The Jackets wrapped up their road trip in the hockey hotbed of Toronto with a 2-2 record. Going .500 on a road trip would normally be just uninspiring but with as much ground as the CBJ have to make up and with their Metro Division rivals the Capitals and the Rangers performing as well as they have, collecting 4 of 8 possible points can only be considered a disappointment.
While there was reason for optimism early with Ryan Johansen scoring a great individual effort goal, it seemed like the good guys were determined to play tonight’s game on the highest difficulty setting by allowing the Maple Leafs to notch 4 goals in under 9 minutes of regulation play in the first, including an early demoralizing goal off of Cody Goloubef’s stick. The boys in blue seemed to turn it around a bit in the 2nd period by clamping down a bit more defensively and were downright impressive in the 3rd at times with their puck movement but ultimately couldn’t get out of the hole they’d dug themselves in the 1st 20 minutes of play. Tonight’s three stars of the night include:
3rd Star: Ryan Johansen
Joey opened the scoring this evening with a great individual effort by jumping on a loose puck as Phaneuf face planted at the blue line and netted the only other goal of the evening by the Jackets on the power play. Johansen’s conditioning has been suspect at times this season as Coach Richards hasn’t been shy on giving him additional minutes. Tonight, I saw no such fatigue. Good game for number 19 and he was second only to Hartnell with an on-ice CF+ of +6.
2nd Star: James van Riemsdyk
Man, this guy was all over the ice tonight. JVR was credited with 2G, 1A and 8 shots on net. He skated well, he generated traffic towards the net and tallied both of his non-garbage time points while on the power play.
1st Star: Tyler Bozak
I’ll admit, this choice puzzled me. The Goloubef blunder-goal was credited to Bozak which is a testament towards the old adage of steering the puck towards the net and good things will happen but I was near certain that this first star was going to be awarded to the Toronto media’s golden boy, Phil Kessel. I’m not sure what they didn’t like about his game tonight but he had 1G, 1A and generated 7 shots on net and was around Bobrovsky all evening. Maybe he’s just as hard to write about as he is to coach…
Stud: Officiating
Yes, you read that right. Early in the 1st, referee Dean Morton took an absolutely nasty spill trying to avoid a collision with players. You could immediately tell he was in severe pain and was escorted off the ice to be looked at. Later in the broadcast those of us watching the Columbus feed were clued in by Jody Shelley that he had in fact broken a rib and would not be returning. As is par for the course, the game continued with a 3-official system in place and by and large I think the skeleton crew did a great job managing the game from that point on. Here’s to hoping he has a speedy recovery.
Dud: Setting themselves up for failure
The Blue Jackets put themselves at a severe disadvantage from the get go tonight with the penalties they were assessed. Of the four penalties that they took in the first period, only one was what I’d consider to be a ‘competitive penalty’ and that would be Savard’s interference call. The other three ranged from unfortunate flicks of the wrist (delay of game on Connauton) to just downright stupid acts (slashing by Boll). These are the kinds of mental lapses that you can’t allow if you want to remain competitive in this league. I’m glad to say that after the first period, everyone’s heads seemed screwed on a bit tighter but the damage had been done.
While obviously it would have been great to end this road trip with 6 points or more out of a possible 8, there is other good news in CBJ-land that was announced before puck drop tonight: net minder extraordinaire Sergei Bobrovsky has signed a 4 year contract extension with the Blue Jackets. While I’m sure many will debate his salary and a few will debate term (because people will debate anything), it’s great to have yet another brick dropped into the foundation of this team alongside Nick Foligno, Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Johansen. I’ll see everyone at Nationwide Arena tomorrow night to cheer on the team against the Islanders and celebrate 4 more years of hugs!
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