The Blue Jackets took down the Oilers 4-3 in the shootout last night. This was a rare game where a team pulled their goalie and it actually ended up in a win. I wish I could talk here about the tactics of pulling a goalie to give the team a jump, but that just wasn’t the case last night. Instead, Steve Mason was relatively terrible (all three goals were stoppable), Sergei Bobrovsky was very good (especially on the two cross crease saves in overtime), and the entire Jackets roster put in a full 65 minutes. Well except for Matty Calvert (tie down the damn tie down!). I would like to highlight the incredibly penalty kill in the 3rd period. The Jackets maintained possession for nearly the entire penalty, they managed a couple of “almost” chances out of it, yet always made the smart play to either maintain possession or get the puck in deep. Great work by Artem Anisimov, RJ Umberger, and everyone else who hit the ice during that kill. Now onto the goals.
1-0 Oilers, 4:23 1st Period – Jeff Petry from Eric Belanger and Ryan Jones
Couple of smaller things I want to point out before getting to the main issue I’d like to discuss. First, Aucoin has to do a better job of keeping Jones out of Mason’s view. He needs to run more interference there, as it looked as though Jones was able to skate freely to the front of the net. As I mentioned with Dorse in a previous post, you need to interfere just enough to slow your man down, but not so much that you draw a penalty. Point number two is Vinny Prospal. He runs down from the point to try and defend Belanger, when Letestu and Erixon were already in that battle and Dorsett was defending the front of the net. If Vinny stays on his point man, Belanger has no options but to try and either force a pass through Vinny to Petry, force a pass past Dorse to Ladislav Smid (the left point), or dump the puck back down to Jones in the corner. But Vinny runs out of his way to join the battle, leaves his man open, and Petry scores.
However, what I really want to talk about here is board battles. That was some shoddy work by Erixon and Letestu here. Erixon gets to the puck first, but overskates it, then stays a stick length away and whacks at the puck. You are never going to win a battle against an NHL player like that. Quick stickwork might work in the AHL, but it isn’t going to fly in the Show. Timmy needs to work on that. Second, Letestu needs to engage quicker in that situation. He coasts into the play hoping the puck will hop loose, but he could have picked it up himself if he hustled in, and Dorsett, Vinny and Aucoin were all in solid position already for puck support. So Letestu’s coasting allows the Oilers forwards enough time to win the battle against Erixon. A better effort from both players and this goal could have been prevented.
2-1 Blue Jackets, 13:45 1st Period – Vinny Prospal from Ryan Johansen and Mark Letestu
This one is going to be a quick lesson for all those shouting “Shoot! Shoot!” during a powerplay. At the start of that clip, Erixon makes a great decision with the fake shot and pass off to Vinny. I’m sure a lot of the “Shoot! Shoot!”-ers had wished he’d unleashed a shot there. Instead, he draws in the Oilers forward (Eric Belanger) just enough to create space for Vinny to walk to the net. Timmy then follows that up with another great play. Fresh off of passing off a shot, Erixon gets the puck again at the point, looks as if he’s going to shoot (which draws Belanger in again), then he slides higher in the zone, bringing Belanger with him. This creates a passing lane through the box. This is EXACTLY what powerplays are trying to do. Move the puck around, spread out the defense, find passing lanes through the box, and get the puck to shooters with clear lanes to the net. After pulling Belanger in, Erixon passes to Vinny, who one touches the puck back to Letestu. Quick praise here for Letestu’s shot: he doesn’t try to score himself (even though he was a post away from it anyway), instead he makes sure he gets the shot off, that it’s low, and that it gets through traffic. Great effort from Johansen and Vinny to stick with the rebound and makes sure it ends up in the net.
3-2 Oilers, 0:31 2nd Period – Magnus Paajarvi from Sam Gagner and Jordan Eberle
Two quick points on this one. First, Goloubef’s stick has to be much, much better here. He defends Gagner well with his body, but he’s still able to get the puck around him and to Paajarvi. Skilled NHL players have the ability to make plays like this in traffic, and Goloubef needs to get used to that if he’s going to be a long term NHLer. The more egregious play here is by Foligno. His man on this rush is Paajarvi and he’s in proper position for most of the play. However, as soon as Gagner starts to get by Goloubef, Foligno jumps to try and help out, but the puck gets through him to Paajarvi. This is a matter of trust. Foligno did not trust Goloubef to handle Gagner, and jumped as soon as it looked like Gagner might walk Goloubef. Foligno needs to just stick with his man, and trust his teammate to do his job.
3-3 tie, 10:44 2nd Period – Jack Johnson from Derick Brassard and Vinny Prospal
This one is not about the Blue Jackets, really. Yes, that was a good read and shot by Johnson, a nice feed by Brassard, and good work by Atkinson in front. But really, it’s about the brutal defense by three of Edmonton’s young stars. Check out this screencap:
Biggest. Lane. Ever.
That is just terrible, terrible work from Hall, Eberle and Schultz. All three of them are standing completely still while the Brassard controls the puck deep. Only Eberle is defending someone. Hall is waiting for a breakout pass that will never come, and has absolutely no awareness of where the other Blue Jackets are. Eberle is defending the least dangerous Blue Jackets player, when he should be concerned with covering the high slot and the point (he is after all the weakside high forward). Schultz got beat earlier in the play and seems very content to allow Sam Gagner to cover for him, taking his sweet time getting back. If Hall plays his man (Johnson), the Jackets don’t tie it up. If Eberle covers his area (high slot) the Jackets don’t tie it up. If Schultz hustles back to Atkinson, Gagner can help out on Brassard, and the Jackets probably don’t tie it up.
For all the talent the Oilers have, without tightening up these kinds of mistakes, they are never going to win many hockey games. As for the Blue Jackets, this was a fantastic effort start to finish. They just need to keep up the effort once they get their NHL talent back in the lineup. Considering the lack of talent on the roster and the number of injuries, it is impressive that they have managed to play as many close games as they have. Last night was a deserved win for the work this roster is putting in.
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