle problems all season.. 

Quotes of the Week

Complete defensive breakdown. There’s no surprise or secret out there. You guys saw it. It was embarrassing on our end.

–Defenseman Marc Methot, on the 7-3 loss to the Dallas Stars.

Your life goes on hold. Your friends go on hold. Your family goes on hold. Everything outside of hockey goes on hold. The bills don’t get paid. … Fans will see a sense of desperation early in the playoffs that is about as raw as you can get. And then as the playoffs move on, what they’ll see is survival. They’ll hear and see stories of players being carried off the ice, only to play 24 hours later. … It feels like it did when you were a kid, playing for a big trophy with no money involved. It’s 100 percent hockey. No promotions. No radio shows. Nothing.

–Coach Ken Hitchcock, talking about what is so exciting about playoff hockey.

Fredrik Norrena played his way out of North America. Pascal Leclaire had ankle surgery. Steve Mason has mono. Is Wade Dubielewicz nervous yet?

–Dispatch writer Aaron Portzline in his NHL Power Rankings column, reflecting on the roller-coaster ride that has been to goalie position for the Jackets this season.

Fifth 10 – New Ground: Still In It
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24-21-5, 53 points (3rd division; 9th conference)

We’ve talked before about how Jackets teams past have flirted with the playoffs up until about the All-Star Break, only to fade into bolivian (thanks, Iron Mike) afterward. By my recollection, it’s happened twice: last season, and in the ‘05-‘06 season, when an unfortunately timed “winter olympics break” killed their momentum. So, there were many among the fanbase—yours truly included—who winced a bit when this year’s All Star Break rolled around with the team in contention. Which post-break team would we see?

Getting Healthy

As we discussed in the Halfway Home thread, the Jackets suffered through a tough rash of injuries during those ten games. This stretch of games thankfully has included a return to health of the majority of the guys out. They did lose goalie Pascal LeClaire for the season to ankle surgery, and defenseman Rostislav Klesla has yet to return from his broken foot, but the club got wingers Rick Nash, Raffi Torres, and Jason Chimera back from their respective injuries. There are times when you can tell that the latter two are struggling with their legs (having missed such extended time), but for the most part the team has been better served by their returns. If the Jackets can get Klesla back in the near future and can manage to stay fairly healthy the rest of the way, they’ve shown the ability to continue to stay in the playoff race and perhaps make a move.

A Trade is Made

One of the other main topics around the Blue Jackets has been whether or not they would be buyers this year at the trading deadline. While we still must wait for the final answer to that question—and ultimately the larger question of “Will they be able to make a BIG move?”—GM Scott Howson showed a willingness to go out and try to economically address one of his team’s biggest deficiencies. Howson made a trade for forward Jason Williams (formerly of Atlanta) to help bolster the Power Play unit. While the PP is still last in the league, the addition of Williams has definitely helped a bit overall with it.

Sustainable Energy Source?

By most accounts, the Jackets emerged from the All Star Break picking up where they’d left off. They beat division-leading Detroit in the first game out, and then shut out Eastern conference foe Ottawa. In spite of finishing the week by laying an egg against Dallas (in what was arguably the most important game of the week, standings-wise), the club came out of the break with the same mind-set with which they went into it: play hard every night, stay true to the system, play solid defense, and score timely goals. Considering they lost their first four games coming out of the break in 2008, a 2-1 start is definitely a trend upward. The Jackets have a favorable schedule the rest of the way compared to some of their Western Conference brethren also trying to make a playoff push, so if they can get some breaks on health and continue to play like that, they should be there at the end.

Looking Ahead

As we detailed at the top, there are currently several teams in the thick of the race for the last four playoff spots. Merely five points separates fifth place from 11th place at the moment, and there are five teams tied in points at 53 (of which the Jackets are one). The Jackets have a more favorable travel schedule, despite having far and away the most back-to-backs of any team in the NHL (thanks, Toronto Jerks). However, with only one more road trip out of the Eastern and/or Central time zones, they no longer have to look forward to ugly road trips across the continent (they do have one more “western Canada” swing). They have showed a solid record at home, and have definitely improved on the road since the watershed six-game trip back in December/January. If this travel schedule can help keep them fresher, it can only help them as they try to wade through the muck in the bottom half of the playoff standings.

More importantly, the fans are coming back. Saturday’s game against Dallas drew over 18,000 fans, and the FSOHIO TV ratings are as good or better than they have ever been. Columbus is getting behind this team, which considering all of the times we’ve been burned before, is a positive sign. In the late-spring and early-summer dead zone for Columbus sports (which won’t be quite so dead this year with the Clippers now being a Tribe farm team coupled with the new ballpark), playoff hockey would be a huge boon. Let’s hope!