Well hey, that was fun! The Jackets broke the recent losing skid by beating the return of Derek MacKenzie’s team Florida Panthers 2-1. After the game last night, some were saying that the game wasn’t “exciting” or “good hockey” but I, for one, was very encouraged to see some spirited play from the team and a rather consistent effort, even if it didn’t always show statistically. As they say, points are points no matter how you get them. The two newest players back in the room, Kerby Rychel and Michael Chaput, showed up and did exactly what called up players are supposed to do – give the team a jump and help propel the team to a win. Possession wise, it was a weird game. At even strength the Panthers had the Corsi advantage of 57% for the game, but the Jackets won the final frame, at 53.85% Corsi for which was enough to keep the Panthers from sneaking in a tying (or heaven forbid) game winning goal. (An interesting note, is that the Jackets HANDILY won the first period Fenwick battle at 62.50% – 20 blocked shots for the CBJ on the night) Let’s take a look at the three stars as named by NHL.com.
3rd Star. Kerby Rychel. Welcome to the NHL, Kerby. In his second game, Warren’s son earned his first NHL assist on Boone Jenner’s game winning goal. Funny to see these two young guys, who knew each other from Juniors now playing together and collaborating on the game winner. Rychel had just over 11 minutes of ice time and did a very good job filling his role by playing hard and physically. He was credited with three hits, two shots and two blocked shots. He also, interestingly, was the team’s leader for the night in Corsi +/- at +5. Rychel was one of the ’13 first rounders that I thought would make it to the big club sooner rather than later. His style of play is already “Jacket-y” and given where he likely will fall in terms of role on an NHL team, I saw his leap a bit smaller than say, a Wennberg. Nice work by Rychel coming in and earning notice and making a difference.
2nd Star. Sergei Bobrovsky. Bob has seemed to struggle since coming back from the broken finger, but tonight he, too, looked like a bit of a return to form. He didn’t face a ton of shots (25 on the night, 24 saves). But the only goal came on the power play (from the young talent, Ekblad) and Bob stood tall the remainder of the night. When the team needed to count on him, they could, including a fabulous save on Nick Bjugstad. Good goalies make the saves they need to make and tonight Bob did exactly that. Also nice to see some of his usual tics coming back, the fist pound into the glove after every save, just one more tiny sign that Bob is regaining his game as well?
1st Star. Boone Jenner. Was there ever a more Blue Jacket / Boone Jenner goal than the game winner #38 earned last night? Rough scramble in front of the net, whacking away at the puck to finally notch the goal. It was only Jenner’s second goal of the season but it was a doozy. Jenner had 19:19 of ice time and played sound and hard. The guy who breaks the losing streak? give him a first star and a hearty “BOOOOOONE!”
Game in One Picture
Stud. The Crowd. Monday night hockey in Columbus for the 30th place team (at the time) still drew 12,300. That may sound meager to some, but when you’ve been around this team, and you’re living through the season that is currently ongoing, that’s a strong testament to the fans that are still wanting to will this team to be better. They were still able to be loud and cheered more than a bit to hopefully help the team get going. Jack Skille also gave the fans a shout out post game mentioning that the team knew how important it was to win at home for them. So to everyone who came out in that very very cold weather – good on ya!
Dud. Injuries. no really. They suck. Now Arty is out for two-three MONTHS. This is just ridiculous and beyond normal and quite frankly annoying. And how do you tear a tricep anyway? And then this happens in pregame? Oh Chaput – please don’t ever do that again! 🙂
The Jackets next travel down to Florida for the rematch on Thursday night. The Panthers are turning out to be a team to be taken seriously this year, it’s likely that they will want to return the favor to the good ol’ Jackets. Let’s hope the CBJ string together a couple of wins.
Carry the Flag!
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