Shaun Rogers Reports to Voluntary Workouts
March 25, 2009Carmona Looking to Avenge 2008
March 25, 2009Lightning 2, Blue Jackets 1 – OT
(Box) – Highlights
Record: 38-28-7 (83pts – 6th place)
Sports Club Stats Rank: 6th, 95.2%
“Trap game” indeed. The Jackets probably woke up in the middle of last night in cold sweats, having nightmares about Martin St. Louis. After about two and a half periods of keeping the Lightning in check, St. Louis essentially took the game over himself, eventually notching the game-winner in overtime on a flat-out sick wrist shot that somehow smoked past Steve Mason (“I’m not really sure how it beat me,” said Mason afterward).
There are two ways to look at this game: one says that, with only nine games left in the season and a playoff berth still in the balance, any point is a good point… and the Jackets managed to take three out of four points on this Florida road trip. The flip side to that, however, is that they could—and SHOULD—have taken four out of four. A point is good, yes, but there will always be the fact that they could have had two. Against the second-worst team in the league, points-wise. Humbling.
For most of the game, the Jackets did everything right in terms of their prescription for winning the game: they controlled the offensive flow for almost the entire game (outshooting the Lightning by 17 shots), they only took one penalty all night, and they peppered Lightning goalie Mike McKenna with 34 shots. The only problems were that: they let up on that offensive domination after scoring about four and a half minutes into the third period, that *only* penalty they took was after their goal and Tampa almost immediately cashed in on the ensuing PowerPlay, and McKenna wasn’t really challenged by many of the 34 shots and was up to the task; the one goal the Jackets did score was a shot by Jan Hejda from the point that McKenna deflected, except that he deflected it into his own defenseman who essentially batted it into the net inadvertently. “I felt like we dominated,” said winger Kristian Huselius after the game. “So that makes it tough to get just the one point.”
And in a way, with the way St. Louis and his Lightning brethren played the last five minutes of the third period, you could argue the Jackets were actually lucky to get a point. In fact, St. Louis smoked a shot that beat Mason with 2:40 left, but just smacked off the inside of the post only to harmlessly ricochet away. By that time, though, the Jackets were in full “hold on and get at least one point” mode. They had no answer for the offense the Lightning were generating, most of it catalyzed by St. Louis (who has a gear of speed that hardly anyone else on the planet possesses). The Lightning actually scored two goals in overtime, though the first one was (correctly) overturned because Steven Stamkos batted the puck out of the air with a high stick (a no-no) up over his head.
“There’s no such thing as a bad point right now, not when you’re in a playoff race,” said The Captain. “We took three out of four points on this trip. Yeah, we had a chance to get a fourth point — we could have easily won this game tonight — but it’s a pretty good trip.” Honestly, Rick, you were about three minutes from taking ZERO points on the road trip. Obviously, playing “what if” isn’t really fair at this point, but hanging your hat on the 3-of-4-points result doesn’t fix the problems we saw on this road trip. “We got three points out of four (on this road trip) without any of our big guns scoring,” coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We feel pretty fortunate to get that. Going back to Columbus now, we’re going to have to get better production for the work that we’re putting in.” At least Hitch gets it.
In many respects, last night’s game was a replay of Saturday’s game from the standpoint that Columbus was peppering the goalie with “official” shots, but none of them were really great scoring chances for the most part. And, honestly, the way they were playing, it really did look like that one goal in the early minutes of the third period would be enough. Mason was playing well, and the Jackets were smothering the Lightning. The penalty/PP goal really turned the tide. The Jackets just seemed to let up, and once the game was tied they couldn’t get themselves back into the right gear to counteract the revived Lightning. So, the Jackets ended up suffering the same fate they themselves had dished out to the Panthers on Saturday. Thankfully, they were able to get (I won’t say “earn”) a point, at least. And points are ever-so-important now, with another tough stretch of schedule coming up with three games in four days starting Thursday in Columbus against the Flames. Mason was almost optimistic after the game, saying: “We carried the majority of the play. We know what we did wrong, and we know we’ve got work to do.” If only the worrier in me felt the same way, Steve.
Other Important Scores
Thanks to the great people at Sports Club Stats, we have started looking at Jackets games in the context of the rest of the conference and who the Jackets are fighting with for those playoff spots. Picking up from the “Who To Root For” section of the preview, here are the “Other Important Scores” from around the Western Conference last night:
Columbus at Tampa Bay – TAM wins, 2-1 (OT)
Anaheim at Nashville – ANA wins, 2-1 (SO) (thanks for letting both teams get points)
Minnesota at NY Rangers – NYR wins, 2-1
Detroit at Edmonton – DET wins, 3-2
Los Angeles at St. Louis – STL wins, 2-0
Vancouver at Dallas – VAN wins, 5-2
A mixed bag for the Jackets. In SCS’s morning sims, the Jackets’ percentage did not change. They actually ended up getting hurt by the Anaheim/Nashville game, since both teams got points. They themselves got a point, and wins by Detroit, New York, and Vancouver helped them solidify their position (though, the last one negates essentially any prospect of catching the Canucks). St. Louis presents an interesting conundrum, as the Jackets still have three head-to-head meetings with the Blues, and at this point St. Louis could pose a very real threat to the Jackets making the playoffs with those three games and the Jackets’ lack of success against the Blues this season.
Buckle up. Two of those three games with the Blues are this weekend. Saturday and Sunday, back-to-back and home-and-home. What a weekend this might turn out to be, either way.
2 Comments
im watching the game last night and all i’m thinking was “trap game”.
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