WOW. Hey, how about that? Thousands of mouth-breathing, cheese-choking, hot dog-ruining Chicago Blackhawks fans descended upon Nationwide Arena last night. To them, this was going to be another blowout; another stomping of the Columbus Blue Jackets at the hands of the storied* NHL franchise. Instead, the Blue Jackets, fresh off of another injury to an integral part of the Union Blue war machine, showed the NHL’s darling organization what it means to *truly* play against THE. COLUMBUS. BLLUUUUUUUUUUE JACKETS!. BOOM!
How can you not be excited after that win? I wasn’t even there and I was trying to high-five people at the hockey game I was at. (Which, incidentally also went to a shootout. It didn’t end as well, though.)
3rd Star: Jack Skille
I can’t comment on Skille’s play overall last night, so let’s focus on the wonder that was that tip-in goal to open the legal scoring in the evening’s tilt. I loved it. First, the video opens with Skille getting slewfooted tripped pretty obviously in front of an official and crashes into the boards with, of ALL people, Tim Erixon.
Skille doesn’t whine; doesn’t beg for a call. Instead, he casually sneaks onto the other side of Crawford and nails the tip-in provided picture perfectly by Ryan Johansen. Spectacular!
2nd Star: Jack Johnson
Johnson ate up a smidgen over 26 minutes of ice time for the Blue Jackets defense corps, who were on point going a perfect 4/4 on the PK against one of the league’s best squads. Wrap that amazing performance up with a dastardly, daring, and definitive dangle to destroy Corey Crawford and set our first star up for another spectacular, top cop win.
1st Star: Sergei Bobrovsky
Like you expected anybody else in this spot. Even after Toronto attempted to rig the game in Chicago’s favor the TOP COP put his foot down and shut the door after the Blackhawks second goal*. The legend of Sergei Bobrovsky is starting to rocket up into the stratosphere again, putting the Blue Jackets on his paddy wagon back and carrying them to another glorious 2 points.
Game in One Picture:
Stud: The Penalty Kill
I don’t think we can stress enough how well this CBJ PK squad has done over the last couple of games. They’ve more than stepped up to the occasion of juggernauts like Washington and Chicago, who practically skirt around the ice with their mitts down the officials’ pants. Even if this is just hot play, the norm for this team’s PK could become a focal point of regaining the physical play that makes the CBJ the CBJ. Who cares if the refs screwed us over? We’ve got a brick wall and an iron curtain fist.
Just try us.
Dud: “The Call”
I don’t know what else to say here, except to reverberate the countless others of the dangerous and embarrassing precedent letting a player slide feet…yes feet first into an opposing team’s goalie. The call was perhaps correct on the later part of the play but…the first? I seriously don’t believe how anyone aside from Chicago fans and CBJ haters are alright with that call.
Well, there it is. The Blue Jackets won a game I think most of us thought they were going to lose. Is it a symptom of a hot streak?…more likely than not. Should we still be proud of our boys for rising to the pressure, shock and hostile home crowd?
Hell. Yes.
Carry the Flag!
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