Gut punch. No other way to describe it. With three seconds to go the Blackhawks scored the winning goal after a mess in front of the Blue Jackets net. Blame officiating, blame a missed call, blame the wrong line up, blame confusion on the bench to avoid a too many men call – the score stands. No crying over spilt milk. The reality is a team that was this close to finally getting at least one point against Chicago did not. This game hurt. It hurt a lot – more than just in the standings. Let’s look at the three stars:
3rd Star: Ryan Johansen: First goal of the second period and a way to set the tone for what would be a back and forth game. As of this writing, Extra Skater is still stuck at 9 minutes to go in the game but at that point, Ryan had the best Corsi of the night for the Blue Jackets so let’s live in that world shall we and factor in the one Blue Jacket that got a star.
2nd Star: Patrick Sharp: Yay tying goal. Yay assist. Yay being good at hockey. Yay second star. Moving on.
1st Star: Ben Smith: Blue Jackets fans want to target your ire? This is your guy. Forget the refs, forget your bias and assumed conspiracy, Smith won the faceoff with 21 seconds to go and then, in the midst of the scrum in front of Bob tapped in the game winning goal. Under that kind of timeline, guy get’s the top nod. Points for playing for the win and not the point plus overtime.
Game in One Picture
Stud – The Team. Dammit if this team didn’t seem to deserve better tonight. The entire match was fairly even. Possession was negligibly different and, for a team that is hungry and looking to make a statement against the defending Stanley Cup Champions it may have been their best outing yet in many years. All that being said – you are what your record says you are.
Dud – our emotions. Did that suck or what? How many people figured we were at least getting a point tonight? *raises hand*. We say all the time “let’s see how the team responds after a loss”. Aside from the ‘biggest game ever’ platitudes and ‘playoff atmosphere’ challenges, I can say right now I don’t know how to get over tonight – so let’s see how the guys who played the game respond. Is anything more critical than responding with a renewed focus and belief in success after tonight? Right now, I can’t think of a thing.
Jackets have two home games left. Sunday and Tuesday. This weekend marks fan appreciation. It would seemingly be critical for the team to leave their hometown fans with at least one win before wrapping up the regular season on the road.
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