Balls. Another recap I’m scheduled for, another crapping of the bed. Well not a complete bed crapping, as the first two periods were solid. The Jackets looked like they were going to come away with a nice little victory over their former netminder. To be fair, Mason really looked like vintage Columbus Steve Mason on all four of the goals, as each goal either just beat Mason clean or went right through him. But come onnnnnnnnnnnnn. Four softies from Mase and they STILL can’t beat the Flyers. Also not good: after a bajillion games of never losing when taking a lead into the third period, the Jackets have now lost the last two games they have led entering the final frame. Not good.
3rd Star: Nick Foligno
Sure, he scored. But Jack Johnson did most of the work on it, and the shot baaaaarely beat Mason and barely crossed the line. That was also his only shot attempt of the night. He was also out there doing some fine coasting, terrible forechecking, and lackadaisical backchecking on two of the Flyers goals. On each goal he had a clean shot to either hit or knock the puck away from a Flyers player and just missed, with Philly potting one second later each time. But hey, he had four hits, so good work, good effort.
2nd Star: Jakub Voracek
Hey at least one former Jacket decided to show up against his old team. I’ve always been a huge Jake fan, but watching him tonight does not make me very happy. I’d trade Jack Johnson and Marko Dano for Voracek in a heartbeat. That whole sequence of deals really hurts right now. I think the big thing I took away from Voracek tonight was his play off the rush. He used to try too hard, would hesitate to shoot, and often try a two dollar move when a ten cent move would have meant a goal. He looks like he’s stripped a lot of that away, making the smart, simpler play on the rush. Tonight that led to some goals.
1st Star: Claude Giroux
I don’t think Giroux is as bad as he’s been most of this year, nor do I think he’s the MVP caliber of player he’d been touted as in the past. But he is super talented, and if you let him get the puck in space, whether on the rush or not, he can just burn the living crap out of a team. He didn’t have space on the fifth goal, but sweet Jesus was that a stupid good shot. Part of that is on CMac, as he was already down, cheating towards the middle for the pass he thought was coming. Buuuuuut Giroux still had to put a backhand up top into a teeny tiny little space while getting dumped on his ass. Dirty dirty goal.
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Stud: Pass
I don’t mean passing. I just really don’t want to name a stud for this game. How about we give the stud for this one to the recovering players. The main guys missing are the offensive weapons (Horton, Wisniewski, Gaborik), but what’s hurting this team is just the replacement players. They don’t have the familiarity with their teammates, there is little to no game to game consistency in terms of role and expectations for everyone, and that new car smell is wearing off. To expand, familiarity with teammates is important for a lot of reasons, and playing with new guys often leads to turnovers. We saw a lot of that tonight. The game to game consistency, and understanding your role is pretty important for a player to at their best, something especially important for a young team like Columbus. Finally, the new car smell. What I mean by that is the call ups and fill ins can usually hold down the fort for a game or two. They are itching to get into the NHL lineup, and are willing to just kill themselves for a couple games. That is just near impossible to keep up, and soon enough they return to just playing hockey and their talent level shows up. Look at the talent on this roster right now. The lineup iced tonight is probably one of the five least talented lineups any team has iced all season (outside of Buffalo of course).
Dud: Goaltending
What a duel. Mason and McElhinney couldn’t seem to figure out who wanted to win this game less. Not a game for anyone interested in seeing good goaltending. I covered Mason’s suck in the intro, but all five of those goals on CMac were not good. They were either shots that beat him clean that he should have had, caught him cheating out of position, or were off a terrible rebound. With that said, he’s slightly better then Mike McKenna, and he did make 34 saves. But, yeah, you gotta at least stop that brutal Coburn goal. Come on, I’ve seen passes harder than that. Not a joke.
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