I was interested to see how the Blue Jackets would respond to last night’s loss in Toronto and tonight’s outing certainly wasn’t what I had hoped for. The following panel from the box score pretty much sums up tonight’s effort from the boys in blue:
Any time you allow yourselves to get outshot by a 4:1 ratio in the first you’re in for a long evening. When Jack Johnson buried a PP goal early, it created a glimmer of hope that the CBJ could turn it around but sadly that never happened. On to tonight’s three stars.
3rd Star: Thomas Hickey
Hickey had a solid evening. He contributed on both of the goals early in the 2nd period that started to really create some separation between the Islanders and the Jackets and logged some good time on PK. The Islanders win tonight was a true team win with contributions coming from everyone and I’m sure a case could be made for 2-3 other men on their squad to hold the honors for 3rd star tonight but Hickey’s as good a choice as any of them.
2nd Star: Anders Lee
While seeing limited ice time tonight with only 13:14, Anders Lee was effective and contributed to the Isles scoring by capitalizing on an embarrassing neutral zone gaffe by Kevin Connauton. He walked into the zone unmolested and beat Bobrovsky with a nice backhand.
1st Star: Ryan Strome
Once again, the Isles did well playing a full team game tonight but Strome absolutely peppered the net with shots tonight. To go along with his 2 assists, he logged 8 shots on goal. For perspective that’s twice the shots on goal the entire Jackets team had in the first period.
Stud: The Power Play
I’ll freely admit I’m stretching here but one of the goals that the CBJ scored tonight was on the PP, going 1 for 3 on the night. While the 5 on 5 has sure struggled lately, a consistent power play has been something for the team to hang their hats on.
Dud: Skating
The Islanders played a tough game last night so the Jackets should have been better able to keep pace with them tonight than they did but the fact of the matter is the Isles were the team that was able to dig deep and to quote Brad Larsen, “find that extra gear”.
The team gets a few days off until they have to face the always-tough Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday. Until then, carry the flag!
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