Strange game that was. A game with a large number of ebbs and flows ended up in the Jackets favor, as they pulled down a 5-3 victory over the visiting Detroit Red Wings. After a dominant first period, where they didn’t score (but outshot the Wings 16-4), the Jackets allowed Detroit to control the play for much of the second period. In spite of this, they managed to take a 2-1 lead into the third thanks to a powerplay goal by David Savard and a late in the period tally from David Clarkson. Then things got nuts. The third period was like two completely different entities. The Jackets scored twice early, the first one by Boone Jenner and another by Cam Atkinson. It looked like they would be cruising to a dominant victory. I even had a whole section written up about the tilted ice, as the Jackets hadn’t even allowed a shot against over a quarter of the way through the final frame. Things changed, the Wings fought back and made it close before Atkinson upped his career high in points with the empty netter, while Joonas Korpisalo fought off enough pucks to claim the victory.
Good: David Clarkson scored a goal!
I don’t think anyone on the CBJ has taken more flak over the last year than David Clarkson. Yes, he can’t stay healthy. When he is healthy, he’s been a pretty ho-hum fourth liner. Yes, he makes a lot of money. But it’s at the point where I am starting to feel pretty bad for David Clarkson the person. By all accounts, he is a great guy off the ice. And funny enough, he’s actually a fabulous story as a hockey player, one that should fit right in with the CBJ. He’s an undersized guy (generously listed at 6′, 207lbs), who went undrafted, and made the NHL through pure effort. He then had a career best year just as he was hitting free agency. He didn’t offer himself that crazy contract, in fact he actually turned down more money from Edmonton to sign with his hometown Maple Leafs. He also didn’t trade himself to the CBJ. I’m not happy he’s on this team (they really needed to just keep Nathan Horton and stash him on IR), but he’s going to be here for awhile, so I’m going to try and keep it positive with Clarkson as much as possible from now on.
Bad: The final 13:14 of the game for the CBJ
As a person who likes watching hockey, it was a pretty exciting finish. As a CBJ fan, it was pretty terrible to watch them almost totally fall apart. I honestly can’t recall ever seeing a team get this many shots on net in that amount of time. The Jackets held the Wings shotless until the 13:14 mark of the 3rd period. After nearly 7 shotless minutes, the Red Wings proceeded to fire the rubber at Korpisalo an astounding 20 times over the final 13:14 of the game. That’s one shot every thirty-nine and half seconds. That is like playing NHL16 on Easy level of shot totals.
Great: Bold coaching decisions
The Blue Jackets looked to be well on their way to a blowout win, up 4-1 with a little under six minutes to play. Fedor Tyutin took a hooking penalty, and when the Red Wings went on the powerplay, Detroit coach Jeff Blashill pulled goalie Jimmy Howard. The Wings scored, then pulled Howard again shortly afterwards. They scored again. The Wings got no closer than 4-3, but they made this a real game at the end just through aggressive coaching. In all, Detroit played 4:19 near the end of the game with six skaters on the ice. This type of aggressiveness has been present in lower levels of hockey for awhile now, but didn’t start creeping into the NHL until Patrick Roy started coaching the Avalanche. The numbers have long shown that NHL coaches are FAR too passive in pulling the goalie and should do it much earlier. Glad to see it tonight, as it turned what could have been a boring finish into a pretty exciting final period.
Tweet of the Night:
W/ the 2nd assist on Jenner’s career-high 24th goal of season, @CamAtkinson13 now w/ career highs in assists (20) and points (41). #CBJ
— Glenn Odebralski (@GlennOdebralski) March 9, 2016
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Quote of the Night: John Tortorella
“You could just sense it was going to go down to the wire. It’s craziness. They are throwing everything on the net. We defended hard but it’s just craziness when that happens.”
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