I’m going to make this one quick. One: I’m a little drunk. Two: I don’t have too much to say about that game. I felt the Jackets were the better team, and controlled the play. But they didn’t do a good enough job forcing things offensively, settling too often for outside shots. More importantly, they allowed too many weak goals. I really dislike “blaming” the goalie, but this is the NHL. If the puck hits you, stop it. Really, that is all it takes to not drive me crazy. All three of those pucks were stoppable.
Third Star: Ryan Callahan
No points. No shots. But hey, he blocked some shots and hit some people. Know what that tells me? It tells me the Lightning barely touched the puck while Cally was on the ice. The advanced stats back this up, as he had 83.3% offensive zone starts and only 43% corsi. Easy zone starts, negative results. Congrats. Not giving this spot to Boone Jenner was a joke. A goal, an assist, hits, shots, dominance both in play and physically. Boone deserved better. Lets hope he scores a couple tomorrow and knocks Rick Na$h off the top spot of the CBJ rookie goal scoring leaderboard.
Second Star: Eric Brewer
Wait. Brewer? He scored twice? Jesus, that says more about Curtis McElhinney than it does about Brewer. Can we move on before this ruins my night? Eric Brewer is a very mediocre hockey player. It’s like Dalton Prout scoring twice in one night. Even the biggest Brewer fans have to realize that is the flukiest of flukes.
First Star: Kristers Gudislenkilksjldkujiijsknkns
He was good. He made many saves. He made CMac look like the AHLer that he is.
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Stud: The Penalty Kill
I’ve long been a fan of the Blue Jackets penalty kill. Here’s my thing when it comes to coaching: be flexible. If you have the personnel for one thing, do that. If the opposing team has a strength, shut than down. On the PK at least, this is what the Jackets have done. They have varied their box and rotation based on the opposing teams strengths. If they have a bomb at the point, the have taken that away. If they have a dangerous guy walking off the half wall, they have taken that away. Tonight, they faced Steven Stamkos, the most dangerous weakside one-timer in the league. So the top of the box was super wide spread, begging the Lightning point men to shoot, while taking away Stamkos. It worked.
Dud: Let down
Not to say this game was anti-climactic, but yeah, I can’t do that. I really wish there was more to look forward to right now, but it is hard. The Jackets have a playoff spot locked up. The Red Wings dropped a game so the top wild card spot is theirs to lose. Philly is tough to pass without help. So here we are. Two games (one now) to go, without a real motivating factor. Catching and passing the Flyers would be nice, but are the Rangers too much easier of a match-up than the banged up Pens? Yeah, it is very tough to not have a huge let down for this game. The fact the Jackets carried the play like they did, even without a win, is a huge positive.
So tomorrow we have the Panthers. And I assume Bobrovsky in net. Hopefully the Flyers drop their remaining games, the Jackets cream the Panthers, and we enter the playoffs with the Rick Nash grudge match and some nice momentum. Or they just cream the Panthers and get the hopefully rusty Penguins. Either way, I think the Jackets have a winnable match-up.
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