The first 50 minutes of this outing were by far the most boring play I’ve seen on the ice this year involving the CBJ. Winnipeg also seemed to merely be going through the motions and accidentally netted a few goals in the process. To be fair, Evander Kane did make a gorgeous feed to Mark Scheifele who got the necessary lift to beat McKenna cleanly and break open the scoring. Bryan Little deflected a blast from Big Buff on the power play that most certainly would have gone wide were it not for David Savard’s unfortunately placed skate. Nine minutes into the third, the slumbering Jackets woke up when Umberger netted a textbook wrap-around as if to remind the crowd and Jets “I’m not quite dead yet!” The remainder of the game saw the Blue Jackets direct good scoring chances at Al Montoya and the stifling Winnipeg D. Tough guy (see three stars below) Fedor Tyutin was able to contribute to the scoring but it ultimately proved to be too little, too late. Winnipeg takes another win to the West and an all-too-important 2 points.
3rd Star: Mark Scheifele
While Scheifele was strong and gets credit for the first goal, I can’t help but feel any warm body in his position would have been rewarded with a goal. That said, 90% of this game is being in the right place at the right time so I have no issue with this award. Alternatively, I’d consider giving Trouba, Clitsome or any of the other pinching-in Winnipeg defensemen who made Montoya’s job easy tonight. They really forced the Jackets to take shots from the outer perimeter and limited our chances at rebounds.
2nd Star: Fedor Tyutin
When Dalton Prout went down early in the game, each of the D men knew they’d be seeing a few more minutes tonight. When Tyutin was on the receiving end of a (legal) high stick and immediately left for repairs, I’m pretty sure I could hear Tim Erixon spilling his popcorn in excitement at being able to dress for next game. The game was rough for the time that we were splitting all time between just four defensemen, much of which was spent on the penalty kill. The blue-liners were understandably gassed, often getting stuck in the defensive zone for extended shifts. Things did not look good going into the 3rd period. To my pleasant surprise Tyutin rose from the bloodied-face ashes to carry some defensive minutes and even contribute offensively. In a night that saw guys like Savard and Johnson log 25:28 and 27:58 respectively, I can’t imagine what the 3rd would have looked like split between four guys. There was a collective shriek of “what the hell?” at 2nd intermission when in-arena they chose to interview Ryan Murray. The kid could barely breathe, let alone speak. I’m amazed the coaching staff didn’t send Blake Comeau or the 3rd equipment assistant out in his place.
1st Star: Evander Kane
Absolutely no arguments here. Like I mentioned earlier, his feed to Scheifele was an absolute thing of beauty and any time you get the GWG (even if it was Charmin ultra-soft) and a helper, you’ve had a good evening. Congrats to Evander Kane.
Game in One Picture
Dud
The boys did a great job in their post-game interviews downplaying the *ahem* inconsistencies in officiating tonight. To them, I say kudos. They’re well paid athletes who have been coached on what the right words are to say after an outing like tonight. I’m not so I can say what they wanted to say: that was utter crap. It started with the disallowed goal due to phantom goaltender interference and I got that nagging feeling that it was going to be one of those nights. My instinct did not disappoint. Sometimes a game is played like a game of street hockey where tugs, jabs, interference and the like go by. You toughen up and play through it. Other times it’s played with a very literal, “call everything” approach. It’s rare that you see those in the same game. Tonight was one of those phenomena.
Stud
I’ll give this to Matt Calvert this evening. I can’t say I know what’s gotten under his skin lately but this is two games where he’s dropped the gloves and is putting teams on notice that he’s not someone to be taken lightly. He was credited for an assist on Umby’s wrap-around for leveraging his patented Matty Hustle to bring the puck into the zone and scored the early disallowed goal through once again being at the right place at the right time, playing through to the whistle.
Looking forward to the next three games, we have 6 possible points to earn against Metro opponents. Hopefully the Jackets can break open the scoring a little bit earlier in these upcoming games, possibly with the like of James Wizniewski and Marian Gaborik in tow.
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