The Jackets took down the Isles in a slightly early evening affair (not many 6pm starts). It was something if a strange game, very un-Jacket-y, with the majority of the teams four goals coming on the powerplay. The shots, shot attempts, and pretty much every stat were pretty close. This confuses some people, but we’ll get to that. Faceoffs were the one big difference, as the Jackets finished with 65% of the draws in their favor. Oh yeah, the score was also pretty different.
Third Star: Mark Letestu
Letestu was solid tonight, finishing with an assist on Boone Jenner’s game opening marker, and a goal capping off a fantastic passing play. Oddly, I didn’t feel like there were many standouts tonight (other than the guy I’ll talk about next). I just felt like most of the team was solid. I did like seeing Letestu being engaged physically, especially the nice hit he laid on Cal Clutterbuck (just before John Persson took out Derek MacKenzie for no reason, then slashed him while he was on the ice).
Second Star: Boone Jenner
Boone was the one Jackets player who looked very strong. Boone banged home the first goal, the dirty type around the net we are used to seeing him finish off. His assist though, that was a thing of beauty. The aforementioned passing play Letestu finished showed great vision, patience, and execution from the young Jacket. Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooone.
First Star: Sergei Bobrovsky
Yeah, he got a shutout. Sweet. I think this would have been a romp with Curtis McElhinney or even Mike McKenna in net. There was one brief stretch in the second period where the Isles looked threatening, but other than that Bob wasn’t forced to do too much tonight.
Stud: Taking care of business
This was a trap game. A late Sunday afternoon. A team that is out of the playoff mix. But I suppose there really aren’t any GAMES coming up. No four point games, no games left against teams they are battling for a playoff spot. Maybe that helps in not overlooking any opponents. Whatever it was, the Jackets did what they needed to do. They came out guns blazing, jumped out to a lead, and kept it. I really felt like there were no weak links tonight. Matt Frattin looked solid. The defense moved the puck very well in the first half of the game. Bob stopped every shot.
Dud: People (cough certain broadcasters cough) who don’t understand what happens when teams have a big lead
So sometimes I just can’t handle the Jackets broadcast and need to change over to the opposing teams feed. This hasn’t happened in quite some time, but this was one of those games. Listening in, one would think the Islanders were the early 80’s Isles, and they had been dominating the entire game. Look, when teams jump out ahead by a decent margin, they change how they play. It’s not “taking the gas off the pedal” (I swear that is an exact quote). But look, they are playing the fricking Islanders. John Tavares is out of the lineup. They have Cal Clutterbuck, Matt Martin, Matt Carkner, John Persson, and Mike Halmo out there. They have traditionally been very quick to goon it up. They have two of the more physical guys out there (who never seem to ever back up their hits) in Clutterbuck and Martin. Say there is a 50-50 puck. In a close game, the Jackets forward probably tries his damnedest to get it. In this game, why would one do that? So they can get creamed up high by one of those dopes? Super good that would do, in a game that is already pretty much a W, against a team out of the running. You also don’t want to make any glaring mistakes to let the Isles back in it. So there is more chipping out of the zone instead of tape to tape passes. More dump-ins, over riskier carries into the offensive zone. Those things all help tilt the ice slightly in the Isles favor. After turning to the Isles broadcast mid-second period, their announcers summed it up nicely at the end of the middle frame: the Islanders looked better in the second period, but that had more to do with the Jackets playing it safe and being a little sloppy with the puck than anything the Islanders were doing.
With that rant over, let’s look ahead. As of this writing, the Flyers are spanking the Sabres 4-0, slimming the Jackets hope of catching them. But a wild card spot looks pretty promising right now. Per Sports Club Stats, one more win gives the Jackets better than even odds of making the postseason. I still hold out some hope of taking down the Flyers. If the Jackets can get one more regulation/overtime win than the Flyers over the next few games (possible), and manage to tie them in points (possible), the CBJ took the season series (which is the next tiebreaker). Philly has Florida, Tampa, Pittsburgh, and Carolina left. The Jackets have Phoenix up next at home on Tuesday, followed by trips to Dallas (where they start with a 1-0 lead per the Rich Peverley game), Tampa and Florida. Pretty similar schedules. Philly’s is maybe a tad easier (especially if the Pens continue to rest players), but the Jackets start out with a lead in what may be their toughest test (only road game against a team still fighting for something). In any case, there are no more trap games. Nothing to look ahead to but the next game. Let’s see them take down the Coyotes (also in the thick of their own wild card hunt) first and go from there.
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