That game went down just as we all thought, right? After a commanding performance by Vancouver for the first period, a Vancouver friend of mine kindly pointed out “the Canucks are on pace for 90 shots!” or “the Canucks are on pace for 60 plus shots!”
What a difference an intermission makes.
The Jackets rallied back after two bang-bang Vancouver goals and scored six unanswered to win the game and leave Canucks fans sounding – well – familiar: “how can we not beat teams we’re supposed to beat?” (Some fans also were yelling “Shoot it!” throughout the game but that’s a story for another day).
Anyway – let’s take a look at the three stars as named by NHL.com:
3rd Star – Bo Horvat: Crazy to think that less than a year ago I was watching this kid play in London ONT in the Memorial Cup. He’s pretty good. I guess at the end of the game, the hometown press wanted to give one Canuck a star and they picked the guy who got the first goal. It came of capitalizing on a pass from Jack Johnson to Mark Letestu that the latter couldn’t corral, but it was pretty and it’s what smart players do – make plays by being in the right place at the right time.
2nd Star – Ryan Johansen: Hometown boy gets a vote here and that’s nice to see. I may have considered Bobrovsky here for his ability to single handedly face 20 shots in the first period and turn them all away, protecting the team while they got their act together, but it’s nice to see Johansen get the first win of his hockey life in this arena. He hadn’t played in Rogers even before his NHL days. I also really enjoyed his decision to pull up on the neutral zone and pass to Rene Bourque who swiftly knocked home Jackets goal number one versus running on the breakaway himself. Joey probably would have scored too – but nonetheless it had the rally begin on a team-focused goal and for me, this – more than the Tropp fight – started the wheels in motion for the Jackets win.
1st Star – Marko Dano. This kid. He is demanding that we talk about him and nothing else, isn’t he? Even Vancouver people were remarking on his play and the personality his play showed on the ice. Having watched Dano (virtually) since he was drafted, and paying close attention to him since the CBJ camps this summer (he was my dark horse to make the roster out of camp) I believe in the last week or so we are seeing a NEW evolution – not only is Dano good, but he’s maturing. His focus is being fine tuned and he is deadly serious about being an impact player. When a guy who can do what he’s doing on the ice wraps his skill in that kind of approach? Watch out next year for sure.
Stud – Scott Hartnell. IF we play off the “Hartnell and the kids narrative” there’s no question his play and mentoring are impacting both Dano and Wennberg (who is seeing a jump up in his play as well). I’ll just remind everyone that Hartnell came to Columbus in a straight up trade for RJ Umberger.
Dud – Rogers Arena Crowd. Canadian teams have a special mystique because you know they have such an educated fan base and often a rich hockey history that teams like Columbus are still in the process of building. The home crowd is not that loud for a team thick in the playoff hunt (and we were there Tuesday as they played the Flyers as well). A great place to see a game – very friendly people and super great hockey conversations but not a lot of home ice advantage going on there.
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