So that makes five straight wins for the Blue Jackets. I’d love to be excited about that, but once again the Jackets were grossly outplayed by the opposition, only to see Sergei Bobrovsky stand on his head again. I wish I could be positive about this team, but it’s just so hard. They looked like they were shorthanded for most of the game, and while they were a man or two down for much of it, they could easily have spent more time on the penalty kill. There were a few calls they got away with late in the game that could have swung the game back in the Capitals favor. I don’t know what more to say about this team right now. They aren’t playing well. They really truly aren’t. The Capitals were the much better team in my eyes tonight, their best players were more dominant, with the obvious exception of Bobrovsky. Making things even murkier, the Jackets again give up a loser point to a team they are chasing in the standings (making it three of the five wins). Considering the massive amount of ground they have to pick up, they need to start beating teams ahead of them in regulation. Otherwise they are headed towards the 12th overall pick while never really sniffing the playoffs.
3rd Star: John Carlson
The star pickers in Washington are very different than most other teams it appears. Carlson is a very good all around defenseman, who played a very solid 25:07 for the Caps tonight, logging serious minutes on both the PP and the PK. But with only one shot on net, and a single assist, he didn’t have the kind of numbers you would expect. This is especially true considering the dominance of the Capitals in this game, and the nine shots fired on goal by Alexander Ovechkin.
2nd Star: Nick Foligno
Foligno had a fine enough game at center, scoring on his only two shots on goal. That’s going to get you a star, especially with an overtime winner in there. I think Shelley and Rimer made a little much of Foligno playing center, as there aren’t a whole lot of differences in the Jackets system in terms of Foligno’s role, outside of faceoffs. Where he won a whopping 38% of them. I’m obviously fine with the Foligno pick, but I’d have given Bob the second star as well as the first (is that allowed?).
1st Star: Sergei Bobrovsky
Not a lot of words to describe the performance from Bob over the last couple of weeks. He’s been amazing. He’s trying to singlehandedly drag this team back into playoff contention. I don’t even know what to think anymore about this season, and it is totally because of him.
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The Jackets will be back in action Saturday in Columbus where they will take on the Penguins.
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